Upgrades, and the Before and After Photo

We've been doing some incremental upgrades at the house, some decorating here, a new furniture piece there, couple of shelves someplace else...  As much as I am trying to keep a running record of projects for myself I just can't seem to remember to take the "before" picture.  Truth be told, the "after picture by itself just doesn't have the same impact.

Case in point: we're putting in a new deck/porch/we don't really know what to call it in front of the house.  As part of the prep for this project I took on the task of clearing away some bushes that have been there since we moved into the house.  A couple of weekends ago I hit the yard with a cordless reciprocating saw and two pairs of hand trimmers and presto chango:

Poof, where once there was an out of control bush now there is none.  Except, without the before you have no idea what I did.  Also, the bush went into no less than 10 yard refuse bags which looked REALLY formidable on the curb waiting for the trash guys - if only I had remembered to photograph them.

You'd think that walking around with a digital camera in my pocket would be enough to make me remember to take pictures.  But I guess I should have learned this lesson from my students total lack of posting on the tumblr: having access to a camera and subject matter doesn't create photos.

You have to remember to take the picture.

Or at least you have to remember that maybe you already took the picture several months ago...

Halloween.  You get the idea.

Even without the new addition I think pulling the bush is an improvement to the house.  I can finally see something out of the living room window.  Also, neither of the photos show it, but this space is pretty much the only level space in the whole front yard, nice to pick up some room for a couple of chairs should we want it.

So now that we have the way before and the before pictures I'll be sure to keep the site up to date on the project progress.  Actually, the whole thing was supposed to be done by now.  But we're having a fairly typical contractor experience... the start date got pushed back 30 days because... because contractors don't sell opening night tickets.