Alula's Home Improvements

When we found the memory card to the camera, we also found the pictures on it. These included all of the before pictures of the repo house that Mr. Borealis and I bought! So for funsies, I posted some before and afters--I apologize that some of them are a little dark (I'll post better ones if I can get them).

The Upstairs Hall:

In the before picture, you can see Mr. Borealis demonstrating how easy it is to change the light hanging in the super deep stairwell--not really. It would take twelve acrobats with two ladders an hour to change that lightbulb. To take advantage of the height, we put in a new chandelier fixture that gives off more light. The bulbs are still a pain to change, however.
The Downstairs Bathroom:

We believe this unfortunate bathroom was the victem of an attempted home makeover gone wrong. The vanity top appeared to have been painted with a water-based acrylic paint in an attempt to give it a really terribly failed marble look (if they make psychadelic green and blue marble, that is). There was also some sort of varnish sealant all over it that had begun to drastically peel. And then there was the wood toilet seat...enough said. We replaced everything but the toilet base in this room--we even redid the shower off to the right (that you can't see in the pic). I should note that this room is still in progress--we need to finish painting, trimming, and putting in the shower.

The Office:

Like the rest of the house, this room got new carpet and fresh paint.

The Master Bedroom:

No one believed me that we could fit a king size bed in here, but low and behold, it fits. Again, sorry about the dark pictures--the back wall is now a beautiful green. We hope to get matching green curtains and move these patchwork ones down to the guestroom. We also put in the cieling fan and the sliding mirror closet doors.

The Upstairs Bathroom:

Similar to the downstairs bath, we replaced just about everything.

The Living Room:

New carpet, new curtains, fresh paint. Oh yeah, this room came with a dead pigeon in the fireplace (poor little guy). The pigeon has been removed, needless to say, and the chimney has been mesh wired so nothing else goes the way of St. Nick and can't get back out.

The Dining Room:

Attached to the living room, this room got the same fixes. It now house our two rats--my babies!--in the hutch in the corner. I hope to replace the fifties style dining room set as soon as we can affored it.

The Kitchen:

This room was absolutely disgusting when we got in. The floor was so sticky it would rip your shoes off your feet. It didn't have a refrigerator and one of the burners on the stove was non-functional. No washer or dryer either. This room got a new refrigerator, dishwasher, oven (with a flat top!), washer and dryer--it also got new floors and fresh paint. The back wall is now blue.

The Guest Room:

New carpet, fresh paint--if you haven't noticed by now, we also went through and replaced all the dark wood doors with white six-panel ones and the old dark trim with clean new white. This room has a lot of stuff in it right now because the in-progress bathroom is located directly off of it.

So that's the tour!

Alula