The Summer Job

Summer's coming, ya'll.

This is our last week of school. Granted, we do some school all year round, but the summer load is lighter, shorter, and there are more breaks to be had. And "breaks" mean "working on the house". It's going to be interesting to see if we can do it all. Seth starts paramedic school in a few weeks, so it will mean no more 24 on/48 off hours for about a year. Instead, he'll be doing ten hour days Monday-Thursday. So, we'll still have three day weekends (for the most part), so hopefully we don't waste those.

I have made an epic list of hopeful things to get done before August.

I'm going to print this sucker out, attach it to the fridge, and hopefully start crossing things out soon. I'm really excited to tackle some of these. I used to dread projects, but now I'm starting to feel more confident about them. Seth's work in the basement has really shown me that we can do things ourselves, especially when we have a little time and money. And since we can't take a vacation this year because of paramedic school, we have a little extra cash to do some things. I'm pumped.

Let's do this!

A Grown Up Master Bedroom (like, organized and stuff even)

Pain(t) Week: Part Deux is over.

Finally.

And much like the first Pain(t) Week, I got far less done than I had originally hoped.

I did not paint the bathroom.
Or Homegirl's room.
Or the hallway.
Or the touch up living room paint.
Or the front door.

Nor did I do much homeschooling.

BUT, all things considered, it was a wildly successful week.

Seth painted the basement ceiling--I'm saving photos of that for a basement post. Just trust me when I say it looks a billion times better than just a few months ago!

And, we did a total makeover of our bedroom.

Here's where we started. It was in dire need. This was probably the must underutilized and overstuffed room in the house, and it was sorely lacking in organization and style. In fact, it had no style at all.

And, it was always a mess. Always.

My haven it was not.

The first step was to empty the room. Those of you with small houses can appreciate what happens when you move all the contents of one room into another room. Chaos.

The kids thought it was the greatest thing ever, and I must admit that watching our shows at night was kinda comfy on that massive couch/bed. Ya know, if I just ignored the claustrophobia.

Step one (the longest, most arduous step) was to paint the ceiling, walls, and floor. Thankfully, it's a small room, but it still took more than three days to get it all done.

For the bed wall, I wanted to do a bold, dark, or moody color. If you follow me on Pinterest, you know I'm in to navies, greens, and dark grays. So I picked a sample of each. All of my paints are Valspar from Lowe's.

I love Everglade Deck. In person it is so rich and jewel-colored. But it wasn't right for this room. Rugged Suede is a shade darker than the floor color, and I ended up using it on some accent pieces. You can't really see the difference between it and the floor color. So the winner was Royal Navy.

Confession: I can't paint straight lines, even when I tape.

You can see how weird our walls are--rectangles everywhere from when they put the plaster up. I thought it would be even more noticeable with the dark color, but thankfully, they seem about the same. Noticeable, but whatever. That's not a fix I really want to get into right now. Somewhere down the line, we may put up planks, but for now, living with imperfection is the name of the game.

I am really digging the gray floors. Before, they were off white, and chips were blatantly obvious. Plus, it had yellowed from the polyurethane. The gray gives off a classy, modern farmhouse vibe. It's the same gray I used on the kitchen cabinets.

Step two was storage solutions. I scoured Craigslist for awhile looking for a long dresser. I wanted something either french provincial or modern and straight. I know, total opposite styles, but I like them both. I finally found one that needed some work (ya know, like a back) that had a shape I liked and a sweet price.

Originally, I was planning to paint it, but I ended up just giving it a thorough cleaning and a light sanding. I liked the wood color's contrast with the gray. I still need to do something to the top of it though, b/c there's a stain, but I'm not really sure what I'll settle on. For now, I live with the big white spot on it.

The closet also needed some attention. Before, all we had in here was a bar and a dresser. The dresser got the boot, and Seth added a shelf, three cube organizers, and four drawers.

I'm happy to report that between the dresser, the closet, and the under the bed shoe storage, all our clothes fit! (Especially after I purged a couple bags full ;) )

The final step to getting it move in ready was window and bed dressing. In the morning, this room is BRIGHT and I was tired of the sun piercing my retinas at 7 am. I envisioned a layered look, so we started with bamboo shades from Lowes, and then we hung five dollar twin sheets from Wal-Mart extra high to add some drama.

