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.

Yes. This.

I've been working on a few posts, and none of them seem to be coming together. And then I read this today and it was exactly what I've been trying to get out unsuccessfully. Thank you, Nester, for challenging and inspiring, and allowing us to embrace the imperfections of the process of making our homes. Read and enjoy!

The Decorating Truths You Won’t See on HGTV

Cornered

I have returned! With my new spot!

My desk area has really come along in the last couple of weeks. We picked up this desk from Ikea, and I am loving it. This is now my little haven. I blog, read, study, edit photos, pay the bills, and of course, surf Pinterest here. I now have a place for all my things. I've been organizing paperwork and I'm like a superstar now in my filing. Having a desk gives you skillz, ya'll. Mad skillz.

So, photos:

I moved some stuff around on the walls. Here are three free prints I got off Pinterest. You can find them here, here and here. I was afraid they would feel too cluttered here, but once I got them up, they made me quite happy. Frames from Ikea.

My plant is much happier now that it has lots of sunlight.

This lamp is another Goodwill treasure! $7! I had been looking for this style all over. They're pretty popular right now, but they were always more than I wanted to pay. Thank you Goodwill!

The bronze pheasant paperweight was also from my Goodwill. The slab of wood is from Marshall's. I use it to rest my drink. Cheaper than coasters!

Lots of space for my stuff. There are two drawers. One is for office stuff and papers and the other is for my photo accessories.

The little wall to the right of my desk was why it took me so long to blog about this. I knew I wanted it to be a gallery wall, but things like that take me forever to put together. I ended up with a cork board that I painted with craft paint, to keep all my favorite notes and things right where I can see them. 

I wrote a verse on a canvas. I plan to make a few of these and rotate them every now and then.

Added a photo and colorful art (source).  Frames from Ikea.

I had the 11 x 17 frame on hand. I picked it up at (you guessed it) the Goodwill store, but they are still at Target too. We are lucky to have a Goodwill store very close to a Target, so there is often overstock merchandise available, still in the package. I also had a Life book, "Wonders of the World", that I picked up at Half Price Bookstore, which had a few 8 x 10 removable photos inside. Instant, cheap artwork (and a great coffee table book)! I used the Grand Canyon one, because it reminded me of my dad.

I still need a chair. The kitchen one isn't very comfortable for long periods of time. I like the look of acrylic ones, but I'm not sure that would be any more comfortable. I'll probably look around during garage sale season.

So, there she is! A happy, organized little corner just for me. :)