before and after

We just spent several weeks repairing, sanding, and painting the walls and ceilings of our new house and now you can see the results here.

The living room

Before:

After:

The major difference in this room wasn't paint color, but how we repaired the walls before applying a fresh coat of white. While we certainly aren't professionals, at least we didn't paint over peeling paint or wall hooks like the former owners did.

Bedroom 1
Before:

After:

I meant to get a better after photo than this, but here I think you can still see the improvement. This room was in bad need of wall repairs too, and the white looks so much fresher than the dull beige from before. Alex and I can't wait to be settled into this bedroom, as it has a beautiful view on the sea!

Bedroom 2
Before:

After:

Wow. Who paints a room (plus ceiling!) HOT PINK? This room was a challenge. We started out just painting above the wood paneling. There was a debate about whether or not to pull all the (ugly!) wood panels off the wall, but was put to rest when we thought about the work involved repairing any crumbling cement once all the nails were pulled out. Alex didn't want to do the extra work to paint the bottom half, but I was insistent because there were 3 different types of paneling! It simply didn't look good at all, especially since it wasn't put up completely around all 4 walls. The only problem we ran into was realizing we needed wood filler for some of the spaces between the panels. Easily solved, and now look!

Bedroom 3
Before:

After:

In all honesty, we're not finished with this room. You can't see it in the above picture, but some of that teal paint was actually peeling off the wall. This room also had no window to let in natural light or air. With the help of a friend in construction, we found a small, (but big enough) space in the wall to punch out a new window. The bottom picture is the result of messing around with the panoramic option on the new camara (thanks family!) and obviously I need a bit more practice, but you can see the boarded up hole in the wall on the right side as you walk into the room. We should have the new window installed by the end of this month and then we'll make this Luc's bedroom.

The hallway
Before:

After:

Again, the dull beige paint got a facelift with a fresh coat of white. Still not sure why the former owners decided to put up wood panels on only one side of the hallway.

The Kitchen
Before:

After:

I'm not sure the pictures of this room accurately convey just how much improved the white paint is in here. I was so happy to see that green go! In the beginning, Alex was opposed to painting the wood paneling, but once we started, he began to see why I said that painting it would look better. This room had the same problem the pink room suffered from; there were 3 different kinds of wood paneling, all ugly. Alex didn't want to paint the storage cabinets above, and at first I wanted to, but I'm satisfied with them remaining the way they are. It's probably the first of many home improvement compromises in our future.