Show your before and after pictures of home improvement projects!

[Maastricht]

Let's see some real life homes, instead of those fancy magazine lofts!

We live in the Netherlands, in the two lower floors of a 1929 city house. We moved here two years ago, and as funds allow, we are slowly improving it.

Here is my kitchen before. Photo (sorry, tiny format) taken with the usual beautifying realtor's fish eye lens. It was a real dump; the oven was so dirty that lighting it gave a black stench; the cupboards had wooden supports to keep from sagging in the middle.

And here is the kitchen during. The kitchen is from Ikea. The link leads to a slideshow, showing the three weeks of construction. Also shown is the Failed Green Wall experiment.

And here is the picture after. after.

Show me your own projects, small or large!

[Maastricht]

Here is a two-day project: the closet under the stairway.

Before. Dark, too low for shelves. sagging softboard plating, showing insulations that slowly disintegrated. Not really usable, except maybe for a bucket, broom and the spare diapers.

After. Tiled, so the floor is now level with the hallway floor. Wooden plating, so no more sagging insulation. White walls, so I see what I'm doing in there. I put in an Ikea Trofast storage thing, mounted on wheels and with a self-made handle, so I can ride it out of the closet and use every bin in there.

[chela]

Very nice! You've stretched out your prep spaces and made room for a sink with a view. The hanging shelves I love, is that ikea too? But you lost dining space, but oh well at least there is no longer a table in the middle of the room!

i posted after pics of my kitchen somewhere here in the barnforum. The befores I'll have to dig for but it was a total tearout and rebuild. I need to take after pics of the upstairs bath so near to final completion. Lots of warm baths have been taken in recent days here But the camera broke (kicked off ledge by kid shooting movies of herself doing cartwheels).

I NEED that storage unit in my kids closet!

[Aro]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...rogression.jpg

Here's the progression of my tiny kitchen being redone. Still not finished; wall & floor tiles to go on, hopefully before Christmas! (not very exciting photos I'm afraid )

[chela]

I spy ikea!? Looks great! What didn't like the pink?

So another space saver kitchen, I like to do the heel spin! With it I can pretty much reach every cupboard and appliance except the fridge, no, if someone swings open the door I can grab something out of the fridge.

Track lighting to replace the bulb? and I highly recommend if you haven't thought of it already, under mount lighting not only brightens your work surface but it shows off your countertops.