Looking Back.

Over the last few weeks, I've shared updated photos of my home taken by my friend, photographer Rachel Peters. My own photography skills have come leaps and bounds since I started this blog but having photos of each room and simple details taken through her lens is something that I will treasure. Each one somehow represents the journey that this little home has taken in my relentless attempt to make it my own.

It all started in 2008 when I was on the hunt for my first home. My dad and I went to visit a 70 year old home that needed a ton of updating but had great bones and it was in a great neighborhood. I fell in love right away. In fact, on our first visit he had decided that I would be buying it before we even had a chance to discuss it! Maybe he could read my thoughts. Within minutes of walking in the door, a slew of ideas were swirling in my mind with a million and one plans for renovating and redecorating. I tried so hard to remain calm and reserved as we took the tour but I was pretty much squealing with excitement on the inside.

With that excitement also came many  frustrations, budget realities and I certainly felt overwhelmed many times over. The house was by no means perfect and had very few updates in recent years. Every single room needed some major attention, be it wallpaper removal, floor refinishing, or a total gut. In the end, I think that's why I liked it so much. I didn't have to "live" with someone else's renovation, I got to make all the changes on my own.

Lots of decisions and some mistakes we made but the whole process was a labour of love. I may have complained some, lamented over my budget getting in the way of exactly what I wanted and lived with the ugliest bathroom in Canada (I swear) for longer than I'd care to admit, but I have enjoyed the whole process and I came to love this little house.

I had a lot of help from my family and of course from Steph, who eventually called this place home as well. I also had lots of encouragement from those who read and commented my blog and appreciated the choices and changes I made. It inspired me to get projects finished and to start new ones.

Looking back at my terrible photography skills in the beginning, I'm in some ways happy that they look the way they do. It somehow parallels the way my home has evolved over the last five years. I'm proud of where it is now and thrilled to have beautiful new photos to document it.

This almost makes it sound like it's time to move on to a new home. But no, I'm not ready to leave my home just yet. The reality is though, that soon I'll have nothing left to blog about and no projects to become consumed by.

Or is that even possible? Mostly, I guess I'm just feeling a bit sentimental after looking through all these old photos.

Besides, one of our biggest projects yet is still to come.

I've been keeping a dirty little secret.
Notice that there is absolutely no photos of the bathroom anywhere on this blog? There is a very good reason for that :)