Nostalgia? Really?

Well, the work aspect of our house project journey is finally over. I feel strange, honestly. We've spent so long preparing for this moment, it's unbelievable that it's finally here.

I've chronicled much of this journey on my Facebook page, under the album The House Project. But, I wanted to take this moment to show the before and after pictures for each room. I recently read a book called The Year of Fog, by Michelle Richmond. The book is about the search for a little girl named Emma, as told through her soon-to-be step-mother's eyes. Abby, the step-mom, is a photographer by trade, and her reflections on the medium of photography and its capacity for truth really stuck with me. Here is one of my favorite lines:

Maybe that's one reason I'm drawn to the medium of photography. Unless a photo has been doctored, if something appears in a photo, it was really there. It's a version of history you can trust, even if it's just history as seen through one person's eyes. Despite the inevitable element of distortion, despite the difference between what the eye sees and what the camera records, a photograph is still evidence, a historical record, a frozen moment whose physical veracity is more accurate than memory.

THIS is why I have spent so much time taking pictures, cataloging our every step in this grand journey. It is so easy to forget where it all started, and all of the little steps in between. Because we did (almost) all of the work ourselves, it has been a slow process. We have lived step by step, piece by piece, watching our hard work come together.

But, I know that if I hadn't taken all of these photographs, I would have easily forgotten how far we have come. We have lived with so many of these changes for so long that it just seems like they have always been there. It is so easy to forget.

Anyway, I hope you get a kick out of these. I sure am just looking back through them.