For the bed, all I did was paint our headboard (which is an old closet door) in Rugged Suede. The duvet cover is from Ikea. I still need to add an accent to the bed, but it's super comfy all the same. A real blogger would iron her pillowcases, but I am who I am.

The rug is a "for now" solution. It's the old one from our living room, which I had just left under the gray living room rug for a year. It's a little worn and not the right shape, but it's the right color and it protects the floor, which is all we needed for now. Eventually we'll probably get a new one, but I had already spent so much on the windows and closet stuff, that I was relieved to not have to buy a rug right now too!

So that's the room for now! Of course, we still have lighting, artwork, and a couple other pieces to figure out. And quarter round on the baseboards and a vent cover. And hang curtains in the closet. And I need to paint the door. And hem the curtains.

Ok, sheesh! There's still a lot to do!

BUT, we're a lot further than we were a week ago. And I have my living room back. So, all is well. :)

Pain(t) Week: Part Deux

It's happening again. Next week, the paint cans will be cracked open, furniture will be moved, chaos will ensue.

I'm even more ambitious than last time. Things to be painted are:

The bathroom walls, ceiling and beadboard
The master bedroom walls, ceiling, and floor
Homegirl's bedroom walls, ceiling, and floor (I know, I just did this about two years ago. But I'm trying to make it more cohesive with the rest of the house.)
The hallway walls (already partially done) and doors
The basement playroom ceiling and hopefully walls too.
Maybe the front door.
Might as well touch up the living room and caulk while I'm at it.

There's also some furniture to be done and some trim to install, and I have some ideas about doing some accent walls in the bedrooms. The good thing about this time is that Seth will be home almost all week and I won't be going at this alone. Another good thing is that, except for the basement, the rooms are relatively small. The downside is I'm still planning to do school at the same time, so I'm going to need some energy and time management. And a miracle.

Seth has gotten a really good start on the basement. It's been sort of an ugly disaster for most of the years we've lived here. But last month, he tore down the disintegrating ceiling tiles and installed a beautiful drywall ceiling, even adding two more pot lights! I'm really proud of him. His brother helped him for some of it, but he did a lot of the work himself. I'll have to go through my pictures and get some lined up for a post. It's still in limbo/disaster mode, but it's brighter and the ceiling looks great!

The goal of all this is to hopefully have a house tour on this blog by summertime, at least of the first floor. And also, I'm tired of having a master bedroom that looks like this:

Embarrassing. You can't even really see the clothes all over the floor and the paint swatches on the walls. The master bedroom always seems to get neglected for the more public rooms, but I want a haven. I'm really jazzed about my plans in here!

Wet Paint

Yay, Saturday! The day when I can paint all day and FINALLY finish the "wet" parts of my kitchen refresh.

Two...or wait, three?...weeks ago I started with this: worn, bland, dirty cabinets, and countertops that were in desperate need of attention.

Photos just don't do it justice.

Armed with my new favorite, whole house white (Valspar's Du Jour), I went to work on the uppers. They were actually quite easy after a good scrubbing, since painting white over off white doesn't take a million coats. For the lower cabinets, I was thinking gray. I'd picked up a little test pot of Valspar's Cathedral Stone from Lowe's, and had liked how it tested in the various lighting of our kitchen. Being the impatient DIYer that I am, and being snowed in, sick, and cheap, I decided to just paint with the test pot. I was very surprised to find that I could paint all my lower cabinets using JUST THAT TINY POT. It was like the Bible story about the widow's jar of oil that always had enough. #tinyhouseforthewin

Here you can see the fresh bright "Du Jour" against the old, dingy "Country White". It's not a huge difference, I admit, but on the other hand, it's like, a huge difference.

The countertops look and feel a billion times better now.

Today, after a week and a half of being halfway done, I finally finished painting and sealed everything to make it easy to wipe down. Huge sigh of relief.

I love the smell of polyurethane in the morning. It smells like success.

