The October Goal - Finished!

Ok, so it is nearly the end of November, but I am happy to exclaim that the October goal to paint a portion of the living room is done! Finished! Yay!

I am really, really happy with it.

I messed around with some brownish-tan colors. I wanted a shade darker than the "brown teepee" that we have settled on for the neutral throughout the first floor. But they all seemed icky and weird. Or not darker. I needed something that would go with the neutral but compliment the grey in the dining room (diagonal and not directly attached the living room), the remaining "white" in the living room/kitchen, the green in the foyer (that is growing on me - AB likes it - I was iffy for awhile). I didn't want to pull the grey into the living room, but that was starting to look like an option.

I finally went and bought some browns that were so way darker than everything else and then we had the difficult task of narrowing down the choice because we - surprisingly - liked them all.

So it is dark. It is chocolate-esque.

And I love it.

The area over the couch still needs something - it is a very large brown space. But that is the fun part! Getting to look for art on our future trips to fill in the space. I don't have a burning desire to fill it in now. I can wait - and I often do wait - until I find the PERFECT pieces for us.

Happy happy!

December Goal? Survive and make Christmas.

A brand new half bath

The last touch to the bathroom was finished this past week - crown moulding! I loved the way the hotel room we stayed at in Palm Springs used dark crown moulding at the intersection of the walls and the ceiling. So I stole the idea for my bathroom makeover.


The crown moulding at Home Depot - you know the stuff labelled crown moulding was wide. Too wide, in my opinion for my little half bath. So I found some trim I liked instead and painted it.

Then I bought some new accessories - towel and soap pump shown here and finished the room off. I love the mirror in this room - it came with the house.

This is an awful crooked picture below, but it shows the toilet paper/flower pot thingy that I bought (that AB laughs at). You can also see the green color that has to go at some point.

Yay! I am really happy with how the half bath came out. February goal was a success!

I can't say much for March yet... I bought a few hooks for the closet to hang my belts and shawls/scarves. We will claim 10% complete on the status of the closet. By the end of the day if I am lucky I might be able to see the floor. I can't claim any status on the quilt - not even a trip to the fabric store to buy the supplies. Though we are slowly working our way through the freezer... last night we had both sturgeon and salmon from the freezer - and it was delicious.

Tonight we are having paella... of which nothing came from the freezer. Oh well.

July Goals

My goal for the month of July is to decide on a design tactic for my dining room. I have no intention of tackling the decorating in July - just too much going on - I just want to have a strategy in mind.

Part of that strategy allows for time to convince AB of my plan!

In no way did I expect to have this complete by July 4th.

Ok, so it isn't totally complete as in paint this color and start here and stop here.

Nope, my first goal was to convince AB that the dining room needed to be addressed. Thanks to my sister in law, who has been residing with us for a few months now, this became a little easier.

"Well we actually have been using the room a fair amount, that makes it easier to justify" AB relented way too easily. "What were you thinking?"

"Slate," I replied.

AB's eyebrows raised in an intrigued manner.

"With some sort of light neutral, like a tan or something, just a bit darker than the off-white that is already here, something close to the color in the coffer," I went on enthused by the lack of puking noises on his part.

"What would you paint?" he asked.

"The wall with the buffet, the wall with the arch and maybe the stairs wall," I replied.

"Well you probably would want to hit some in the coffer I think," he goes on. (This is going well... maybe we can do this!"

"And in an ideal world we would dump the light fixture and the curtains too," I said seeing my chance.

"Really?" AB said, "but I thought those were your favorite things in the house?" He joked. "What do you think of doing it in one of the textured paints?"

Ok, so maybe we haven't been through the hardest part yet, selecting the actual colors... but I am making up for only having four recipes written out from June's goal!

The Foyer

So I have decided to get back to my one room a month routine. One month I will tackle putting together, organizing and setting up a room. I keep telling myself this will take forever and I would like to be "in" the house, fully IN our new house earlier. But it's not going to happen. It's just not a logical approach (yes, I am part Vulcan apparently... and if you haven't seen Star Trek, go see it. Now.). The one room a month IS logical and will get me further on my path to being IN the house and also it engages AB better because he knows whiat the priority for the month is.

The remainder of May (since I just started this) and all of June is the foyer. It doesn't sound like a lot, it isn't a huge area, but it is the first area people see when they walk in my house. And I have ideas and plans to put into motion.

