We hate painting, but...

You have to admit it makes the biggest difference.  And you're always glad when it's over.
The mudroom (we believe) was last painted in the 1940s.  It spent something like 50 years as the kitchen, and it doesn't appear the walls were ever washed.  Don't think about that too much.  The last owner was a smoker.  Don't think about that either.

Here's the creative reinventor making an enormous difference.

Thus inspired, he kept going.

Getting rid of the hospital green has always been a dream.

We've had a mistint tin of this lovely, buttery, sunshiney yellow for a while.
When the plumbers put in our inside toilet they had to dig up some of our (admittedly dodgy) concrete.  Mostly that bit of the back verandah has been home to firewood or packs of insulation.

Once we'd cleaned out all the rubbish and rubble, and painted the wall behind it, we put some plants in.

So now we have a little garden right at the back door.