The first rule of good photography is to take good photos – well duh (set up the shot, choose the necessary settings, frame it correctly, you get my point).Now realize, I had no intention of doing any photo editing with these photos other than saving them and giving them to my friend Trish, I was just joking around taking pics in her back yard. Nor do I necessarily condone overprocessing photos. What I want to show is the CAPABILITY between shooting in RAW and shooting in JPEG.

Original Photo no editing:

After total manipulation, going to the extreme in exposure, vibrance, saturation, clarity, etc: (also not perfect, I spent maybe 2 mins on this)

Photo manipulation of a JPEG (simulated as I never shoot in JPEG – also I spent A LOT more time trying to get this photo to look as good as the RAW, like 30 minutes :/):

It may take a trained eye (or because I gotz skillz in editing) but there is almost a greenish quality to our jpeg photo and also what I like to refer to as the splotchy effect, and trust me, try putting this on a canvas or printing larger than 8×10 and you WILL be sorry:

So go ahead and buy a new camera if yours doesn’t have an option to shoot in anything other than JPEG, otherwise take that puppy out and keep practicing… in RAW! Only after you realize that it’s not the camera or the lenses that will take you to the next level should you consider buying them

</rant>

We moved in November, so this is really the first month we’ve had a chance to do anything outside to the place. I knew I wanted to pressure wash the house and fence the moment we got the keys. Unfortunately it is not recommended to spray high pressured freezing cold water in the dead of winter, so I had to wait FOUR months to play with our Christmas gift! And truth be told, I wasn’t sure a washing of any form would fix the age and dirt of the side fences that we had:

To my sheer AMAZEMENT, it was like instant success:

By the time it was done and dry it looked like a brand new fence! So after some inspiration from friends in North Carolina who stained their fence Cedar and it looked GORGEOUS, we ran out to the Depot and picked up some mahogany stain (we thought darker may cover the imperfections a little more). It was a one coat stain and it didn’t lie, but it took 2 $44 cans to finish the front and back of these sections.

All in all, for around $100 and 2 weekends, I think this is a project for the books. Just like paint, the bang for your buck is astonishing. One last before & after comparison:

I’ve learned quite a few things along the renovation path, which I’d like to start sharing over the next few posts, but all this construction reminded me that I never posted any photos of that huge undertaking from my Clermont house. So, only 5 years and a short sale overdue, but here was the beast of a project I took on when I was 22. (Please note I have a billion before and during reno, but surprisingly cannot locate all of the afters, so I’ve had to resort to realtor photos from when we had tenants occupying, so there’s a lot of their crap lying around)

This is how we first found this lovely beauty, in need of the most indescribable scrub down. I’m not sure how people occupied it in the condition it was in, especially with 2 children. As you can see in the after, pretty much full inside and outside rehab. We took down the screen porch, and found out it wasn’t even built to code, so had to rebuild the whole darned thing. New roof, paint, pavers, carpentry and landscaping was done in front and back.

Front of the house before we bought it and finally a year later

We had to redo all the back windows because the previous frame was rotted out (the fun of finding out things after walls are taken down). We also added a back patio with double out swing French doors and larger stairs. Really opened up the outdoor living area.

It turned out when we cleared away the lower tree branches, there was a view of lake Minneola:

And now to the inside. The following series of pictures will show you just how NASTY the conditions were inside the house. In fact, in the below shot, you will see the difference in carpet color on where the couch was versus actual walking area. Just imagine dog and cat piss, candy, dirt, and other fluids all over the place and add a touch of every allergen in the world. This was also lining the air ducts which were soon replaced:

The “Original Heart Pine Floors” underneath weren’t in much better shape. In fact, when someone advertises hardwoods under carpet, rest assured 8/10 times there is something wrong with the floor…

There were also quite a few electrical issues we encountered. I’m surprised their house didn’t burst into flames after all of these years. What you see below is the laundry room setup. Yes that’s right, let’s wrap a non grounded (and old) electrial plug around the water supply. They also were draining the sudsy water onto the sidewalk. Where was Holmes Inspection when I needed him?

Can you see anything wrong with this?

It became apparent a few months into the project that this may have been the house from hell…

So here was the upstairs bedroom we called the blue room. Can you guess why? Turns out under all that blue was lovely 70′s football themed wallpaper. We should be so lucky.

The blue room had a twin, we called it the pink room.

