This might be one of the strangest, most frivolous, most time-wasting posts I’ve ever done, but oh my goodness, if you ever happen to be in another country and your husband does a bunch of work on one of the coolest houses in existence, by all means don’t go looking at the real estate listing for said property six years later. You might just have to go see it for yourself.

And if you can’t go see it, you might just have to show random house pictures to random blog-readers in hopes of satiating your excitement about it.

Because just look at this beautiful place. We lived here for seven and a half weeks.

It wasn’t nearly this amazing back then, but I can point to that sink and say, “I washed dishes there.” I can point to that kitchen and say, “We stayed up so late talking there.” I can point to that massive open space behind the house and say, “We spent an afternoon wandering out there,” or “We watched the kangaroos fighting out there.” I can point to that bedroom and say, “We watched hours of Lord of the Rings there because New Zealand was next on our itinerary, and we didn’t want to miss a thing.” I can point to that staircase and say, “Eric built that.” I can point to that mezzanine and say, “Eric leveled that.” I can point to that flooring and say, “Eric laid that.” I can point to that cute little living space upstairs and say, “Eric kicked out cubbies and pulled out a rat run to make that.” I can point to that incredibly beautiful hallway and say, “Eric fixed up those windows and installed that little window at the end. I hung my dresses in that hallway. I sneaked down that hallway in the middle of the night.” I can point to that back veranda and say, “We spent countless times after lunch eating frozen yogurt and drinking coffee out there on the swing before Eric went back to work.” I can point to that front veranda and say, “We pulled the ute right up onto the pavement there, and I held the flashlight so Eric could fix a broken windshield wiper in the dark.” I can point to that upstairs master bedroom and say, “I sat on a chair right there and blogged while Eric worked.”

And oh my goodness, look at it now.Right there is where we pulled the ute in, right up to those front doors to fix the windshield wiper out of the rain. There was no lovely white tile back then of course, just a tired old rat slab of concrete.

Here's Jazam as we knew it.Yes, that's an ultrasound picture. Australia was our last big hurrah before our children came along, and what a hurrah it was. I was pregnant with Alec on that trip, and none of our family knew it. Will, the owner of Jazam back then and the reason we were in Australia, was the first person (other than a couple ladies at a family clinic) to know about Alec. 🙂

But back to the befores and afters . . . here's the kitchen when we were there. So many late-night talks about yoga, God, food, construction, Australia, and who knows what else happened at that bar. So many meals, some made by me, some made by Will, were eaten at that bar. We played chess at that table, Eric against me, Eric against Will. We first sampled kangaroo sausage in that kitchen, all while being able to see real live kangaroos out that window.And just look at that kitchen now . . . the kitchen was one of the nicest parts of the house back then, and even it got an amazing upgrade.I love how they kept the original floor. I swept that floor. 🙂

Just off the kitchen was a veranda with a swing on it, and Eric and I would go out there pretty much every day after lunch and drink coffee and eat frozen yogurt on a stick and see if we could see any kangaroos.It's a beautiful sunroom now.And again, just look at that original flooring. Eric probably spilled his coffee there at least once. 🙂

The verandah stretched the entire length of the back of the house. Here's how it looked when we were there . . . . . . and how it looks now.The hardest part of the house for me to imagine making homey was always the main living area. It was cool, no doubt about that, but it was just so strange and big and open and cold, and those pillars running down the middle of it just seemed to hinder any sort of cozy living room vibes that I could imagine. Take a look.But oh my goodness, look at it now. Just look at it now.See those stairs way back in the right-hand corner? Eric leveled those stairs and laid that flooring. And see the stairway in the right-hand foreground? Eric built those stairs from scratch. And see that mezzanine that kind of just blends into the ceiling? Eric leveled that mezzanine and did more work on the upper part of it that we'll get to later.

Here's Eric working on the bottom of the mezzanine.Here's Eric working on the stairs.And here's me and the stairs for that pretty little staircase.And the pretty little staircase itself.What a glow-up. I can't help myself, I just have to post again what it looks like now. 🙂

Down that hallway at the back of the main area was our living quarters.

Here's our bathroom when we were there. And here it is now.I took pregnancy progress selfies in that bathroom, and it's still unbelievable to me that we made it almost halfway through without any of our family knowing. 🙂 We still had a few days in Sydney and an entire week in New Zealand after this picture was taken, which means I was almost twenty weeks pregnant when we surprised our parents at PDX with this sign. But back to Jazam . . . 🙂

Here's our humble little room. And the Lord of the Rings watching wall with us ready to watch Lord of the Rings against it. 🙂And here's that same room now. I am just loving all the pinks and whites, and I don't think I'm even a pinks and whites kind of girl. (She says after she just posted a picture of herself in a hot pink dress. I guess technically it's coral. LaVera, if you're reading this, fun fact -- that dress is from your wedding. 🙂)

One of my favorite parts of the house was our hallway with its many windows.Here's Eric doing some of the work that took it from what you see above to what you'll see below. 🙂And here it is now.It's too busy, in my opinion. You can't fully appreciate those beautiful windows, and somehow the light doesn't stream in and reflect off the floor quite as enchantingly as it did before, but look, same floor, same little fireplace. Oh, I love that floor. For some reason it makes me happy to see so many of those old familiar floors even while the house became so beautiful and so different all around them.

One area that did not keep the original flooring was the upstairs. Eric refastened, leveled, and laid bamboo flooring on the mezzanine and the upstairs living area. There was a whole other apartment upstairs at the end of the mezzanine, and the bulk of the work Eric did was up there.

Here's the mezzanine as it was when we arrived. (Well, as it was minus a bunch of junk that Eric and Will cleared away. I'll spare you that picture.)And here's a bit of the process to get it from how it was then to how it is now. That flooring just shone. 🙂 And here it is now, all of Eric's hard work showcased by beautiful white paint and elegant railings. At the other end of the mezzanine was the upstairs apartment, with a little kitchenette, a living room, and a couple bedrooms.

Here's how the living area looked before Eric took a hammer, a nail gun, and a paintbrush to it. Eric smashed those cubbies and ripped out that rat run of a window seat and demolished the existing kitchen, right down to bare walls.Then there was drywall-mudding and painting to do.Eric and Will put down soundproofing and laid the flooring, and that's how we left it.Here's how it looks now.So fresh and white and beautiful. Just look at the cut of that ceiling. And again, that gorgeous floor. Eric touched every piece of that flooring. 🙂

And last but certainly not least is the master suite upstairs. It was full of garbage when we arrived. Here's a picture of said garbage after Eric and Will chucked it all off the upstairs balcony. 🙂I didn't actually see this room before all the junk was moved out of it, but judging from the picture there was carpeting to be pulled up and a bunch of random old furniture as well. The amount of work Eric did in that bedroom is almost easier to show than to tell. He framed it out, put in insulation, did some wiring, hung drywall, and painted.(He also took selfies with his wife.)And that's how we left it. Here's how it is now. 🙂Kind of an anticlimactic picture to end on, seeing as it's one of my least favorite "afters," but oh well. This room probably looks the most similar to how we left it. Throw in some curtains and some carpet and some ugly furniture and call it good to go I guess. 🙂

Maybe a more fitting picture to end on is me blogging in that very room. This very blog in that very room. 🙂If I could make each of our boys five years older for a week (so they’d remember it) and take them to Australia, I’d do it in a heartbeat. We might have to do it regardless.

Good thing I don’t really make New Year’s resolutions, because going to Australia would be at the top of the list.

(What do you say, Eric?)