UGH...The paint saga continues.....

I just wanted to blog one thing tonight.... I'm so discouraged. The paint I chose for the walls is the wrong color. I'm quite frustrated with myself, not only for the work it took to paint it...but the money I spent. The color is too red...it has a red/pink undertone. It was just a square and you would think I would remember my lesson about that from my kitchen cabinets. UGH! If there is a square(paint chip) and there is no "family of paint colors with it", always always always ask for the color tints that make up that paint chip. So I am back to square one, and the white I chose for the trim was also too bright.... (dayglo white).

I'm just going to let it sit for a few days and come back to this room when I have a clearer head, and perspective. Let this be a lesson for friends, I am not good at picking paint!

Slow and Steady.....

I have to remind myself....slow and steady wins the race. Not like we are trying to win a race or anything. It's just I forget when we are remodeling, that it affects almost every part of the house. I don't know why this is...but when things are in different locations, different rooms, thrown anywhere, I become more overwhelmed. I know people who have remodeled know what I am talking about. It's like you have one room in the house that is tidy, for me it's our homeschool room. It's good for me to visit this room often for my own sanity. Almost every other room becomes a holding place for either remodeling stuff, or a temporary holding place for the things that will go in the remodeled room. Ack!

Good news, we returned some things that we did not need for the room. Some bins that I bought for the shelves were not the correct color (too red). I bought some smaller bins for the kiddos to store their treasures and keepsakes. It will be a good thing! I bought the paint (Antique by Waverly) and also the white trim paint for all the trim work and the closet. We begin painting this evening, and will hopefully be done with the closet tonight. Perhaps Monday I can begin to hang clothes and set up shelves. Dh and I still need to purchase all the trim from Home depot. I guess the trim work will be a project for next weekend. We are replacing the window sill as well. Our windows originally had no trim at all. We think the previous owner added this pre-made trim, and as you can see from the pictures it doesn't meet the window sill. That sticking out bit is in every room, and it's gonna go.

This has been one of the biggest projects for us,(in our new home) and we aren't through yet! After we get the trim up, dh will be making wall cubbies w/hooks to house their sports trophies and their ballcaps. I was hoping to get to some yard sales today to search for a night stand or book shelf in wood to place between the twin beds. And, I have to re-do their ceiling fan. I'm still not sure if I am going to paint it and buy new blades, or just find one on sale somewhere. It's almost easier to do the latter, but if the cost is significantly different, then I'll be painting it.... Here's a photo:

Progress....

The shelves are up in the closet! Woohoo! This is big stuff, and it has been quite a lot of work for dh. We have to prime and paint them white next, so they won't stick out like a sore thumb, when you look in the closet. But they are built, and dh is quite pleased with himself. (As well he should be). I think it helps that he is an engineer and he actually likes to draw to scale, figure out measurements on paper, then mark the wall or wood and measure 3-4 more times and then cut...etc. That would drive me crazy, I have no patience for that kind of detail work. So, I am definitely grateful for his talent in this area.

DH is hoping to have the closet done and the dowel rods up by this weekend. I sure am hoping too, because NOW the clothes are not just in that temporary closet. Since that is a mess, and packed full, the kiddos have begun to use the air hockey table as the place for all clothes that won't fit in the closet. (Now I really don't like to go in that playroom!) Oh how hopeful I am to be able to hang their clothes back up into their closets this weekend.

I have a humorous story to share about my paint selection. As you know I sent dh to the store with the two samples of paint that I liked so we could "audition" them. Those went up on the wall a week ago, and I thought they were a bit dark and they were also very close in color. This evening I took one of the quilts that will go in the room, and went to try to find another paint to audition. I found two that I thought might work. One I felt was pretty close, (Antique by Waverly) and the other I thought, might be dark...but I wanted to see it on the wall anyway...(Khaki by Waverly). So I put the antique on the wall and I ask dh what he thinks. He says, "it looks.... it looks really close to the other colors you have on the wall." Good grief I think.... these ladies are not going to believe that I picked another color so close to the other two! So, as I'm closing up the small paint can, and placing it on the shelf next to the others, I take a look at all my colors so far. Yes, there is Hotel wheat......I remember that one well...and what's this one?..... Antique by Waverly....oh yes, that's what I just put on the wall.... and what's this one...I forget what I picked....? Ummm..... Antique by Waverly? What? I picked the same color twice? LOL! No wonder the color looked so close. I had no idea that I picked the same audition tonight that I had dh get a sample of last week. Can you guess which one we are leaning toward? I guess the one I liked enough to pick twice! Anyway, here are some pictures for you of the closet with shelves and the 3 paint samples. Which one do you like?

