Befores on the left – Afters on the right

I am so proud of my husband and I for finally tackling some of the house projects that we've been talking about since we moved into this house in 2005.  

The kitchen project (top) really opened up the room, letting light from the sliding glass doors into the entire room, and removing that pesky Have-to-stoop-to-talk-to-my-guests-who-inevitably-end-up-in-the-kitchen problem.  We were worried about losing the cabinet space, so we took everything out and didn't use them for several months before we finally took the plunge and took them down for good.

The dining room project (bottom) is my favorite, since I did almost all of it myself.  I forgot to take a true "before" picture, but it had vinyl wallpaper, a chair rail, and a funky light fixture that I could swear would occasionally whisper "Feed me, Seymour!"  We still need some different chairs, but this is a lot closer to the Arts and Crafts style that we're going for in our home.

There's definitely more to do… I'd say the next big project will be replacing the peel-n-stick tiles in the kitchen that were left for us by the former homeowners.