DIY is a dirty job {keepin’ it real}

I have a secret for you.

DIY is NOT pretty.

Oh sure, us bloggers are pros at sharing the ugly “before” pictures with some carefully selected “during” pictures, and then showing off the beautiful “after” results, but about 90% of the job is the UGLY stuff in the middle.

People have been asking to see pictures of what we’ve been doing on our house the past few weeks.  Let me tell you, it’s not pretty.

This is what the house looked like before this past weekend:

So – what have we done? In this order – for almost every room in the house:

1. Peeled off the first layer of wallpaper
2. Soaked the adhesive underneath the first layer
3. Scraped the adhesive off of the wall
4. Spackled every crack/hole
5. Sanded every part that has spackle

Repeat – until you go crazy.

This is me going crazy – with baby-safe paint & a mask just to be sure

This has been my wardrobe most nights & weekends:

We are incredibly blessed to have both of our families within reasonable driving distance – they’ve all been a great help for us!

Buckley comes with us when we work on the house because we want him to get used to the house – he settles himself right next to a radiator every time

And we’ll end with what is quite possibly my favorite picture – my hard-working husband has aged overnight   This is what he looks like once he takes off his mask & glasses from sanding spackle on the ceiling:

Have I convinced you that DIY is NOT pretty??  We’re just praying it will be worth it