While everyone else is organizing and freshening their homes for the remainder of the winter, I’m still in the thick of decorating for Christmas.  I have to work a year ahead in my freelance writing and I have to do it while the fresh tree is still alive and the Christmas stuff is out.  I’m making a final push to finish all of my projects, so the tree can come down and I can move on! Since the only stuff I have to share is soooo last month, I thought I would share the big changes I made in my home this year, all gathered together in one post.  I’m surprised at how much my home has changed in a year.  All of the before pictures were taken around January of last year.  Here we go! The dining room before… …and now. The living room before… …and now. The guest room

If you’ve been following along over the past couple of weeks, you’ve seen what my living room looks like currently.  Let’s now take a look at the progression, shall we? Oh my.  This was a photo taken when we first looked at the house.  This room was a mess.  The carpet covering the hard wood floors was stained and stinky.  The walls hadn’t been painted in years…maybe since the house was built in the 1940’s.  The dark pine trim and dusty curtains only added to the gloominess.  We ripped out the carpet, refinished the floors, painted the walls a peacock blue, painted the trim white and threw a bunch of furniture in there.  The desk, curio and piano are still in the room, but I have sold the rest of the pieces.  I made valances out of clearance fabric, which totaled $10 for the whole room, but I knew I eventually