So we finally bought a house after having looked a few years ago, then stopped looking and found one that pretty much had everything we were looking for in a house.. except a fireplace. It has great bones but had been neglected over the past 20 years or as the realtor put it had suffered from "deferred maintenance". For the most part, that's ok with us as we prefer to make it our own anyway and the less crap that was done to it over the years the better.

On Sept 1st the renovations began, mostly minor but it already looks much better and more like us. I thought this might be a good way for those who are interested to see the progress or if nothing else for myself to review where we started and how far along the progress is coming.