Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

Georgia Home Before and After

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Third time’s a charm, right?

It better be, because I’m not fond of unfinished business. And with the sale of our Georgia home (aka The Navage Patch V2.0, aka Peaches and Dreams, aka The Paint Pit), we’ve now bought and sold two houses in which we weren’t able to finish what we started.

Yeah, yeah, I know that as DIYers we’re never truly done fixing, upgrading and beautifying, but we never even finished round one here in Georgia! There was still so much to do!

We had grand plans, madam!

Grand. Plans.

But our hands are no longer on the wheel that steers our ship, so it’s off into the unknown on a southwesterly breeze full of hope and adventure!

So as we count the days until we close on our new Florida home, I’d like to take you on a little jaunt down memory lane.

It’s only been a year-and-a-half fer cryin’ out loud – even the tablespoon of butterscotch pudding between my ears can remember back that far!

And since we’ve been blogging the entire time we’ve been here, I have it all captured on film. Well, not film, technically. Only photography students in New York City and hipsters use film anymore. They enjoy looking at their printed photographs by candlelight while listening to foxtrots on their old Victrolas.

I’ll take the pixel and computer screen, thank you very much. And I’m fortunate to have captured millions upon millions of pixels representing all the Befores and Afters during our brief (but productive) time in this Georgia home.

Without further blathering from your friendly neighborhood Florida Man, let’s dive right into The Navage Patch V2.0 Then and Now.

Okay, so this was the first look we ever had on that first evening we saw the house. I’d driven for two days from Connecticut when the pandemic was still in diapers. Rolled right up to this house before even seeing my babes!

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

Although I never posted many outdoor projects in this house, I had planned to start this spring. Ah well, that time will never come, but here is how the house looked the day before we put it up for sale.

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

I wish we had time to see all those landscape additions flourish and grow – especially the Japanese maple outside the dining room window. You can’t see it because it has no leaves, but it’s a real beauty in the summer!

Whomever was hired to take the real estate pics before we bought our home didn’t know how to tell the story of a house. Instead of pics showing what one would see when entering the house, we start with seeing where we just came from.

Yeah, outside. I was just there. Thanks for the reminder! I also can’t figure out how the photog managed to capture this photo without the chandelier. Photoshop? Careful cropping? Intentional composition? We’ll never know.

Here’s a better first look…

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

The chandelier I installed hangs a little lower. Too bad I didn’t get to tell you more about it! We actually bought it when Handan was living in her temporary Atlanta studio. She found it on Facebook Marketplace for $60 and absolutely positively had to have it. What am I gonna do? Say no to my babes?

Hey, if my babes wants an enormously heavy and unwieldy chandelier while living in a dinky Atlanta studio, my babes is gonna get an enormously heavy and unwieldy chandelier while living in a dinky Atlanta studio!

It was the beginning of the pandemic, and folks were on edge. I paid for that chandelier with 20-dollar bills that I had sterilized with rubbing alcohol and sealed in a plastic bag. Strange days, indeed.

My babes also made me buy a gargantuan glass-topped wicker table and 6 chairs while she lived in that dinky Atlanta studio, but that’s another story.

Carrying on with our tour down memory lane…

Here’s the dining room as it stood on the day of our arrival.

And after we gave it the facelift it so desperately needed and deserved.

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

I may be just a simple man from a Connecticut River Valley farming town, but I don’t understand the purpose of a sitting room. If I feel the urge to sit a spell, there are other rooms higher up on my list…ones with shiny white seats. But this house had a sitting room, and here’s what it looked like stripped of its butt fluffs and tushy cushions.

Sitting room, indeed!

Anyway, the sitting room turned into my office and the world headquarters of Amalgamated Bullshit International The Navage Patch.