The post from a few weeks ago is where I started.

Here it is during the Memorial Day weekend paint-fest:



Skadi loved painting and she was terribly helpful. When she decided she was done she had two green feet - and I had more paint on me than she had on her favorite "Icky Mouse" pajamas.

And here is where it stands now:

Favorite black and white pictures are up.

I have a great mirror to hang perpindicular to the pictures, but AB lifted it up, chastized me a little for thinking I was going to use nails and suggested he was going to need anchors and screws (same as in the other house I guess) to mount it and he didn't have time today. So the next task is to hang the mirror.

Next task after that is the touch up stuff. I have a lot of green edges to touch up.

And white on the ceiling... somehow.... somewhere I will find a white that matches. Yes, I am a klutz with the paint and am apparently no longer allowed to tape the ceiling... or paint near the ceiling.

I also want a bench. A nice bench to put under the photos. I had wanted a bench and coat hanging thing, but we don't use the front entrance to go in and out and we have a coat closet *right* there. So instead I will get a bench.

And maybe a side table to put across the arch in the photo above by the coat closet?

Yes, with it being summer and all, it WILL take me all of June to do this list.

Month of July is Leif's Star Wars themed room. Goal is to have THAT done before his birthday on July 29th.

Our new house...

Great curb appeal. A corner lot. You can't see the waterfall, but there is a waterfall - that will be AB's responsibility. I am going to have my hands full in maintaining the fabulous foliage.

The bathtub and one of the two vanities in the Master bath. What you don't see here is the very small, ugly shower that AB is going to make a priority to do something with. We each have our things - I want new floors in the entry room areas, he wants a "real" shower.

The bonus room. Someone came in and painted because the red wall was not there. Note the ceiling fans - every room has a ceiling fan, which is kind of neat!

Family room below the bonus room and open to the kitchen. Note though that the doors on the right hand side are the only doors that access the back yard from the house. This is a weird location since you have to walk through the family room to get to the BBQ area - and it is the BBQ area since there is propane plumbed there.

The kitchen. The previous owner had obviously started to upgrade the house and started in the kitchen. It is an awesome kitchen. I would like to try and fit an island in there. And I am already neurosing on the fridge opening. All the appliances are Kitchen Aid - so presumably there was a Kitchen Aid fridge in there at one point? AB measured the opening and it was 40" - he swears. But there are no 40" fridges - they are 36" or some select 42". And there is a Kitchen Aid 42" (well 41.25") fridge... did AB measure right?

Check out the 6 burner gas range - AB is looking forward to that beast. I am not so thrilled with the knobs on the front in a home with small children, but oh well. More knob covers.

The early 90's style formal dining room in a home built in 2000. That will be changing.

Side view. The room over the garage will be Leif's. You would think it was a bonus room, but the bonus room is on the other side of the house. The entire area over the smaller garage is the closet for that room. That closet *may* be bigger than the Master closet. It's a playroom in its own right.

Oh and if you haven't figured it out yet? Yes, our offer was accepted.

Cold turkey

I am not, will not, can not go shopping tomorrow.

I do not want to hear about great deals at stores. No deep discounts. No 75% off. No way no how.

Can't do it.

The patio

Seriously we love it. Everytime I walk out there I love it even more.

It feels so good to actually be happy about money spent on a home improvement!

Welcome to my sanctuary

For at least the next five hours before it is reinundated with kids bath toys, AB's clothes and little boy underwear.

Bathrooms are hard to photograph, so bear with me. And don't pay attention to any little blobs of paint, I am off to touch up after I post these, but I didn't want to wait.

Here is the entry to the Master Suite:

Look to the left and that's our Master bath. The closet is the archway to the right.

Ok, so one thing I am still not fond of is the maple cabinetry and trim. If *I* was planning to be in the house long term, then *I* would paint the trim antique white.



The shower area. AB still has to attach the new trim. He has it cut, but I insisted on painting before attaching trim. He will get to it after making spaghetti sauce, fertilizing the yard, dealing with hundreds of ripe nectarines and fixing dinner. (Yes, I am the one sitting here blogging...)


For posterity purposes... before it is littered with bath toys and various tints of bathwater and bubbles. It is calling my name... with a glass of wine... maybe the kids can bathe one more night in the small tub...