I love a good before and after session. And now I have one of my very own…without even intending to.
So here you go: my house before the repairs and after the repairs, room by room.
Living room
The Bookcases
Kitchen
The Sunroom
The Boys’ Room
The Guest Room — Now Gus’ Room
The Hall
The Skylights
View from kitchen
The Garage
Exterior
Back of the house facing the water
Now that it’s over, I don’t know how I feel about it.
I don’t like to look at the before and after pictures, because I know how much time and effort has gone into the repairs.
It’s not how anyone would want to spend their time: fixing something that wasn’t broken until one freak afternoon and a crazy windstorm.
Now that we’re back in, it’s like we were never gone. We are happy, but in the regular, workaday, life-is-hard kind of happy.
My favorite part so far is watching the boys run around the house and play. This house gives us the space and the room — to write, to read, to entertain, to play.
We bought a giant bean bag for the kids for Christmas and my favorite thing has been watching my five-year-old Gus climb up on the divider between the kitchen and the living room and go soaring into the air, “Cowabunga!” onto the bean bag. I don’t know why, but it makes me endlessly happy, to watch them play, fearless.
And when things slow down and I get a moment of quiet, I think, Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. That we’re back in our house, together, in the place I want to be most.