The Master was in dire need of attention, here is the bedroom and back porch view before and after

My dad and I belt and hand sanded all of the floors, and I poly-ed them all… I appreciate anyone that does that for a living.

I couldn’t find an empty after shot, so this is almost finished back porch, just missing trim, and electrical fixtures:

Upstairs bathroom was so large, when we bought it, they had an exercise bike in it. The floor was actually 2 layers of linoleum on top of a thick layer of plywood, it took weeks for me to get it removed as in the kitchen and baths, they nailed the plywood almost every 4 inches. The chair rail around wasn’t even beadboard, but actually inch thick tongue and groove siding. The best part was opening the moulding to find a hot orange and pink bathtub! It’s hard to tell, but the inside was actually a robin’s egg blue accented by those lovely rust stains… again, not sure how these people lived like this (or are my cleanliness standards too high?)

Check out the awesome moldy wallpaper I found underneath

And finally the downstairs photos (again for some reason I cannot find the after shots so I have to default to the real estate listing photos – no way would I ever have this much crap in one room, but hopefully you can still see how lovely the place is)

The downstairs bathroom was a hot mess, they designed it all wrong. The tub literally did not fit in the space so they created a knee wall for it. It clearly needed a gut and replumb. (after photos were hard to take because the space was so small, but you get the gist)

Saving the best for last, here was the kitchen circa 1970, and after. I should note that the floors were so filthy you could skate on them. During reno, and before after comparison:

I got on my iphone and within seconds I found out there is a State Park with awesome views and hikes and only cost $8 per carload. We were in, if only we could find it. 20 miles later of driving around the mountain we happened upon the entrance , parked and partook in the loveliness that was Minnewaska state park for the day. So Alabanians, this place is only an hour and half south and totally worth the drive. I also recommend the Gilded Otter for beers afterwards

Be back soon!

I promise

XOXO,

Christa

Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend Nude Nite Orlando this year due to the fact that I no longer live in Orlando, but I can always reminisce about last year’s event. Whether it was the artwork, live performances, or just diversity of mediums, I have to say it was sincerely impressive. I went from a photography exhibit, to an artist sculpting a live model in chocolate, to a burlesque show- I mean, where can you go to find that all in one place?

Well, since I am not able to attend this year, I’ve decided to post some photos I took at the event last year….and who knows, maybe we can get a Nude Nite up in Albany one of these days?

This first photo may seem familiar, since I posted her on my 365 project. She’s still one of my favorites:

The flyers were my second favorite after the burlesque dancers. They were memorizing:

The talent and variety of exhibits was amazing, some of my favorite pieces were:

"Erotic Asphyxiation Series" on aluminum by Dixie Lee

"Swinger" in bronze steel and wood by Chris Ricardo

Attendees enjoying the exhibits

The live art exhibits were interesting:

Full back henna

Even the audience put on a show:

My favorite acts of the night were the burlesque shows. These were not only super sexy and provocative, but were oh so clever and funny as well. I really need to find a good burlesque show to go to someday soon!

Brazalian martial arts ended my evening, definitely some amazing performances!

I hope everyone enjoyed Nude Nite 2011 as much as I did last year. Here’s to being able to attend in the future!

But seriously folks, I’m OBSESSED with ice. Acually, icicles to be precise. I mean how cool are these cold clear daggers of death?! I’ve managed to annoy hubs everywhere we go by pointing out every house, building and sign that has them hanging. I’m particularly fond of the icicle twinkle lights with icicles hanging off of them. So you must know how EXCITED I was to play with this monster:

Christa Approved!

Thinking of all the dangerous things I can do with this sucker!

My Dexter pose (the "perfect" weapon)

My artistic interpretation

I’ve been thinking about the last photo of my project for over a month now. I’ve had lots of ideas as to how I could connect it back to my first photo which was a picture of me playing a hand and putting it all in. I thought I could set up another shot where I put the cards down and they spelled out 365, but then I thought, meh that’s a little too cliche for me.

After thinking about it almost everyday I came to realize that this project has transformed over the year and has turned into more of a scrapbook of my life every day. So I went to a New Years Eve party at a friend’s house and made a pact that I would have fun, take a bunch of pictures, and not worry about my last picture… and with that, I give you #365 “Happy New Year!” I hope everyone has a wonderful 2011, I can’t wait to see what it has in store for me