Here is a good look at the three colors. One is hotel wheat, one is khaki and one is antique....can you tell which is which? Note the Mountain Dew, dh's favorite drink.


The picture to the right shows a piece of our new wide baseboard molding.






Here is the closet, the wood sticks out like a sore thumb to me when I look at this. But it will all blend nicely, when it is painted. Also the frame and closet doors are not up. The shelves will hardly stick out at all once those pieces are up. Right now they look out of proportion to the closet, but they'll look better when the doors are up. I sure hope I can post a picture of a finished closet soon!

A quiet rain....

What a lovely day. About mid-morning the already grey skies began to quietly rain. Not your hard, wind swept storm that blows in and out quickly. No this was a gentle rain, that all the plants and grass outside desperately needed. It's the kind that sinks into the ground, leaving very little for run off. This is the kind of rain, that I like to listen to.... perhaps open a window to my bedroom, or sit on my front porch and watch the birds search for worms that have made their way up to the surface. Everything seems to slow down here when it rains....and I find that I like it. I have a moment of quiet as the kiddos are at their Tuesday activity. I think I'll take a moment, sip some coffee and watch the rain. These days don't come around too often for me...and I'd like to enjoy it.

Paint- A love/hate relationship.

(I use that title tongue in cheek, as I guess re-reading my post, I really do have that kind of relationship with paint. lol!)

The walls have been primed! Yippee! I have both colors "auditioned" on the wall. Do you think they work? Really.... given my track record... that would be a "NO". I wonder if I am just no good at picking paint. I know I've been called color sensitive .... but you would think I would be so sensitive that I would be able to "see with my eyes" what paint chip color would work, instead of having to audition thousands! (Okay, thousands is a slight exaggeration, perhaps 5....but still!!) I think the color I chose for the walls is too dark. I actually chose two colors, and when I put them up, they look almost identical. LOL! I thought... good grief why did I bother. lol! So, I'm headed back to Lowe's tomorrow to look at some more color chips. Something in like a light brown sugar color would be great.

We selected our baseboard height. Dh brought home a sample and I absolutely love it. Now that is a good thing, because when I remodel, I can have three reactions, "love it", "can't stand it", and "unsure of it" (which is my most dreaded). The fact that I love the baseboard is great. I don't usually waver at all when I give that reaction. It's when I have an "unsure of it" reaction, that dh knows it's gonna probably change. We looked for window and door trim today, but not seeing what we needed, dh said he might have to build it himself. (I didn't even have to tell him). He really does like to build things. :-)

So while dh and I were painting the walls in the kids room, and I said, "I love the smell of paint, it's intoxicating." Dh said, "Yes, the smell of paint means progress". LOL! Oh how true, and he hit the nail right on the head. I guess dh is right, it signals progress on our remodeling. But it also brings a sense of comfort to me, as I think about all the wonderful memories we have made renovating our home.

Spring Flowers....

