Photo of the Week #3 and Defining Life Moments

(does this amazing photo of the week need any explanation?)

It's amazing how life can take it's various turns: I feel like a chapter is ending, and a new chapter beginning. It's always been interesting to me that a handful of people and a handful of moments determine our future and play such a huge part in who we are.

Last week, during the hour I was waiting to see if I still had a job, so many thoughts were going through my head. My husband and I had decided to embark on an adventurous project together: we bought a fixer home at the end of November and have been... well, fixing it up. Putting in days of labor ourselves, we're working with his cousin as our contractor and learning about every inch of our house. Electrical, plumbing, drywall, and the little things that I never thought of: where you want those outlets, what kind of switches, moulding, doorknobs, lighting... There's so much to think about. But all I could think of was IF I was laid off: finish up fixing the home, sell the house, and pay off debt with the equity, then get that next job... But especially the possibility of needing to move, when I finally feel like Los Angeles is my home, made me uneasy. I'm glad I still have a job, and a home, but it's interesting how that one phone call has the possibility to send you to the other side of the country, and start a whole new chapter of life.

It has been a tragic week for many and I am deeply sorrowed by knowing all these people who are out of a job with their particular situations. But I need to remind myself of the positives. Most of these friends are looking forward to new beginnings, new opportunities. For me, I am happy in life and relieved to know that I still have a job. For me, it is time to exercise my passion for interior design and architecture and see how it unfolds. Sam and I get to continue to build our future together.

The bathroom and bedroom are mostly finished, and it's on to the kitchen and living/dining room. I've been holding off on posts about the project because I was waiting for before-and-after pictures. And now I have a few, so let's start with the bedroom:

The Process:

The floor plan of this house was the worst design and probably the biggest thing to fix. I still don't understand how it was originally, but we're basically trying to bring it back to it's origins.
The front bedroom(s) consisted of a tight hallway with 2 closet-size rooms that were 6'x7'. We had to combine these to make one normal size room. So these interior walls were the first to go.
We stripped everything to the guts and added walls for the new closet and new bathroom entrance, then added drywall. We have had a lot of help from our wonderful friends. In the picture below, Justin and Dallas came over to help Sam with the drywall: We put in new flooring as well. And from the same angle, here is the bedroom, mostly finished (we still need to put up the trim for the windows):

Can you believe it? Just wait til you see the finished bathroom pics! I'll put those up sometime next week. Stay tuned.