I'm Baaaaack.......

Hello again! After a longer-than-expected hiatus, following major dental work and moderate home renovations, I think I'm back in the saddle again, as far as shooting, and blogging.

Didja miss me??

Anyway, due to major health issues associated with years of severe periodontitis, I finally pulled the trigger and had full mouth extractions and dentures placed. Yes, it was an ordeal. No, not a terrible one, as I did my homework and pretty much knew what to expect. Yes, I will spare you the gory details. Even the photos I took, to remind me of how bad my teeth were and how ill my mouth was making me systemically. I saved them to remind me of where I once was. No need to share those. Ick.

Here's a nice sunrise image instead.

I knew a lot of my health issues were related to the periodontitis, but I had no idea just how bad things had become. It has been a relief, almost immediately following the extractions, to be regaining my health. Learning to eat all over again is an ongoing challenge, but the dentist says my recovery and everything is going fabulously (my words, but he concurs). Getting the first reline tomorrow afernoon, so hopefully I will have a better fit again for a while.

Best thing about the dentures? I can smile again, without being self-conscious about my horrid teeth. I keep forgetting I can smile! I have gotten so many compliments, from those who know what I've been through, and those who have no idea, and probably just think I got whitening or veneers. It's been fun to run into people I haven't seen in awhile, and they look at me like they just know something is different, but they can't quite place what it is..... I'm not generally a "vain" person. In fact, I usually could care less what others think about me. But it is a relief not to walk around looking like a meth head anymore.

And while a lot of the last month and a half was spent just resting and saving my energy for Cube World (I was only allowed so much time off, unfortunately), and being kind to myself, and generally just reading, studying, and browsing the works of other photogs I admire, in addition to my dental renovation, we had a home renovation in the works for the last two moths.

A bit of the water damage to the closet can be seen at the floor.

The love of my life, assessing his next move on the project. Our recent home renovation projects have been the one time that living with a perfectionist wasn't such a horrible thing.

"Let's install shiplap", they said, "It'll be fun!", they said. We had sore necks and shoulder for weeks.

A poorly built closet in our master bedroom had had some water damage, among other issues. Once the roofers came and capped the house with a beautiful new metal roof, we went to town renovating that closet. Joanna Gaines would approve....we ship-lapped the daylights outta that closet! A couple coats of paint, some new light fixtures, and we have a wonderful, watertight, clean closet again.

Once we finished the closet, on weekends and after work, we got the rest of the house ready for new flooring throughout most of it. Our previous carpet and linoleum was horrid-- dated, and beyond worn. It was unhealthy and ugly ,and literally stunk. I was embarrassed to have anyone over to the house, even the kids, who knew what shape it was in and had even contributed somewhat to the demise of the floors. Previous owners and tenants had had a variety of kids and pets themselves, and the condition of the flooring throughout was testament to that.

Before, the carpet was an awful, stained, pale green that really didn't go with my new paint on the walls (previous walls were "rental white"). The odd square in the lower left was tile that we had to pull up, a previous tenant once had a woodstove there.

The pictures really don't convey the sad condition or discoloration of "before". This master bedroom was added on, at the back of the house. An outside deck had been walled in by a previous owner to create another room.

Now that it is all done, it is beautiful, clean, and amazing. I am glad we finally got to this side of the project; the entire thing was like moving household four times over! We moved furniture from room to room to room, and lived in a half-mess, for a month or so. It was physically tasking, and seemed unending. But we finally have come to the other side of it, and it is amazing to be living in a "new" home now. Sometimes I just walk through the rooms and stare at the floors in admiration.

The entryway to the master. Being that the master was an "add-on" years ago, this originally was a door leading to the outside/deck area, a mud room or part of a laundry room that is now the bathroom to the master.

The new carpet is actually a dark green, not a grey, as appears in this lighting. It goes great with the paint job we did a couple of years ago in here. New 2" blinds from Blinds.com were a perfect addition to the bank of windows. This was our second purchase from Blinds.com. They are very affordable, and ship fast. They even replaced two windows *I* had mismeasured, for free! I highly recommend them.

I took a few "before and afters" of various points of the projects, which I've added to this post. I'll share the improvements on the new roof, and livingroom, dining room and kitchen flooring in my next post. But lately, I have been winding my way back into shooting more interesting pictures, and looking for subject matter, and light-stalking again. I missed it dearly. Hadn't had the energy or the time! With Autumn finally here, I've no shortage of subject matter, and I am really looking forward to finding time to shoot some harvest themes, and of course, the holidays.

With that all shared, let me assure you, friends and fans, I will be back at it, blogging, shooting, and sharing again, like before, As always, thank you for your support! And, as always, any inquiries about print purchases or collaborations is welcome!