I miss the flowers that we would normally see about now in this part of the country. After that record setting cold snap here a few weeks ago, everything out in my yard is dead or dying. The poor azaleas are brown, and we'll have to cut back the bushes to save them. The weeping cherry was flowering a beautiful pink before the weather turned. The liriope has turned brown, but it may be coming back to life, as it's quite hard to kill that stuff. My cottage roses are even affected and while they aren't too bad, if I don't see some blooms open in the next week or so, I'm going to prune them as well. The laceleaf maple that was vibrant red is now orange brown, and wilted. I've driven around the neighborhood and all of these miniature trees look like this. But the saddest sight to see has to be my 4 crape myrtle trees. The were pushing forth light green foliage and looking healthy and fresh in the springtime. Now their leaves are shriveled up and brown, hanging limply from twigs that seem to also be drying out. I'm concerned about them, and not sure if I should cut them back, or leave them be. I've read advice to wait a few weeks and new growth should begin to show. I guess I'll wait a couple more weeks and see what happens....so sad. The only thing that looks bright and vibrant in my front yard are my yellow and purple pansies. They didn't seem to be bothered by the cold at all. They stand out amongst all the dreary damaged plants as if cheerfully saying, "We may be small, but that cold didn't bother us a bit!" Notice the sad looking laceleaf maple behind them.

So, I guess this spring is done as far as blooming, and it will be a season of waiting and watching to see what recovers. Since I missed a prolonged bloom time, it has gotten me thinking about container plants. I need a good shot of colorful blooms, so I'm posting some pretty petal pictures for you. I also have a great website that has helped me with my container planting. It shows you a picture of the planted flower container, and then shows you a diagram of each plant and where to plant it. I still use this to get ideas on how to make an outdoor planting arrangement look good. :-)

http://www.fernlea.com/samples/containers/container1.htm

Aren't these flowers gorgeous? I love the old buckets they are arranged in.

Those would look lovely in a few rooms in my house.

The blue and white flowers in the window box are stunning! Can you tell what types of flowers I prefer? All these are beautiful, makes me want to hang some window boxes... eventually.

I think the yellow flowers are coreopsis, or some sort of daisy. I'm not sure and my big book of flowers is not with me at the moment to lo0k them up.

Drywall, Trim, and Closets.... an update.

Well, it's official I have a full fledged cold. UGH! Nothing special to report on the remodeling front. DH is continuing to mud the drywall in the room, and even said we would be ready to paint by the weekend. Shocker! Sure hope the color looks right. We have to prime the walls first, as the color is a darker blue. I haven't even tested my auditions yet. We also plan on replacing the trim, room by room in the house, as we can afford it. Since this room is already disassembled, dh plans of taking off the baseboard molding, and door and window trim before he paints this weekend. I have to go to Lowe's or Home Depot to check out the trim again. I may even have to find a lumber store. Perhaps they have specialty trims that you don't readily find at the big home improvement centers. (I think he may actually have to build the trim for the windows and doors....but I'm not going to share that with him until I know for sure.) Eek! Here's a picture of the new closet position drywalled. Just waiting for the last few coats of mud...and then primer.

One thing you will find as you read about our remodeling......I design it and dh builds it. Can I tell you how blessed I am that this man likes to remodel, and basically will try to build whatever I design? He is truly gifted in getting things done, and while I may have the vision, it is he who helps me bring it to fruition.

So, speaking of design, I have also begun to design the boys closets. I had a brainstorm take hold yesterday... there is a small wall space between the closets. On the inside I am going to have dh build shelves, which I will have made to measure for those canvas fabric bins. This will hold some of their toys animals etc. Then next to the shelves we will double hang dowels rods for their clothes. It will be good to utilize all the closet space we have, leaving very little as wasted space.

It's funny because of all the remodeling we have done since we moved into this house, we remodeled 3 closets this far! You can't really see our progress, as it is all behind closed doors. But this is what I think.... for me, it's gotta be an organized, workable space. This is especially true for closets. I don't know why, but if your closet is workable, then most of your stuff around your house will go to a proper place and the whole house will feel less cluttered. I can't stand to open a closet and have everything be falling out all over the place. I guess I'm a little weird... Currently their clothes are being hung in one closet in the playroom. Their clothes are stuffed in tight, with hangers sticking out all over the place! I somehow have grown into this more organized person over the years, and that closet in there is killing me! I don't even want to look at it! So, the faster the new closets get up and running the better for my sanity! LOL! Here's a photo of the temporary closet! Yikes!

Weeds in the Garden.....