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com
Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com
Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

Besides the kitchen, the main focal point of our house was the living room, and it’s the biggest room I never got around to telling you about. Oh, sure, you saw the fireplace makeover, but we painted it, installed hardwood floors, and I hung a new fan from those beastly 18-foot ceilings. We also put a nice rug in there and some IKEA sofas, and it was where we showcased Handan’s impressive collection of blue and white porcelain. Here’s how the room looked when we closed on May 4, 2020.

And just recently…

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com
Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

The only thing left for that room would have been new side tables (the ones pictured above were pilfered from our bedroom for the sake of staging the home) and a coffee table that I was supposed to build from turned legs that Handan bought for me. I never got around to it, but those legs have been packed, and they’ll be incorporated into a coffee table in Florida. I promised my babes, and that’s that!

You’ve all probably seen the kitchen transformation – Handan’s crowning achievement of our Georgia home. It was her beautiful design and its masterful execution that sold this house.

Do you remember the builder-grade kitchen we moved into?

My babes hit it out of the park with this kitchen.

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com
Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com
Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

She’ll have to do it all again in the new house, but this time, I’ll offer what scant assistance as I can after using this kitchen for a year and a half.

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

While listing the house for sale, I learned a new term: keeping room. I think it’s like the human equivalent of a warming tray – a place to plop your guests until you’re ready to bring them into one of the more refined and important rooms.

I always thought of ours as an extension of the kitchen, but here’s the keeping room in its original state.

And since I’m not big on letting guests marinate in some forgotten corner, we decided that crafting was a better purpose then keeping.

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

I’m not sure when laundry rooms became ritzy and glamourous destinations for sweat socks and granny panties, but as I can attest from owning two homes now, two machines and a box of suds just doesn’t cut the mustard anymore. Laundry must be coddled and pampered and given all the very finest accouterments before getting luxuriously bathed and gently dried.

My underwear never had it so good.

Back in the old days, this was what a laundry room was all about.

Four walls and enough room to dance a jig while your brassieres spun ’round and ’round.

But all that empty space is an affront to the gods of storage and organization, so my babes planned a laundry room that would double as craft storage spillover. Oh, and let’s not forget toilet paper and paper towel storage. In Gone With the Wind, Scarlett O’Hara swore to God she’d never go hungry again. Welp, after a 1000 mile trip from Connecticut to Georgia during the height of the pandemic with a severely distressed stomach and no toilet paper on the entire interstate route, I’ve sworn that I will never be without the most precious of papers ever again!

Laundry Room Remodel Reveal - TheNavagePatch.com

Fun Fact: up North when people move, they leave the washer and dryer with the house, but down South, it’s common to take them with you when you move. Handan and I moved and packed those machines all by ourselves. Oh, and we also carried and packed the double-door fridge and stand-alone freezer in the garage. With the right kind of straps, we can carry anything!

And that brings me to the only shameless plug in this post. While picking up some supplies at U-Haul, I spotted these Shoulder Dolly Moving Straps and bought them on the spot. Handan and I had been using forearm straps for years to move heavy furniture, but these shoulder dolly straps looked like they could take our Rented Mule game to a whole new level.

And boy, did they ever! My shrimpy little babes and I carried that 300-pound fridge from the garage, down the driveway and up the ramp of a 26-foot U-Haul truck. It was heavy and unwieldy, and we were already spent from days of donkey work, but we did it!

By the time we got to the ramp into the truck, Handan was laughing uncontrollably. It was a mixture of exhaustion, disbelief, pain and euphoria. She just laughed and laughed and laughed as we grunted our way up the ramp and into the U-Haul. Neither of us could believe what we just accomplished.

With the exception of one day we hired a guy to help bring stuff from the basement to the U-Haul, Handan and I moved this entire house ourselves.

The. Entire. House.

I would never have believed it possible, but the need to save money is a powerful motivating force!

What we saved by not hiring a moving company and doing it ourselves will pay for one semester of Baris’s university (seriously)!

Okay, let’s move upstairs into The Great Unknown – at least for you guys. The only project we ever showcased upstairs was the master closet makeover. But the first project I tackled in this house was to paint the walls, ceiling and trim in Baris’s rooms so he’d have a proper place to live when he joined us from Connecticut in the summer of 2020. Here’s a look through Young Master’s living quarters.

