Before & After – our Home Renovation

So, if you’re a regular reader you’ll have followed my Renovation Diary and Room Reveal series with interest (It’s definitely the most popular series in terms of conversations I’ve had with readers – both friends and strangers!)

There a still a few rooms I need to reveal and I will do this in time… but the truth is that this is my home, and it looks like a home. A real home, not a magazine home. You’ll probably have realised that the rooms that are “yet to be revealed” are the ones that are probably the most well used – the kids room, the scullery, the study etc.

Let’s just say I’m a bit nervous to reveal those to you 😉 They don’t look anything as organised as the previous rooms that have made it onto here do, and they certainly need a little bit of help before making them public!

What I did realise recently though is that this whole series makes absolutely no sense unless you saw the “Before” of our home. Yes, the “After” is lovely, but, when compared to the “Before”, it’s actually pretty AMAZING. And I’m allowed to say that even though it’s not terrible humble – I poured years of blood, sweat, tears and CASH into it’s transformation!

The reason I realised I needed to hunt down the “Before” pics I took the day before the renovations started was that my friend who drew up all the plans for this renovation popped in recently and even though she had conceptualised the layout and design of our new space, she couldn’t believe how different it looks now!

To give you some perspective on the total transformation of our home, and to give me some perspective too on how far we’ve come, here are my “Before” and “After” pics of our renovated space!

Front Entrance Before

Front Entrance During

Lounge Before

Lounge After

See more pics of my Lounge here

Kitchen Before

Backyard (now Kitchen)

Kitchen After

See more pics of my Kitchen here

Main Bedroom Before

Main Bedroom After

See more pics of my Main Bedroom here

Outside Before

Outside During

Outside After

See more pics of my Outdoor Living Area here

So there you have it… my “Before” and “After” post that was long overdue!

What do you think???

The most transformed space for me was definitely the kitchen area – the difference between what we had (small, dark, cramped, cluttered) and what we have is vast and completely life changing!

The rooms I’ve found the most transformational to our living space are actually both additions to our space and don’t feature in this “Before” and “After” post as they were never “Before”.

These are our en-suite bathroom (the fact that we only had 1 bathroom wsa one of the main catalysts for the entire renovation). Our renovation of the single garage (aka dumping ground) to the family room has also been so worth it. We’ve used that room every single day – and well! The kids love, we love it. It’s a great hang out space and makes our living so much more spacious and comfortable – especially when we need a bit of time together (or apart!) either way it was totally worth. The whole Renovation was! And, yes, I would do it again for the huge improvement it’s brought to our lives! So if you’re thinking of taking the leap towards renovating your own space I would encourage you to go for it, that’s provided you’ve done the numbers and have a building team you trust! I won’t lie, it’s a stressful experience, but don’t let that put you off. It’s worth it!

Images: Kathryn Rossiter

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Kathryn Rossiter

Kathryn is a South African lifestyle blogger and mom of 2 who has been blogging daily for over 9 years! She writes about travel, health, beauty, fashion, decor and family... but not food (unless it's food she's eaten made by someone else) as she is a hopeless cook. She only wakes up early for 2 things... a red-eye flight to somewhere exotic and early morning game drives. She has just finished an extensive home renovation and would prefer to never see another box again. She's never met a chocolate or glass of bubbles that she didn't like!