With new eyes

After a while you get so embroiled in all of your projects and work - painting, tiling, laying floors, and so much more, that you end up seeing only those things that still need to be tackled, that still need finishing. Sure, you know how far you have come, how much better everything is now, but still.

That's when it's great to have visitors stop by who have seen the ugly nasty dirty ramshackled "Before" in all its glory. Visitors who love you too much to have told you that you were nuts for taking on this project. And visitors who now look at all of your half-finished rooms and projects and marvel at how much everything has changed. For the better, no less.

That's a really nice and very much needed breath of fresh air :o)

It also prompted me to poke through my many folders of pictures for the first ever pictures I took of our Ugly Duckling from our first tour and to team them up with Now pictures. Wow! Wow ... wow ...WHAT WERE WE THINKING?! Sure, it was all mostly "cosmetic" but don't let that fool you. Even cosmetic repairs cost hours of effort, funds, sweat and tears (not so much really, but maybe a groan or two).

Anyways, both the brother-in-law as well as the in-laws were impressed with all the changes (for the better) we'd wrought upon our little old house.

And so are we. Seeing the "Before" and "Now" side by side is really an eye opener, don't you agree?