We love, love, love shows like Fixer Upper and Property Brothers and Flip or Flop Nashville. In an hour, they get the house, demo the house, renovate the house and reveal the house. That's the magic of TV. Bless Nichole Curtis - at least her projects take more than one episode to complete. For the rest of us, home projects take time.

Sometimes a LOT of time.  

Painting Day. You don't always have the desire - or the luxury - to clear out a room to paint it. But in a small room like this, it's the only way. So we took everything out, patched the holes from the old cabinet and wire shelf and other wall organizers, and cleaned the walls before we cracked open the paint can. Not gonna lie, preparing to paint took about 2 hours.

And so it begins. The 12-year-old LG front-loading washer sang its swan song this week, triggering a series of events that will culminate in a stacked washer/dryer. The goal is increased accessibility to the appliances and a little vintage storage in this tiny laundry room. Here are the gory "before" photos of the hot mess....because we believe in keeping it real.