floor down, painting done

The floor is in (except the closet) and the painting is done. Next up is the window moulding and the chair rail moulding. Then we get to decorate.

 Ava is exhausted from watching the floor being put in all day.

 Graedon unceremoniously being pushed off the bed. Molly not caring. Real life, people, real life.

maddie and ava's room

The girls and I started painting Maddie and Ava's room while we wait for the rest of the floor to go down in Lauren and Ellie's room. The new wood floor hasn't been put down in Maddie and Ava's room yet so it was the perfect time to paint.

Ava had her heart set on Seafarer from Valspar and I was worried it would be too bright and annoying. It is bright but makes the room feel like a fun girls room. Which it is.

Before or really before:

Yes Ava has an awful looking mattress but she won't let me buy her a new one. She says it's comfortable.

The room looks really small like this but nothing has been put back as the wood floor will be going in.

The wood wall ready for priming and painting, which we are doing today.

Ava's inspiration picture. She's going to be handpainting the vines.

progress...

The wood wall went up:

The girls and I worked almost all day on Saturday priming and painting Lauren's room. It looks so nice. When I first put the coat of gray on the ceiling (it's one chip down from the Pale Oak color downstairs, BM Seapearl OC-19) I panicked. It was much browner/pinker than I thought but there was no way I was going to repaint. So we continued. I figured since it was upstairs, I wouldn't have to look at it much. Fortunately it dried a nice light gray color that I love.

Because the walls and ceiling are highly textured, I chose a flat paint to hide the bumps. It does a really good job actually.

Lauren chose green, Valspar Fiddlehead Fern (color matched in Miller Paint) and Maddie was testing the color. We went all renegade and didn't even get a paint sample first. We're such rebels.

But it turns out I love it and so does Lauren and Ellie. Next step is to put a second coat on everything and then get the chair rail moulding up between the paint colors. It is going to look so nice in there and I think bigger. We used to have a green color all the way up the wall.

See:

Inspiration pictures:

weirdness

When we pulled up the flooring upstairs we were hoping to find something from the past (besides dirt and other disgusting under the carpet stuff). Something like an old newspaper or a letter. But we found nothing.

So my daughter took it upon herself to leave something for the future homeowners. A letter.

Here is what it said. Disclaimer: I know my kids are weird. Not sure where they get it from.

"To whom it may concern:

If you are reading this (and you can still read cursive in the future) then know that you are ripping up a wood floor that took us (the previous homeowners) two days to put down.

Mitt Romney is the Republican candidate for president, and Barack Obama is the Democratic incumbent.

The Hobbit part One comes out in December. The polar ice caps have not yet melted (as the climate change scientists have threatened).

Muslims have not yet taken over Europe, and Apple is still better than Android.

Florida is not yet underwater, the West coast is still intact, and Han Solo shot first.

If you are not reading this, or are reading it in the post-apocalyptic future, it's because the world has ended, as the Mayans supposedly predicted, in 2012.

The Hunger Games is currently popular, and the Avengers movie comes out next Friday.

The 2012 summer Olympics are in London.

This letter was composed by the following people:

Lauren 

Maddie 

Ava "

ideas...

I know what I would like to do upstairs (at least in Lauren and Ellie's room). It has taken me 5 years to figure it out but now that I have, I'm so excited.

I started a board at Pinterest to reign in my ideas and to let everyone here know what I'm talking about. How did we survive before Pinterest?

They have a room similar to this so I'm going to add moulding around the half wall and paint the bottom half a darker color and the upper part a light color. I think it will really open up the room.

http://www.sarahrichardsondesign.com/portfolio/project/interior-design-show-2011/red-room

Ellie's bed will kinda/sorta be like this with the built in look and storage beneath.

http://www.coastalliving.com/homes/decorating/beach-house-bedrooms-00400000051306/page11.html

http://www.myfurnitureshowroom.net/inspiring-bookcase-design-ideas.html

Lauren's bed will have bookshelves around but much, much smaller obviously as we are working in an attic bedroom.

Ava and Maddie want this back wall in their room and I think I will do it in Lauren and Ellie's room as well minus the stencil. Their back wall has a window and some drywall holes that we could cover up with wide plank boards. It will also be in keeping with the age of the house.

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70053924/

Maybe two or three of these in the nook behind the door and painted in a fun color with fun hardware. I'm not sure they will fit as I haven't measured anything yet. Or finding a mismatched set of vintage drawers and painting them the same color might be fun too.

I still haven't picked paint colors yet. My oldest daughter wants something along the green/blue family so we'll start there.

curtains

I put a 20 minute project off for 6 months. Why? I don't know. Maybe because I knew it would be incredibly boring. All I wanted to do was to add a thick black ribbon to my white linen living room curtains.

See these:

So I finally buckled down and did it. I'm so glad I did and even happier that I like the result. Side note: I really don't like my coffee table now that I look at it in the pictures. But it's sturdy and stands up to a 6 year old boy leaping off of it.

Please ignore the ugly chair. I'm hoping to pick up a newer one from Ikea soon.

more new project

The girls and I ripped the carpet out, removed 1.1 million tacks and tack strips, swept and then collapsed. But no carpet remains and the first of the flooring has gone in. I NEVER want carpet in any house. I can't believe how much disgusting stuff is under there.

We tore off the front of that box to see if we could build some drawers. Graedon was convinced there was a dead body hiding in there and closed his eyes until the girls and I reassured him there was just a spider nest and spiders were pouring out. (not really, we're just mean). Turns out there is duct work on the right hand side but plenty of empty space on the left for drawers. Score!

The other room that is storing all the stuff.

First of the flooring!