Before & After

I have a limited amount of before pictures, some rooms none at all (the Carriage House rooms mainly and Courtyard). Some of the pictures are of much higher quality by my professional photographer Roy, and some were taken with my cheap little camera.

The Dining Rooms

Here’s the before of the Dining Rooms.

Here are the Dining Rooms now.

The Parlor

Here’s the Parlor before…

…and here’s the Parlor now.

The Library

Here’s the Library before…

…and the Library after.

The Sunroom

Here’s the Library into the Sunroom when I bought the Inn…

Library/Sunroom today.

Chenille

Chenille before…

Chenille now: the left hand corner next to the bed had a door that had a short flight of steps that went up into African Tulip  (Where African Tulip’s bathroom sink now sits). The rest of African Tulip’s bathroom was part of a maid’s closet, now just a narrow linen closet). The window seat is actually heated with a radiator inside it, see the grills below the seat.

African Tulip

Here’s African Tulip when I bought the Inn:

Here’s African Tulip now:

African Tulip’s bathroom.

Where the sink is was stairs that went down into Chenille. Where the terra cotta wall is was the wall that separated the maid’s closet from the stairs. The dressing table was a cabinet and in the bottom drawer was where I found all the Knight’s of Columbus robes that are in the closet in Lady Palm’s entrance way.

Bird of Paradise

Here’s Bird of Paradise before…

Here’s Bird of Paradise now.

Allamanda

Here’s Allamanda when I bought the Inn…

…and here’s Allamanda now.

Oleander

Here’s Oleander when I bought the Inn (the rose boarder is original from the 1800s).

Here’s Oleander today.

Lady Palm

Here’s Lady Palm’s living room before: the stained and leaded glass windows are two of the few original windows.

Here’s Lady Palm bookcase and windows now.

Here’s Lady Palm’s living room when I bought the Inn, across from the book cases.

Here’s Lady Palm’s living room today.

Here’s my biggest disappointment for not having enough before pictures, Lady Palm’s bedroom was the storage room for the Mansion when I bought it. There was just a rough floor, built-ins that I decided to use as a headboard (and I pulled one out on either side, put a board on them for the end tables).

Bougainvillea

This was Bougainvillea’s living room when I bought the Inn.

Here’s Bougainvillea’s living room now.

Ruellia

Again, I regret not having more before pictures. Both Carriage House guest rooms have been redone twice (the first time was pretty spartan, this was taken during the second renovation when we gutted the old bathroom and added a totally new bathroom).

Ruellia today.

Bromeliad

During the initial renovations, what became Bromeliad was my space and office, hence the big closet.

Here’s Bromeliad today. note the floral prints on either side of the bed, the one on the right hides the electrical panel (see above).

The Veranda

Here’s the Veranda when I bought the Inn with its beat up wooden floor. Shabby contractor that redid it for me initially did a super poor job and it was falling apart already.  I had the expose aggregate concrete installed in 2013. See next photo…

Here’s the Veranda with the exposed aggregate cement finish.

The Gardens

I took a dumpster full of vegetation off the property. That brick grill was the strongest thing on the property – it was a real bear to remove.

When I bought the Inn, the trees, weeds and vines were all the way to the brick patio, you couldn’t see the wall for all the growth.

Even More Before…

Miscellaneous pictures from when Joedda bought the property from the Knights of Columbus, here’s what became Chenille.

Chenille today.

Here’s what became Bird of Paradise.

This was the room that became Chenille when Joedda bought the property.

Here’s Chenille today.

This became Bromeliad’s living room.

Here it is today. I love light and color (obviously), it killed me blocking that back window with the big breakfront, but I love that piece and it was the only way I could work it in and arrange a seating area in front of the fire place and TV.

This is the window alcove of what became Lady Palm’s bathroom.

Lady Palm’s bathroom today.

The Mansion’s Exterior

Here’s a picture Allamanda’s bay window from the Courtyard (it’s funny the yellow is pretty much the one I picked and the neighborhood association fought me over).

Allamanda’s bay window now.

This image from Joedda is a little scary: apparently the Knights had built a room connecting the Ballroom to the Mansion so they could move back and forth out of the elements.

The front of the Mansion when Joedda bought it, you can see the Knight’s sign on the porch’s post.

Here’s the Mansion today.