The Changing Room: Moving on...

i'm so upset with myself for not taking before shots before this shot. :)

it's my sister Laurie's master bath remodel before she listed her house this spring.

you all know i'm one to get attached to my surroundings-too attached sometimes, but it caught me by surprise last week when i found myself attached to someone else's surroundings!

Lo (Laurie) had texted me some pics earlier in the day of some furniture items she wondered if i'd wanted. i figured i'd quick swing in that night, grab the loot and be on my merry way.

however,

she and dave had just sold their house earlier in the month and were making progress slowly moving out. i hadn't expected them to be that far into the process, i guess, because when i walked up, the entire house was empty. and lonely. and cold. and exactly opposite of how i've always experienced it.

full. inviting and warm.

this was such a shock to my system that i could feel a lump forming in my throat.

as i sat staring at 2371 sunset bluff, i mentally played through all the moments that made that house a home. all those sacred moments that they let me be a part of:

birthday parties, annual memorial day weekend throw-downs, sandy beach days followed up by bbq on the screen porch, trick-or-treating, my 40th surprise birthday party in their backyard and so many more memories.

especially the ones in which they opened their home to us when we didn't want to be at ours.

those gloomy days when ken and i felt like prisoners in our newly constructed house and we wanted to be anywhere else but there,

anywhere else became 2371. our safe haven.

our place of refuge.

our shelter from the storm.

lo pulled up that night to find me crying in my mini-van. the gut wrenching, sobbing ugly cry.

she hugged me and then laughed a little. she's moved on emotionally and literally but knew her sappy sister needed to 'get it out' and get closure.

they're moving on to something maybe a little bigger. maybe a little better.

but this place of beginning for them symbolically had become a new beginning for me as well those years.

i'm grateful for the time we spent there.

but there's always room for change, right?

at least that's what they tell me. :)

i wish i had some real photos of all the amazing things they did with that place but this one small project will have to do for now.

she used to have an 'L' shaped vanity that wrapped this corner. with a lovely gold counter-top, it was a throw back to the 70's. before they listed the house, they knew this room had to be gutted.

and here's the after:

We chose one of my favorite colors, "Edgecomb Grey" for the walls and paired it with a dark espresso vanity and marble counter top from Duca Stone and Tile. The rest of her house is quite contemporary, so she was able to repurpose the hardware from a past kitchen remodel and use those on the doors and drawers complimenting the new faucets and lighting.