This is what renovation looks like.

So by now, I think the overall public opinion is "wow, you guys are working so hard and your home will be beautiful!!" Is that about right?  I bet some of you are even thinking about starting a project of your own, or maybe wishing you'd tried this when you were young and full of spit and vinegar.  Well, let me tell you a few things.  It ain't easy and it ain't pretty.  (It is fun, I won't even lie.)

We've been sugar-coating it for you.  I hate to admit it, but this blog is all about romance and dreaming and you'd better be warned before doing anything like this.  If you can't handle it, please step away from the browser window.  I am about to show you unfiltered, unstaged, uncensored view of life in a renovation.  I came home, fed/walked the dog and then took snapshots of everything as I walked through.

This is what it actually looks like.

We gave the house a haircut!

Hi everybody!

Once again, Emilio and I have been super-busy on a project that probably makes our neighbors wonder if we've lost our minds.  

You may remember the exterior of the house looking something like this:

Bad previous owners and the underground hose

Remember that time Emilio saw that stupid hose barely buried in the backyard?

So much done... So little to show

Its amazing. The first few weeks it felt like every little thing was a huge improvement and you feel like you're making tons of progress. Then... you get to the point where you spend 2 hours turning this:

It may be a disaster but it's my disaster!

So I bought a house in a small college town in Western Mass.  I just had to have a project house and after 6 months of searching and dragging my oh so patient girlfriend all across the Pioneer Valley we found this place.  It was listed as a "charming arts and crafts bungalow" which is a nice way of saying an old bungalow with very little updating since it was built.  Since this is our first post I'll do a bit of a house tour...