BEFORE

Here are a few "bare bones" before pics of our kitchen-- the kitchen we have loved and lived in for 11 years. The kitchen we have been saving to remodel since we made an offer on the house. The litchen with only 3 drawers. The kitchen that was, as we are learning from so many interesting clues left behind, patched together so randomly it leaves our contractor scratching his head... daily. Our house was built in 1910, so you can imagine the stories these walls hold. We have found a collection of beer bottles and cigarette butts in our ceiling(from the upstairs floor???), a shot gun shell with the powder removed, and a quaint index card with a handwritten note from 1955 detailing what work was done at that time. Very cool. Guess at some point there were teenagers doing things their parents didn't know about upstairs. Surely that will never happen in our family:)

This was once the "art" wall, but I didn't think to take pictures until after I had taken all the boys' art off the wall:(

Our mud room. Again, I took this photo after I had removed all the shoes, coats, and other c-rap that lived here for years.