A Farewell

I've been quiet the last four years on this blog, because we were too busy doing to write about it. But earlier this year, the time came to say goodbye to our beloved little Practice House. It sold in four days, for more than I would ever have imagined back when I started this blog. All those years of frustration and improvising culminated in a home we were truly proud of and ready to pass on to the next person who needed it. Plus, it's where we honed our skills that have given us confidence to tackle our "new" house, which needed basically total renovation when we found it.

Thank you, Practice House. I honestly miss you a little bit, even though we love where we are now. I miss my bedroom and that beautiful bathroom. I miss our neighbors. And I miss living in a house that was completely done for one hot minute. ;)

Here are the photos we took for the listing.

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. :)