They know, they just know where to grow, how to dupe you, and how to camouflage themselves among the perfectly respectable plants, they just know, and therefore, I've concluded weeds must have brains. ~Dianne Benson, Dirt, 1994

Weeds, weeds weeds.... I probably would not have noticed them, had it not been for baseball season. As I have mentioned in previous posts, it's baseball season, and those of you who have kids who play ball, know how often we find ourselves at the field. My boys are in different leagues, and so are on two teams with quite different schedules. Last week we found ourselves at the ballpark every night of the week, but one. As I drove on our street last night, I noticed nicely manicured lawns, and then I got to my house. The grass would soon be up to the kids knees! I'm sure the neighbors have kept their kids home, because you never know what could be lurking in that grass. :-) So, you could actually tell our family plays baseball, and we've been away from home for many nights.

I called dh today, and was commenting on the grass. He is supposed to go and have a practice session with the kids, like we don't get enough baseball.... So, I mention the grass, and since we are done with work/school for the day, I ask if he can walk me through how to operate the mower. Ever so enthusiastically, because he knows this in the end will help him, dh explains each step to starting and running the mower. So, I hang up with him and get her started, pop her into 3rd and away I go. (Not sure if I should have started in 1st and slid her into 3rd... but I'll ask later). As I'm mowing our large side yard, where the kids play baseball and football, I am noticing how bad it looks. (I guess I don't see it from the road, or I try not to look). Bare patches everywhere, and weeds galore. I don't even know what all the dumb weeds are called, but I know two...onion and clover. I'm just mowing around and around, going over divots of dirt and bumps of grass. We even hired a service to help us get the weeds under control. They have been out once and are due out again, but how discouraging. I read that you shouldn't even seed until fall, so am I going to have to live with it this year? I may just overseed anyway.

So, I am on a mission....to have a beautiful lush lawn in two years. I know it won't get there overnight, but I am determined to work on it! BTW- Isn't this flower bed gorgeous???? I think I would like to plant something like that around a border of my side yard.... beautiful!!

Now the rain comes!

Yes, it's been raining off and on all day and cold! This is some serious fireplace weather today. Too bad we won't be around long enough to sit in front of one. Oh well, its supposed to get up into the 60's this week, so I look forward to that. I indeed woke up with the same nasty sore throat, which I attribute to this cold front we have had. I sure hope I feel better soon!

The room continues to be in demolition mode, only far worse. Just about every tool of dh's is in there. Both of my boys decided to bring up their own tool boxes as well, so add that to the mix. They decided they wanted to build a doghouse out of scrap pieces of drywall, and wood etc. We don't have a dog mind you, but it's for if we ever get one. :-) So lots of mess, and dh should be mudding the drywall he hung. He's planning on fixing a huge section of poorly plastered wall (courtesy of the previous owner). I took a picture of that, so when he fixes it, I'll post both.

I also selected two paint colors at Lowes today and dh is bringing home the little auditions samples. If you haven't heard of auditions it is a great idea at Lowes. Basically it's a little can of the paint you are thinking about, and you can "audition" it onto your walls and see if it works in your room, and with your furnishings. I seem to go through several small auditions until I find the right color for a room. Picking paint is not my forte. I just am so color sensitive, and if the undertones in a color are off, then it won't work for me. A lot of people tell me they can't see that... sometimes I wish that were me, it would make selecting paint easier! I picked my first color pretty quickly, so I am optimistic....but you never know until you see it on the wall and in a room. (Or at least I don't) LOL!

I'll post more after we have painted the room, or when he has the closet door back up. And a big thank you to Susan for sending the HGTV website with instructions on how to plug in a piece of carpet. DH, doesn't know it yet, but that's what we're gonna do. It's free and the piece is almost big enough. I think it will work just fine. So thanks again!

Where is the Rain????

I am so bummed! I can't even believe it. It is not raining! Come on, it said 100% chance! How often do you see that? Unbelievable! So dh just left for ds2's ball game, and I am home with a sore throat from freezing at several of his previous games. The room is in demolition mode. Unfortunately it looks like it will stay there for some time. BTW- I really do seem to set unrealistic goals, which annoys dh to no end. Me: I was hoping to get the entire bedroom done this weekend. DH: You're crazy. Of course this sparked a seemingly never ending debate on realistic and unrealistic remodeling goals. Ay yi yi... no wonder we haven't remodeled in awhile. :)

Here are some photos of the closet area pre-demolition. As you can see the right hand closet has a large heating/cooling duct that takes up half the space. You'd think the builders would have thought of that when they framed everything. Anyway....the closets were just not working, hard to organize, and not user friendly. So dh has taken out the closet doors, molding and framework. He cut into the drywall to the left, shortening the distance between the closet doors. he will then move the framework over, drywall to cover the air duct, re-install the closet frame etc.

Here is a photo of the demolition. (See what I mean about 1/2 the closet being unusable?) The one problem that we will have is the carpet. Moving the closet door over, left a section of floor where there is no carpet. DH said, we can't just throw a piece in there, as you can't "plug" carpet. He wanted to do something with carpet and a threshhold, but I didn't like that much. We came to an agreement to put wood laminate like Pergo or something just in the closet. We'll try to get some at southeastern salvage inexpensively. Eventually I would love to put hardwood all upstairs, but dh said "no way".

Here is another photo the closet. As you can see it sits behind the bedroom door, and there is a dresser in front of it. Hopefully when dh is finished the dresser will sit in front of the drywall, and the closet door will open all the way to a fully usable closet. And one more look at that demo'ed closet. The space from the wood frame in the middle to the white wall on the right (duct) is all the space ds2 had to hang clothes.

It's Gonna Rain! Yippee!

I'm sure you're wondering why in the world I would be so excited about rain. Well, you see we have had a baseball game every night this week except Wednesday. (And Wednesday's we have committments at our church). So, in looking at the weather forecast for Saturday... this is what I saw: 100% chance of RAIN! 100%! I hardly ever see the chance of rain at 100%.

So, I'm talking to dh tonight and we will be planning on what materials we need at Lowes. It's gonna be a work weekend!! I'm so excited! I'll post those "before" pictures of the boys room, maybe tomorrow. (Once I take them of course). We haven't had time for a work on the house weekend in quite some time. So this is gonna be fun! :-) I'll post tomorrow what we plan to accomplish, after we have had time to discuss it. I'm the optomist in this situation and my list is a mile long, where dh is the realist and knocks the thing down to what he feels can actually get done. It's usually not a lot. LOL! Oh well, it's nice to dream isn't it?

Before and After.... or just After....

I just love before and after shots. A picture is worth a thousand words and the comparison between a before and after speaks volumes! Sometimes you just can't believe what something used to look like, and explaining it with words doesn't begin to capture it like a picture would.

The reason I am so big on before shots is because a few years ago in our old home we completely redid our basement laundry area. It was an awful room. All concrete cinder block walls, a worn concrete floor, no ceiling just steel beams, a very old brown furnace, an oil drum (the house was heated by oil), and one hanging light bulb in the middle of the room. That is it..... we jokingly referred to it as the interrogation room. (Too many spy movies). Anyway, we completely re-did that room, and I never took a before picture. I'm kicking myself as the difference was so stark it was unbelievable! I think I may have one photo of dh framing in a wall, but that is it. But I'm going to post these after pictures for you anyway. :-) They are a little dark, as there was no natural light at all, except for one tiny basement window.

The floor we painted taupe and cream in a checkerboard pattern. Dh was doing a demolition and was given a perfectly good and clean drop ceiling. So he installed that with recessed lighting. The piece of furniture is actually an old dresser that I bought from a thrift shop for $10. We got rid of the drawers that didn't work, and put in heavy plywood. The furniture tacked fabric around the base. Inside we stored all our childrens board games. The mirror I also got at a thrift store for $5. The three tall cabinets in the back are from Ikea. The fronts were wood, and I painted them in a creamy color and then antiqued them with a brown glaze.

The picture to the right is of the laundry area. The cabinet above the laundry we bought at Lowes. It was just a plain flat front laundry cabinet. We re-did it with a bead board to give it more of a cottage feel. We also drilled holes for a dowel rod to hang fabric so we could hide the washer hoses. The bench was a find on ebay for $40. The frames I found at Michael's on clearance, and I had my boys (age 3 and 4 at the time) draw pictures of our family so I could frame them. We still have those as precious memories.

The picture to the left is of a magnetic board we made. Dh was working with a sheet metal subcontractor and he gave him a large scrap of metal they were going to pitch. We painted it the same color as the walls. Dh painted the frame the same taupe color as the floor, and then hung it. A few months before we had to have the magnetic strip replaced all around our refrigerator. The repairman asked me if I wanted to keep the magnetic piece. I had no idea what I would do with that, but I kept it. Sure glad I did! I cut it into small pieces and painted it cream. Voila! Magnets to hang the boys artwork and no thumb tacks for them to step on or get poked with. We had to leave almost all of my laundry room behind when we moved....what a bummer.

So now you see why I wish I had a before picture? Just picture a room with all concrete and cinder block, no ceiling, and one bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling. Bleck! :-) Lesson learned: I'll be sure to get my camera out before we start any new renovations.

So many ideas...so little time!

I have so many ideas floating around in my head for our home.... there is never time to "do" anything though! For instance after seeing one woman's awesome remodeling in a cottage style, I knew I wanted to start focusing on more detail oriented stuff. I have not liked our molding from the moment we moved into our house, and dh hasn't either...though he could live with it. (He could live with anything, if you ask me). Anyway, today I mentioned to dh that I wanted us to replace all the trim around the doors and windows. His response to me.....

"I'll show you how to use the miter saw..." Ha! Very funny. :-) So I found out that the cottage look I want to add to the windows and doors doesn't even require a miter cut...Cool that should be easier!

Anyway, I was thinking to myself that our current home is definitely not a fixer upper as our first home was. It's pretty decent and liveable, but I am desiring to make it more "mine". Do you know what I mean? This home has all the paint decor etc from the previous owner, and I like it, but I just want some more of me in there. Sometimes I still feel like I'm living in her house, and we've been here almost a year. So the renovations will be starting just as soon as baseball season is over. And for those of you who have kids in baseball, you know what I am talking about!

Back to my musings on our non-fixer upper. Well it led me to go back and find pictures of our old house, and post some of them on here. Our old house was a 70's style decor that was dark and awful. Here is a photo of the kitchen cabinets from when we first bought it.



The face fronts had a crisscross pattern routed into them with a diamond in the middle in a peach color. In the middle of the diamond were these awful brass knockers. The backsplash was that hard linoleum like stuff in a peachy yellow. The peninsula was hand built by the previous owner with scraps of leftover wood. It was the worst construction!

This is a photo of our kitchen right before we sold the house. Had we stayed, hardwood floors were definitely going in there. But since we were moving, we left it as it was. The new owner put hardwood in anyway....which I was happy about!



The wall color is called Toasted Almond by American traditions at Lowes. (I think it's American Traditions) The color on the cabinets is called creamy by Sherwin Williams. That color took forever for me to find. I had those cabinets painted (22 of them!) and when I was done the color I had chosen was a bit too yellow. I tried to work with it, but dh knows me, and said "Jackie, you are not going to be happy until you re-paint those". I chose the Creamy color after looking and debating a LONG time. We filled the routing on the cabinets with a hard expoxy, and then put a skim coat of mud on them, to smooth them out. It was the most economical way to get flat front cabinets without buying new. (Which we couldn't afford). Instead of applying a varnish to seal them (they would yellow), we sprayed them with an acrylic clear coat spray and they wiped down beautifully! DH built the island and we bought that laminate top to match what we already had, again because of cost.

I still love to look at that kitchen!

A New Journey

Well, I have finally taken the plunge and decided to start blogging. I have several friends who blog about many different subjects.... but I came across a blog recently all about remodeling. It's one of my passions, and I knew it would be the central theme of a new blogging endeavor. I love cottage decorating, as it can often be done on a shoestring budget, utilizing yard sales, flea markets and antique shops! I love cottage roses and our house has several large knockout shrub rose bushes flanking the front porch. Their simple beauty is what I love, and I hope to remodel the inside of our home with that same lovely charm.