the land before [renovation]

So it recently occurred to me that if you're reading this and you're not one of our lovely friends in Nashville then while you may be a fine study on our new fence, you probably have no idea what our house actually looks like.  So when I say things like "no original trim," you're probably thinking, "Oh, it's a little run down."  Well, I'll let the before photos do the talking.  Indulge...

View from the back door to the front.

The top story of our house.  Built into the roof, it has a lower ceiling and fewer windows, but it does still have all the original five panel doors (score!).

 Super fancy railing. 

 The closed off fireplace in the den.  We have since opened this up and the firebox is currently being rebuilt for a see-through gas fixture.  

View from the formal dining room.  Note the pocket doors. SOLD.

Lovely, isn't it?  These photos were taken around the time of of closing. Since then, we've removed the not-so-antique old furniture (also leftover sinks, toilets, buckets of dirt), opened the fire places, and vacuumed a LOT of dirt.

Above is the beginning of the fireplace opening process.  Dad, I must say, has become quite the mason.  He and Todd have also patched and rebuilt a good portion of the brick wall alongside our property.  Not to mention all the tuck pointing along the outside of our house.

Todd's big task this week got him down and dirty, and I do mean literally.  In order to run the water line from the street to the house we had to dig out a 18-inch deep line from the street into the crawl space so lucky Todd got to head into the land of brown recluse for hours of awkward tunneling.