It's a Bird ... It's a Plane

Dear other house: thank you for being done and leaving us alone. 

The other house has actually been done for a while but after taking so much longer than we thought to complete (and of course more dollars than we thought) we’ve been taking a super nice mental vacation from everything that-house related. This little vacay has been made possible by the amazing efforts and skill of Rob (and his dad and his mom and his brother and his cousin and his other cousin). There are no leaky toilets, no leaky windows, and no drafty doorways. Nothing. No reason for anyone to ring us in the middle of the night (unless they somehow lock themselves out of their bedrooms or don’t know how to make rice – other kinda funny stories for other times). 

In epic superhero form Rob and his amazing family spent every afternoon, evening, weekend and any other day not at work covered in dust and paint and insulation performing renovation miracles. It definitely hasn’t been easy. We’ve learned that what starts out as cosmetic touch-ups never ends at just cosmetic touch-ups. We’ve learned that we’re not the world’s most accurate project costers. We (mostly Rob) have learned how to install light fixtures, install windows, install washers and dryers, put up drywall, build new staircases, and fix burst pipes. We’ve also learned how to still save enough for a sailboat, how to keep going when you’re sure you’re on empty, and how to smile when you want to jump up and down and curse, curse, curse. 

After all this learning and nearly six months both apartments are everything we dreamed they’d be back in November (and more - including filled with tenants). 

You can see some before photos of apartment one back here. These are the after shots: 

Bedroom

Looking into the living room. 

Kitchen

Before shots of apartment two (courtesy of Frankie’s nanna who thankfully for us actually remembers to take her camera and to use it): 

Second floor in second apartment.

Second floor in second apartment.

After shots:

Second apartment first floor laundry.

Second apartment second floor bedroom.

Second apartment looking into other second floor bedroom.

Second apartment first floor bathroom.