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com
The Royal Bed
Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com
The Royal Fan

Being the only child has its pros and cons, but for Baris, the biggest pro has always been having all the space he needs to stretch out and take up as much real estate as he likes. Here’s the bathroom between his living quarters and his lounging room. I never got around to painting this bathroom, but it still looked pretty good!

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com
The Royal Bathroom

Work hard, lounge hard. You’d think he would have spent most of his time in the room pictured below, but I think he spent even more in the little office in the back. He studied hard during his senior year and tended to blow off steam at his gaming computer in the back office.

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com
The Royal Lounge

Now that he’s a college man, he’s put aside video gaming and embraced the game called Real Life.

Turns out he’s a natural at it, and we couldn’t be more proud of his progress and maturity!

Just before Handan got the call to Jacksonville, I’d been prepping our guest bedroom for a total overhaul. I painted the walls and swapped in a new ceiling light. From there, the sky was the limit! We were going to do some fun stuff and even enter the room into One Room Challenge. But those plans will just have to wait a little longer. It’s okay though – we’ll have plenty of rooms to play with in the new house!

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

The one room you’ve probably seen the least of is our master bedroom. Like in our Connecticut house, we never got around to giving it a full makeover. I’m just so thankful that I at least painted over the pink walls and ceiling that we moved into!

Do you remember this? Seriously, who paints a ceiling pink? Aren’t there laws to prevent this sort of thing from happening?

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

Well, we never finished the makeover, but I think I staged it pretty good for my real estate photos.

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com
Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

I love our Indian-made bed, and I can’t wait to make that headboard pop in our new bedroom by painting a contrast wall behind it. Stay tuned for that and so much more!

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

I also can’t wait to get the bed set up so we can again sleep on our 10-year-old Tempur-Pedic mattress. Apparently full memory foam mattresses are terrible at retaining their shape over time. I don’t think you can even buy them anymore – they’re all foam/coil hybrids now. But back in 2013, they hadn’t figured that out yet.

Add a fat guy to the mix, and you’ve get a surefire recipe for deep bed craters, or as I’ve nicknamed them, divots. We each have our divots that we sleep in, and though at first we both thought we’d have to ditch the old Tempur-Pedic for a new and divot-free mattress, we’ve come to realize that we get great sleep in our divots compared to all the other mattresses we’ve been sleeping on since September.

I intend to lay in my divot until it pushes down through the bottom of the mattress!

Anyway, let’s have a look at another room you’ve seen very little of – our master bath.

There’s enough floor space for a full symphony orchestra. I used to dream about conducting Beethoven’s 9th while soaking in an Epsom salts bath.

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

Really though, no one needs this much floor space in their bathroom unless they intend to samba while sudsing or perhaps bowl a few frames between bowel movements.

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

In Connecticut, we had a beautiful walkway installed from the driveway to the front door just a couple of months before learning of our move to Georgia.

Keeping with the tradition, we’d just finished having a retaining wall installed in the back yard (thus lifting up the yard and giving us tons more usable space) when we got the call to move to Florida. Oh, the plans we had for the back yard!

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

It’s okay though, because our new house has triple the acreage of our old Georgia home! And you can bet your sweet bippy my babes already has plans coming out the wazoo for our new back yard!

When we first moved into the Georgia home, the side yard was an absolute mess. The grass had eroded away, and all that was left was a root-strewn dirt slope that turned to a mud river with each rainfall. It was by far my least favorite area of house and yard.

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

I reeeeeeeally disliked this area – especially the infernal red clay mud that got everywhere and stained everything.

But as usual, my babes came up with a fantastic solution – landscape stairs.

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

Handan and I put a lot of work into these stairs and the adjacent landscaping, and we were really looking forward to showcasing them this spring. Ah well…time for new outdoor projects!

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

And that brings us back around front.

