We bought our two-story, 1905 house in 2009, with one floor livable and failing systems. The bank wouldn't even let us buy it until we replaced all the windows and floors on the first floor! Probably not our smartest move, but it all worked out and we got the house. The upstairs was completely unlivable - unheated with no insulation and wallpaper crumbling off the walls dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. You can see that part of the upstairs was finished...barely...
Since then, we've replaced (or added for the first time) two heat and air conditioning units - one for each floor. We've renovated the upstairs into three bedrooms and a hallway, completely carpeted and drywalled, with new windows and insulation. We have one last room up there that is mostly unrenovated, with hardwood floors and plumbing installed up to the second floor for a bathroom.
Downstairs we've painted, renovated two bathrooms (one had a floor that was an inch lower than the rest of the house - that was fun!), capped or taken down two useless chimneys, rewired, and cut back years of plant growth and overgrown 100-year old tree limbs outside. We've also dug up an old sidewalk and two more steps off our front porch because of something someone down at the Dollar General said about her childhood.
I'm sure there's more, but you get the idea. :) I think it would be fun to do some before and after pictures. I was looking through my original photo folder and it's amazing the difference.
I was reminded today of the pride and joy we feel, taking something ugly and ruined or worthless and making it beautiful. This could be something as big as a house, or as small as a braided rag rug made with an old, holey sheet. We are meant to create, and I think that making something from something ugly is even more profound than making something from almost nothing.
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