Posts Tagged: Before and After

Decor

Our Front Yard: Before And After (A Xeriscaped Makeover)

October 16, 2015
yard with dead trees

Check out that lush, vibrant landscape.

Oooooh was our front yard ever not good. My favorite part was the enormous potted (and dead) tree tethered to the roof to prevent it from dropping straight to the ground. In second place was the red mulch surrounding the enormous (also dead) bush next to my garage.

Enter: a xeriscaper I found on Thumbtack. What is xeriscaping, you ask? Excellent question; I didn't know, either. Basically, it means taking out plants that need bunches of water and replacing them with ones that are drought-resistant, thereby lowering or eliminating entirely the amount of supplemental watering that your yard requires. It's also (in my opinion) very pretty.

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Decor

Retiling An Entryway: Before And After (Video)

July 28, 2015
blue tile encaustic cement

(Watch through to the end for a serious Goldie cameo.)

I've never had an entryway before. I mean, I've had doors that you walk through, and I guess the area on the "inside" side of those doors could technically be referred to as an "entryway," but in our Manhattan apartments those spots were really just "the living room." And in our Tarrytown place, the front door more or less opened directly onto the stairway, which was sort of weird (and sort of inconvenient, because it meant that there was also no coat closet, and if there is one thing you definitely need in Westchester it is a place to store your enormous, down-filled winter coat).

And now?

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Decor

We Have Light! (Video)

June 22, 2015

When you buy a house without ever having actually seen it in person, it's reasonable to expect a few little surprises to come your way...and yup: on our first night in our new place, I discovered something pretty unexpected.

There was no light.

Like, none.

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Decor

Before And After: Patio

June 27, 2013

I know: it's a sorry, sorry sight.

But honestly: I had no idea what to do with this space, to the point where it sat unused (and apparently unswept) for nearly a year.

Having a yard was already much too much outdoor space for me to wrap my little New York City girl mind around; I couldn't handle the additional challenge of figuring out what to do with a patio, as well. First of all, it was attached to my office - a room that we barely use anyways - so I frequently forgot it even existed. And second, I couldn't imagine why I'd sit there as opposed to...well, anywhere else. If we wanted to eat dinner outdoors, we'd probably sit at the big table in the yard, right?. And if we wanted to lounge around outside...well, we own a fire pit.

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Home

Yet Another Sunroom Swap-Out

June 25, 2013

I really liked our brown velvet Pier One couch when we got it back in 2010. It was by far the nicest couch I'd owned up until that point - as in, the first couch I'd owned that was neither the very cheapest model sold at Ikea nor a hand-me-down.

Even though it was sorta saggy in the middle and didn't even come close to fitting all of our family members on it for a rousing viewing of Bubble Guppies, I've always really liked the curvy shape and chocolate-brown color, so once we replaced it with our beloved Sofa Boat we did a little brainstorming about where else in the house it might be able to find a home.

We thought about putting it in the attic (which doubles as a guest room and a playroom), but couldn't fit it up the stairs...and then we discovered: boom. It fit perfectly into the space under the picture window in our sunroom.

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