Georgia Home Before and After - TheNavagePatch.com

Though we’re bummed to be leaving this house and our awesome neighbors and neighborhood, we are so excited to show you our new house in Freeport, Florida! It’s a good house with a ton of potential that will benefit from a fair amount of updating inside and a lot of landscaping and hardscaping outside. In other words, it’s the perfect canvas for Handan’s vision and my rented-mule labor! Oh, and I think I’ll be able to take some decent photos and share some funny stories along the way!

We’re closing on our new house on March 18, so stay tuned for empty house pics and preliminary plans.

And since we’re now Grand Masters of Moving, I’m going to write a post very soon about what we’ve learned from our American moves. Packing up, moving out, selling, buying, storage and moving in – there’s a lot to know and a lot to keep track of. We’ll help you out with some hard-learned tips and tricks to make the process a little smoother and a little easier.

Stay tuned.





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65 Comments

  1. Hi there,
    We are in the midst of a move as well to an affordable home in Northeast CA with walking views of Mt Shasta. Although we will be a little more limited in space, your photos are inspirational and I hope to carve out some space for my crafty nature. Looking forward to seeing what becomes of your new Florida digs.

  2. Love that post! Y’all did an amazing amount of work in the time you had. Can’t wait to share in your next journey! Oh…and wait til I show hubby those shoulder moving straps! Game changer…no excuses now 😂😂

      1. Another move??? Wow, you two are certainly young souls. Looking forward to seeing before and after photos of your Florida home. Unless it doesn’t need a thing done to it. 🙂
        GoldieMN

  3. It was cool to see the transformation of your old house. I forget to take pics so tend to forget the blood sweat and tears that go into each room.
    My dream is a keeping room, but here in Wisconsin it would be a hearth room with wood burning fireplace. It’s a fantasy I live for in our 900 sq ft.
    Your home started out beautiful but the end result was sensational.
    I’m looking forward to your new home makeover, it’s always a lot more fun (and easier) to watch another do the work!

    1. LOL, you’re not kidding about that! Someday when I’m old and grizzled, I’ll watch others doing it from my orthopedic rocking chair! 😀

    2. I feel sad that you have to leave this gorgeous home you made your own, but looking forward to seeing all your awesome skills come to life in Florida. You both are so very talented. Enjoy your new adventure.

  4. It had to be hard leaving your Georgia home. You and Handan made it into a beautiful home even if you were not quite done with it but I know you will do the same with your new Florida home. Can’t wait to see the pictures and hope you get to stay long enough to finish and enjoy this one.

    1. It was hard to leave that kitchen, for sure, lol! But yeah, we thought we would be there for longer. We’re hoping Freeport treats us just as well or better! 🙂

  5. So happy to hear from you. Thought a sea monster may have swallowed you up! Enjoyed the walk down memory lane. Can’t believe all you accomplished in a short time. The kitchen is a killer and the side yard improvement is unbelievable. The folks the bought your house are way fortunate. Can’t wait to see your Florida digs and all your do’ins in the future.
    Blessings and stay safe, Sharon

    1. Hi Sharon, yeah that side staircase was really cool! But no worries, there will be even BETTER improvements to the new house! 🙂

  6. Wow! I never would have guessed Freeport. I was betting on Crestview or Niceville. It may be a culture shock to move to such a small town but I’m sure y’all will love it. Look forward to future posts

    1. There were some good houses in Crestview, but it’s just too far for Handan to travel each day. Freeport is a much more reasonable commute. And yeah, Niceville or Destin would have been great, but with the blog and all the room it requires (inside and out), it just wasn’t achievable economically!

  7. Any pointers will be appreciated. We are moving into a new house too. I can’t wait. First purchase a dog. Second purchase another dog. Then I will pick out furniture. Yuck.

