Every time I talk to a family member on Skype for the first time they ask to see the house. I forget that none of my family has ever been here. I think my brother-in-law was in Krakow in 1997, and maybe my youngest brother spent a day here when studying abroad in Italy. I don't know. Other than that, none of my family has made it to Poland ever. And certainly none of them has ever been to Martin's family home. And neither have most of you...
The top floor of the house, the top apartment, was used as the boys area when Martin lived here int eh early 90's. After his family moved to America it became a sort of landing pad for members of the family who were in between homes, or studying, and then, of course, reserved for Martin's family during the summers they returned to Poland for long visits. So, the upstairs, where we live, has never really been treated as a full time family home. It has served this purpose, but never for more than a year or two at a time and otherwise it has been just extra rooms for sleeping, until now.
I'm saying all this to soften the blow of what the rooms looked like before we fixed them up. Just in case anyone was wondering. All of the before pictures were taken the first week we were here.
Here we enter the apartment.
Before: That is one looooong and narrow hallway.
This picture is taken from the other end. Rugs, that's it.
"Front room"
That little the door in the center of the room is to a small toilet and sink area. It smells like death so we don't really use it. But it's nice to have in a pinch. Surprisingly not that big a deal to only have one bathroom for our whole family.
Kitchen:
After:
Lot of onions. Lot of potatoes.
Living Room
Before:
In between:
After:
I love the color on the walls. Just a light, warm blue color. Really pretty. My goal is to hang as few things on the walls as I can to keep the room feeling big and open. Unfortunately this means that there is still a bit of an echo which can also make it feel a little less cozy.
The Malm thingy turned into a art area for the kids. They love this space and so do I. They spend so much time there now, coloring, cutting and pasting. Those buckets are supposed to hang in the kitchen I think. I don't know. But they hold all the colored pencils and glue and staplers and beads, etc.
Bookshelves: Not many adult books unfortunately. Al of those are still packed in Texas waiting for our forever home.
Lina and Kacio's room
Before: Looks a lot like a jail cell. Felt a lot like a jail cell.
After: Still very much like a jail cell. With two little inmates, constantly fighting over who can wake the other one up first.
Lina's princess bed.
Boys' Room
Before:
After:
Bathroom. I only have an "after" picture. But you can just imagine it completely empty.
The catch-all room. Two fatal flaws make this room basically a huge closet and storage space. 1) too small for a bedroom... 2) frakking cold, really cold, as in see-your-breath-when-you-breathe cold no matter how high the temp. on the heater. Insulation issues. I was hoping to turn this into a little studio for sewing and keeping knitting supplies, etc. I even painted it a really pretty light turquoise blue. But I don't know if I'll be able to stand the cold. So, for now, it's a huge storage space.
Before:
After:
Now, I know what most of ya'll are thinking after seeing these pictures... "Wow, she home-school's, "crafts," cooks and bakes, is learning a whole new language and culture, gives birth to 10 + lb. babies AND her house is immaculately clean. How does she do it all?" I know. I know. I am that amazing......... and so is the lady who came to clean our house right before these pictures were taken, it only took her 5
HOURS to mire through all the muck and grime to unearth our humble abode (sometimes amazing people just don't have time to clean., that's my
excuse explanation)... except for our room because it was just too much of a wreck for her to get into...
Our room
Before:
please, everyone take a moment to notice the light fixture. It is still here. Three spotlights hanging from an old retractable cord. I hit my head on it all the time. Sorry, Mike, I know it was totally rad back in your day but now it's totally gross. We can't be bothered to change it. It is just our room after all. Nobody can see our shame in here...
After:
...unless I post it on the internet! What the rest of our house usually looks like. And sort of representative of just about everything I do. A little haphazard and a little sloppy, but at least I try. (Martin "makes" the bed every day. I can't be bothered...what's the point? It's just gonna get messed up again later anyway! ;) No. Seriously. )
An entirely new looking house brought to you entirely by IKEA, Martin's ability to figure out any instruction booklet they could slang at him, and my ability to keep the baby from eating all the screws.
This is where we live folks.
The end.