I do have a few more tweaks that will involve paint (of course) and hardware, but the big, take-over-the-space painting is done. Holla.

So now comes the fun part--styling.

And cleaning.

Pain(t) Week Update

I'm so glad ya'll know me and that this is a safe space. When I say I'm going to paint a bunch of things in a week, you all look at me with a side glance and say, "Uh huh, sure ya are." And none of you get your hopes up like I do in my senseless ambition.

Last week was busy. And full of unpleasant surprises like extremely expensive dental emergencies that made our bank account chortle when I suggested buying more paint.

And then we all got sick.

BUT, out of that loooong list of hopeful projects, two of them are almost done. So there's that! I've extended the week into this one too (while adding light school and lots of Kleenex). Hey, maybe even next week. And the week after. Who knows!

I do have one small photo token to dangle in front of you to prove that I'm doing things.

I'm still working on the uppers. And then I have to put some poly over everything for added protection. But the gray really classes up the joint!

Pain(t) Week

I feel sort of like a war correspondent, feverishly writing a hasty article while hunkered down in my shabby bunker with debris and destruction all around me.

My house is a war zone this week.

We needed a break from school. Like, desperately. And things needed painted. Also desperately. So, I decided that instead of trying to spread out my jobs over a sensible period of time, I'm going to throw the house into chaos and do as many of them as I can this week. There are so many little things that need finishing up. So many painting jobs that are *almost* done. So many test colors on various walls that have been there for over year. It's beyond time to deal.

Here are the list of things, in random order, that I'd like to do. I'm not going to try to kill myself to get through the list, but I do want to wrap up as many as I can.

Paint the hallway ceiling, walls and doors to match the rest of the updated white.
Paint the cabinets and fix up the countertops in the kitchen.
Caulk all the things.
Touch up the bathroom paint and put up trim and baseboards.
Paint the master ceiling, walls, and floor.
Touch up paint where Homegirl has posted artwork.
Paint Homegirl's headboard that I've had in the basement for eons.
Raise the curtains in the living room.
Hang curtains in the kids' rooms.

That should set me up for some future updates, like a total master redo and some freshening up in the kids' rooms. I know this list is ambitious, especially for me. But onward I go.

I'm trying to remember to take pictures of the befores, durings, and afters. There WILL be afters, so help me!

I think my first coat is dry now. Back to the grind.

Resurrection

I come to you humbly, with my head bowed low in shame.

I have been a bad blogger and left this little nook in the internet to blow in the virtual wind.

The truth is, I have plenty of valid reasons for my avoidance, but you didn't come here looking for excuses.

So, I say to thee, I am sorry from the depths of my soul for my abandonment.

"I say this on my knees, Jacob Marley."

Anyway, so that's out of the way. Onward.

It's 2015, ya'll. New year. New resolutions. New chances to fail at said resolutions. But optimism reigns in my heart. I feel like I didn't do much last year, but when I look around the house, I see things that have changed, and that's encouraging. The biggest was painting the living room and kitchen, and those were huge jobs, so it's nice to have those mostly behind me. And while nothing, absolutely nothing feels finished, I need to focus on the progress for my own mental health and not worry so much about the completion.

Projects I'd like to do this year: master bedroom makeover, kitchen cabinet and counter improvements, repaint bathroom and finish all the details, new tile or surround in the shower, finish painting the hallway, update light fixtures that are currently naked, new drywall ceiling and new floor in the basement, new floor and updates in the laundry room, and improvements in the kids' bedrooms. I'd also love a new fence, new siding, and a prettier backyard.

So, yeah. I think that covers everything. Like, the whole property.

I know we won't be able to do it all, but I like having a list. Gives me something to shoot for.

Now, if I could only find the time and the motivation to do. My main focus right now has to be school, and we're doing okay in that arena, but by the time we're finished each day, I feel drained and mentally spent. The last thing I feel like doing is picking up a paintbrush or purging a closet. It's so much easier to just pin things on Pinterest instead. But hopefully, the opportunities will arise, and, hopefully, I'll have the sense and fortitude to take them.

And, hopefully, I won't let six months go by without blogging about it.