  8. Your Georgia home was just beautiful. I can’t believe the size of some of those rooms. Embarrassingly, I think my entire dog box could fit in your kitchen and craft room…maybe plus a little hallway? Sigh. It sure tests our ability to store things and have useable room to move. That kitchen was just wow. I can see why anyone would have snapped it up the minute they saw it. I can’t believe the difference between what was there when you moved in and what you left. They could be two different houses!

    I find it funny how American’s leave big appliances like the fridge and washing machine behind and it’s just…part of the house. We definitely don’t do that here. If it’s not built into the house, it goes with you, and sometimes even then… I don’t think I’d want to use someone else’s fridge and washing machine or dryer. Most people don’t clean them and I don’t want to share their germs. I think I moved my fridge about six times before I ended up back at home and we used it here (Mom got rid of her 30+ yr fridge). My Dad always helped me move, hiring a truck and loading boxes and appliances with whatever strong folks I could find to help. Dad is awesome 😁

    I can’t wait to see the pics of the new house!

    1. Yeah, it’s weird, Jay. In some regions, everything is left behind, while in others, everything not bolted down is removed. I like it when a fridge is left behind (as long as it’s decent), but I do like brining our own washers. You’re right about those – they’re gross if someone else owned them first!

  9. I am shocked that her company does not have a moving package for her! Especially since they keep moving her.

    Was glad to hear from you guys. Those side stairs you put in are gorgeous. Hope you got all your upgrades paid for in the selling price. The front landscaping looked about 1000% better.

    Looking forward to the next one!!!

    1. Hi Carla, she does have a relocation package, but it wouldn’t have covered the full cost of professional movers – they’re just out of the park with their prices. By doing the moving ourselves, we kept costs well within her moving budget, and it gives us the option to move into the new house in stages – a real plus for us!

  10. Y’all did a marvelous remodel on your Atlanta home! My favorites are your kitchen and landscape stairs. Would you mind sharing the color used on your island?

    By the way, BE CAREFUL around your new home. My cousin and her family live near Hurlburt field in Ft. Walton. A couple of weeks ago, a family of black bears walked onto their street and seated themselves in her yard!

    1. Thank you, Julie! That island color is from Behr, and is part of the Kraftmaid collection. It’s called Rocky Mountain Sky. Oooh, good to know about the bears – I’ll keep an eye out, especially with our pups!

  11. You did an Amazing job on a good bones house. I would like my kitchen to be as big as the smallest room in your home!!! Our home is smaller and cozy but the fantastic ideas you have shown
    will keep me dreaming & crafting for years!
    THANK YOU for sharing your family with all of us. Yours is my favorite blog.
    Good luck with the new home. I, like everyone else will anxiously be waiting for the new re-do’s.👍🏻Keep up the entertaining dialog, we all wait for your next post!

  12. I was like a little kid when I saw your name on my e-mail!!! It was like your best friend came home.
    Thank you for taking us down memory lane. I can’t wait to see your new adventure! You both have wonderful ideas and do beautiful work.
    Thanks for sharing and good luck!!

  13. So beautiful. Everything you two do is amazing to me. I’m looking forward to seeing what you do in north Florida.

  14. Great post. You always make me laugh. Good luck!!!! I still think you should have moved to Niceville 😂

  15. Your stories make me laugh and smile. I would love to harness the energy and artistry that you both have!! The Georgia house is amazing before and definitely after. Good luck to you and thank you for all your ideas and hard work that you do for us…your followers lol
    I have bought you a few Christmas gifts and wish it could be Christmas every month but hopefully soon! If you ever have to move to Oregon! Look us up, you both would be cool neighbors 😎 😉
    Stay safe and thanks for your funny sense of writing, as it has been a tough few years and we all need more smiles and kindness!
    Thank you
    Eva Marie Chasteen
    Glide, OR

  16. I live in Jacksonville and have lived here all my life so a move from a few houses but never different states or countries. I can’t imagine. I was so excited to learn you were moving here for, we thought, a few years. Then to learn you weren’t staying, I was disappointed. Your GA house was gorgeous with all that room. Y’all definitely made it beautiful. Hope you get to stay longer in the panhandle.

