Family Room Progress [Southlake Photographer]

Okay, yes, I know this is not a home decor blog. And yes, I know I've stated that before. But this post is relevant to photography, I swear..... Bare with me.

When we did our final walk through of our home, with the inspector, I took my camera and photographed EVERYTHING. Every room of the house, layouts, right down to the light fixtures and the hardware on cabinets. It was sort of my virtual check list so I could remember all of the things I wanted to work on. I'm so happy my super organized OCD self did such a thing, because now I have my very own time capsule. I LOVE looking back at these pictures and seeing all the progress we've made. We bought a house that was in great condition and had amazing bones. However, it was super dated. We changed the wall color in EVERY room, and made a long laundry list of things we wanted to do. Some things we updated when we first moved in, others have been slow, slight changes over the 2 years. The latter makes it hard to really see how much of an impact we've made on our space. So every so often it's cool to take a step back, look at these images and say, "Wow, we really have transformed this place." I mean, aren't photographs AMAZING!?

A couple of very short months after we moved in, we welcomed Alivia into this world, and into our new abode! I remember taking a picture of her or Caden lying on the floor and thinking "Ugh I hate the wall color!" I was so caught up on the decor I wa actually hesitant to do anything with those pictures. Now, looking back, I LOVE those images so much more. I will glance through an album I've made and say, "Oh look! remember when our fireplace was still orange?!" Nostalgia man. It's a great, romantic, beautiful feeling.

Cut to 2 years down the line and that little nugget is now a full fledged toddler chilling on that same family room floor. Her current obsesssion is listening to the Cinderella soundtrack. She just puts that album on repeat and lays on the floor tapping her toes and letting the beat in. And as much as I'd like to say I can close my eyes and picture these moments, the truth is my brain is fuzzy. It remembers the general moment, but I have to squint really hard to get the picture in focus. That's when I turn to these pictures.

I know that clients are hesitant to book in home sessions for this very same reason. They haven't had time to decorate, they want new furniture, and they have this idea in their head that in order to photograph something it needs to look perfect. The opposite couldn't be more true! You want to preserve these memories, and remember when your walls were a crazy shade of yellow with an orange and pink fireplace.

Also, I'm of the mindset that our family room will never be "finished." We want a couch that actually fits the layout and other various small projects (my husband of course wants a bigger tv. men.) I mean, every time I look at Pinterest I think we should scrap the whole room and start over (evil temptress Pinterest). But as I wait patiently to tackle these projects I'm going to breathe deeply and focus on the days spent in them. And not be afraid to pull out my camera because there's 3 baskets of laundry piled high in the background.

And just for your viewing pleasure, more progress pictures of the family room as we continue to piece it all together. This before and after just makes me giggly and happy.

This was what the house looked like we when toured it: