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!

new project

Remember when I used to do home improvement projects? Well after a looooong break it's back to the grindstone.

First project is to rip out the disgusting carpeting that covers the upstairs. It is the last carpet in the whole house. We'll replace it with the same pine floors in the hallway and new upstairs bathroom.

Then on to the fun part of redecorating/building/remodeling. We haven't touched the upstairs (only to put in a new bathroom) since we moved in 6 years ago. It's time.

Before pictures of Lauren and Ellie's room with disgusting carpet and chipping paint:

Looking in from the hallway. The door to the right will be getting some chalkboard paint. New lighting will also go in as the broken bulb look is out I hear.

 Ellie's bed will be built in and hopefully have some underbed storage. She'll also get a privacy curtain. There's the future chalkboard door.

 Lauren's bed will shrink to a twin size and will feature built in shelves on either side of the headboard.

Closet will be getting a makeover as well and probably a curtain to hide all the clutter.

Anyone else's kids just throw their clean laundry on the floor and just use it out of the pile even though directly across from said pile is the dresser?

The little nook down there will probably get built in dressers or at least more dressers so they can ignore them even more.

Ava and Maddie's room just recently got new paint but will also have the carpet pulled up will be sporting a new look. I'm just not sure what it is yet. But I'm happy to be working on the house again. I have big plans.

just pictures

Just a bunch of pictures I've taken lately. Straight out of the camera with no editing (only cropping).

And then the spring flower pictures. Flowers are so easy to take pictures of. They don't move.

And finally my favorite cloud picture taken while gazing at the end of runway 02 at the Hillsboro Airport.