    1. Hi Gail, we thought we’d be there permanently, too! But we blow where the winds of Handan’s job take us, and this time they blew us onto the panhandle. I sure hope we stay awhile, lol! 🙂

  17. I love the blue color on the kitchen island. Do you know the brand and color?
    I’ve been sad seeing you leave your Georgia home. But I’m sure your next home will be just as fabulous!! Good luck moving in. Can hardly wait to see your new home!

    1. Hi Melody, that color is called Rocky Mountain Sky by Behr. It’s a custom color made for KraftMaid cabinets, but you can order it in the Home Depot paint department.

  18. Where will you put all your tools & equipment since you won’t have a basement? You’ll be moving in just before the hurricane season starts, too. I am so looking forward to all your great commentary and improvements! I love your posts and clever repartee.

    1. That’s a great question, Jutta! To start, they’ll live in the garage. Eventually, we hope to build a shed. We’ll see! 🙂

  19. Can’t wait for the tips and tricks of moving! We should be in Tennessee within the year (moving from Texas). Last time we moved it was almost 20 years ago and from an apartment to our current house. One small UHaul and two cars did the trick for our 30 mile move. ALL. ADVICE. YOU. HAVE. ON. MOVING. IS. NEEDED. Y’all are the Masters after all. Love the blog and all the amazing crafts and ideas! Praying for a smooth transition for you and Handan.

  20. Omg… All i see is all the painting you’ve done. Great job and tenacity! 😂 Vi can’t wait to see what’s next in your journey!

  21. I’m always awed by y’alls ingenuity and know-how. Thus far I’ve only made your Cricut foil mugs lol but I thoroughly enjoy all your blogs. Best wishes in your move and next stage and thank you for sharing y’alls journey with us!

  22. The transformation is absolutely amazing! Everything looks so bright and inviting plus the design and aesthetic throughout the entire house is stunning. I re-read the post and looked through the comments but did not find the paint colors listed. Would you please share the paint brand and color used in the foyer, office, living room (which may be all the same?), master bath, and Baris’s rooms. Our home faces south with the main living areas on the north side so we do not have very much light. I really hope that a coat of paint will help lighten everything up. I will use your before and after pics for inspiration. 🙂 Thanks!
    **Question – do you think your paint colors would look good with wood trim (mid-range stain color similar to early american)?

  23. Thanks so much for sharing. Do you have a video on the “landscape stairs” or information where I might read? Best of luck in your new home!

  24. OK, so I love all you do and the great pics, but where’s the crafting project (besides redoing a house) like we ladies also look forward to? I have a house full of “supplies” just waiting for new ideas!

    1. They’re coming, Karen! We still haven’t set up the new craft room, but we’re working on it – it should be done by this weekend!

  25. It must be hard to leave a home that you put so much work and love into it. I can’t wait to see the wonderful things you will do to your new home.

  26. My (ex)husband and I used to say “bury me over the septic tank.” And we only moved 1.5 miles up the road when we moved! Hard to believe that you did such awesome work only to leave it for the new owners. Can’t wait to see what you do to the new place. Your before and after pix ought to go into a magazine!

    1. Thank you, Kathy, that was a hard home to leave, but I know we’re going to do great things here! And this yard is fantastic! Well, it will be when we’re done with it, but we have over 3 times the acreage that we had in Georgia!

  27. woww I’m impressed by the before and after photo of all the rooms you showed us. I really like this decoration style. Thank you for sharing these lovely pictures that I could have more ideas to decorate mine

  28. Wow! What a beautiful home! I am especially coveting the stove. Yowza! Looks like a great place to cook. I’m new to your site. Found you as I was going down a rabbit hole on Pinterest (yeah, imagine that). : ) Looking forward to catching up with you!

    1. Thanks, Michael! It’ll take a while (have to pay for our son’s college first), but we’ll top that kitchen when we tackle our current one here in Florida!