the BIG reveal

I am super excited. Really excited. Really really super excited.

{Can you tell that I'm excited?}

I finally get to reveal to you the tragic death of bad bad leroy brown, and introduce to you my fabulous new house. Well, it's not really new. It's the same one. But it definitely looks {and feels} like a whole new place to me. And that's very exciting, in case you were wondering. Very.

Ok, so first I show you the before. {Brace yourself.} Enter Bad Bad Leroy Brown:

And now for a close up:

Eeek. The terror. Moving on. So I've been updating. Well, it took over three years of living here, but then I started updating. This stuff takes time. And moola. And good things come to those who wait. So hang on, and I'll get to the good-er stuff.

First thing to do is get rid of the sad pink brick. The picture looks a little better than it was in real life {shocker}. The brick was this "watercolor" pink and purpley yuckyness. It was awful. Combine that with the butter yellow trim and door, and you've got yourself some kind of sick, twisted, grown - up barbie palace knockoff. You know the kind. Like the ones at the dollar store called Farbie. Well, this Farbie Dreamhouse was more like nightmare to me. So I painted it. And I even gave you a sneak peek of the door and maybe a tiny bit more. Go on. If you want to refresh your memory or cheat, I'll wait. I understand. The pressure is intense.

Oh, good you're back. So I painted it. And it was looking better. See?

Progress. But it still needs more. Let's add some shutters. Fancy black raised panel shutters.

Isn't it fun how fast things go on blogs? And also how different that paint color looks? {Do you like that one sad plant that we saved?}

We're looking much prettier, but now we need to work on function. Our sidewalk is like a lake every time it rains four raindrops. So out with the old...

And in with a lovely new sidewalk with a gentle curve. Oh and one super cute baby. Then, it's time for my favoritestest part. The part I've been waiting for since the day we moved into the house. Are you ready? I'm excited to reveal to you ...

My fancy almost-new house!!!

So it's not completely finished. It needs a little rock in front of the sidewalk to look even. And I clearly need more photos of how amazing it is. And the grass needs to grow over the long trench we had to dig for drainage, but it's a great big amazing change for me. Now I smile every time I pull into the driveway. And now I won't be embarrassed to invite people over in the daytime. 'Cause I'm not sad that they have to see the outside of my house. Need one more visual? Ok, twist my arm.

Before:

After:

Yay!!! Oh, and since Bad Bad Leroy Brown is gone, she needs a fun and sassy spunky new name. Please feel free to make some suggestions! I'm linking up to every single party I can find because this is so very exciting!!!