The Befores.

When Ben and I first walked into - what is now our new house - I breezed through. I glanced at a few things ... walked up and down the stairs ... and headed out the door. I LOVED the "bones" of the house but knew if I thought about it for too long, my heart might get a little too attached. I do have to admit that I saw a lot of clean wall space and my brain was SUPER excited at the possibilities of making this house ... our home.

And in mid-December ... we were pretty shocked to hear that our offer had been accepted and we had ONE MONTH to move!

And since we knew the family who lived here before us ... they gave us access to the house (before it was really ours) and that allowed Ben to get his hands dirty and get to work!

The house still had its flat paint in place from 6 years ago along with every hand print of each person that had ever walked through the door. Parts of the house were pretty grunge ... but nothing that a little LOVING couldn't fix.

We've had cleaners, carpet cleaners, our favorite handyman, painters, pool fence people, oven repair people ... in and out of our doors. Of course, Ben has done a TON of work and last night ... our favorite painter arrived to completely transform our living area!!

So before I give you some of the "partially completed afters" ... I thought you might like to see the "befores" ...

Ben's office ...

The Sitting Room ... or where the piano now lives ...

The hallway ... which has our family's first EVER hall closet!

The kitchen (and part of the dining room) ...

The Living Room (or tv room - as the kids call it) ...

The Laundry ROOM (so excited about this!!) ...

The Master Bedroom ...

And Bath (and the closet where the 3rd born will be sleeping!) ...

The Truly Unorganized Playroom ...

And some random room that is currently housing boxes ...

The Soon To Be Nursery ... after a short stint in the closet ...

The Guest Room ....

The Boy's Room ...

And ... the backyard ...

Matt and I spent the morning picking paint colors ... and Ben is off to pick up the paint! Bye-bye pinkish-tan walls ... and hello "Inner Balance," "Mountain Mist," and some greenish-blue color!

Here's to hoping I picked the right ones!!

I guess we'll find out by Wednesday!