Before and After

I couldn’t find many before pictures of the front and back yard, which is too bad, because we did a lot of work on both. The 3-tiered garden in the back still has some rough edges, but is very impressive, and we spent a bit of money updating lights and other fixtures, as well as two years of work on the lawn, that makes the front yard look great. We’re told we have great curb appeal.
Yesterday while I was furiously staining the deck, a couple of home stagers (round 2 for us of interior advice) came by and moved like a whirlwind through our house. Most of the credit for these before and after pictures goes to Nic (and I) for removing the clutter, but the living room really benefited from some professional advice. Check out our pictures and let us know what you think! The decorators want us to change paint colours and replace countertops, and while we agree that our kitchen has a pretty bizarre colour scheme (which we did not pick!) we’re not sure we want to put more cash into this place…

The art and other decor comes from the stagers, and we get a month free of the stuff before they want us to rent it from them. We’ve decided to see how this month goes before we put any more money into the place. After all, we bought it with the weird colors…

4 thoughts on “Before and After

  1. That looks GREAT, guys! I like the living room. I’m sure you can pretend you dont have kids for a couple weeks.
    But is replacing that small counter-top area in the kitchen really necessary? I doubt it would make THAT big of an impact on the sale of your house. Its that amazing job you guys did on the yard that I think is one of its best features.

  2. Painting is good if there are lots of little fingerprints (etc) around and can make a big difference if you have the extra cash. The countertops? Not so much. Do other houses in your area and price range have updated countertops? If yes, consider replacing, otherwise no as long as they’re not broken, cracked, badly stained, etc. De-cluttering does wonderful things and you’ve done that already. The only other thing that many people recommend is to get rid of 1/2 your stuff (furniture included) as that will make the place look bigger. But, in many cases that’s not possible or practical.
    Outside, it’s “curb appeal” and it looks like you have that nailed already. As they say, “First impressions…”.
    Nice job guys!

    1. Our kids are wondering the same thing! Trying to keep them entertained, and keep the house clean, while (almost) all the toys are in boxes in the garagae… lots of fun!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *