Fabulous Paint

Painting has officially started. This is my first stamp of making my new house my new home. It is such a good feeling!

With the help of Pinterest, I was able to get an idea of what I wanted. Some of those colors changed because of budget and because of how they looked on the wall.

So what did I pick? Well, like many people, I am obsessed with Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter. I love the color, but my wallet wouldn't have loved the hit. So I found a Behr color that is quite similar. Sculptor Clay will be used in my entryway, hallway, family room, up the stairs and upstairs hallway. It is quite a bit of space. I can't wait to see what it looks like all finished.

I wanted a dramatic color for my dining room. The room has a chair rail, so I could go with a dark color without the room feeling like a hole. I did stick to my guns on this color. At first I thought the color looked muddy, but Kendall Charcoal is going to be a great dark gray.

Because of the chair rail and that the room opens up from my living room, I wanted a nice creamy white to complement the dark gray color. I found that in Coastal Beige. It sounds like it would be too brown, but it is a beautiful cream color that will look great in the living room.

Upstairs is where I was able to be a little more colorful. I found a great duvet cover from Pottery Barn, so to go along with that I chose a Pottery Barn color from Sherwin Williams called Naval.

Pinterest heavily influenced my choice for my work-from-home office. I wanted something similar to a Tiffany Blue, but not that intense. One color kept popping up over and over again - Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue. It is such a pretty color.

The last room to be painted for the moment is my craft room. This room is my creative space, but it is also going to be my personal office. So I wanted something that was calming and happy. I choose a light purple by Behr called Hint of Violet.

I didn't want a stark white for my closets, so I chose a color that I had originally picked for the living room. It was not a creamy white like I wanted, but it would work perfectly inside the closets. It is Behr Silky White.

Picking out pain can be nerve wracking. I wanted to pick the right colors that I would be happy with for a long time to come. But I think I chose well and picked some great colors for my home.

Oh Happy Day!!

Sanpshots Into My Life

What I am seeing through my lens this week.

My mom and I placed an Easter cross by my dad's grave. There is something strangely comforting about being able to dress up the place where my dad's earthly body lies.

Yes, we are in April. And yes, we did get snow this week. Hopefully this was the last little bit of winter for a long while.

A possible light fixture for the entryway??

These crazy girls were watching my mom outside. Checking things out to make sure they didn't need to bark at anything or anyone.

No more wallpaper!!! So exciting! We used a steamer to do the other 3 walls and it went so much faster. 

Good Friday

The War Against Wallpaper

I hate wallpaper. Or actually I hate taking wallpaper off the wall. My family room had two layers of wallpaper on it. The top layer came off very easily since it was attached to the bottom layer of wallpaper. The second layer is putting up more of a fight.

The wallpaper was probably put up when the house was built. It does has some lovely scenes of places like Monticello.

I hired a painter this week and he will be starting on Saturday, so my mom and I are feverishly working to get the wallpaper off. I have a sneaking feeling that those walls will need to be skim coated because of some damage spots.

The whole process is pretty gross. I bought DIF to help with the removal process. We scored and sprayed and scored some more and sprayed some more. Some of the pieces came off in bigger chunks, but most were scraped away.

By the end of the night, we had one wall free of the ugly wallpaper. This room is going to have a great transformation and I can't wait to see it finished. I have the vision in my head, so I hope it turns out the way I see it.

All the work on removing wallpaper really takes a toll on my hands. After this process is done, I think my mom and I deserve a manicure!

Frumpy Family Room

The fun of homeownership has begun! This weekend, my mom and I started working on my new house. The more I am in the house, the more projects I see. We had such good intentions of cleaning the walls to get ready for painting. But that didn't go as planned. I am not sure what kind of paint is on the wall, but it doesn't want to let go of the yuck that is on it.

So we moved to a project we could do...tearing down wallpaper. At least one layer. That's right...2 layers of wallpaper. Why do people do that?

Thankfully, the first layer came off pretty easily and we were able to get most of it off except that pieces near the ceiling. Progress none the less.

Most of the walls in the downstairs bear evidence to the shape of the things that were previously hanging. It is pretty gross! And it is the yuck that won't come off.

There is quite a bit of wallpaper in the house, so is isn't going to be the last of it. But there was also contact paper behind the built-ins. Yuck, yuck, yuck!

The carpet is another story. It is disgusting. The brown carpet has faded into an orangy-brown color. I wouldn't sit on it to save my life. It give me the creeps.

But the new carpet has been ordered! I am super excited about it. It is going to freshen up that space so much. Welcome to Modern Gray! I was going to the color just to the right of Modern Gray, but decided that it was too dark. The house just feels tired. It needs a little life brought into it and I am excited to do that.

I am thrilled to have my own home and am so anxious to move in and settled. But there are some things, like the family room that need to be done before I can even think about moving in. Slowly, but surely everything else will fall into place. Just one step at a time.

Bittersweet

Life has been unbelievably stressful the last few weeks.

Last week, my uncle passed away. He was 86 years old and my dad's oldest brother. My aunt, my dad's sister, is the only one left of 9 children. Although my uncle lived a long life, it was still hard. I know what it is like to lose a father. It isn't easy no matter what age.

In the middle of all of this, I moved out of my apartment.

Thankfully, I was able to hire movers. It was the best decision. And they were fantastic! If you are in the Toledo area, I highly recommend Maumee Valley Movers. They drove out to Pittsburgh to pick up my stuff. It was a long day, but I am so glad the whole process is over.

Poor Luna was so confused during the whole thing. She whined and was extremely clingy. When she was a puppy, she would want me to hold her while I was getting ready for work. It was much easier when she was half the weight she is now. But it is still sweet that she wants her human mom to comfort her.

I thought it would be harder to leave my apartment. It was my home for the last 2 and half years and I enjoyed my time there. But I was happy to get away from the smoke smell. It was quite terrible, especially after being away.

I finally closed on my house last Friday! So amidst a funeral, moving, emotions and traveling, I have a house to call my own. And the fun starts now! There really isn't a thing in and out of that house that doesn't need to be touched in some way. It will be a long process, but I can't wait to get it moving!