First Post

My house was cool when I bought it but not my sort of cool. So of course I had to change everything. It's been a lot of work and it takes most all my time and money so therefore it is now stupid (even though I secretly love it). Everything I know I've learned from the internet or made up as I went along so I figured I should post my troubles & successes here in case someone can by chance benefit by them.

This is how it was when I bought it. Nice, but a little too grandmaish for me.

And this is what it turned into a few months later. I probably wouldn't have had it painted so soon but it was required to get my FHA loan (can't have peeling paint in older houses due to lead), plus I love brick houses with black trim. New windows are also shown in this picture. I had those done right away to take advantage of the $3,000 tax rebate which was about to expire (and the fact that 50% of the windows were painted shut). They're  double hung Pella aluminum clad wood windows. I'll rant (negatively) about those later.