Things are happening

After another weekend of painting, we finally finished the living room, stairway and upstairs hall. We have never been so thankful for the ladder we bought a few months ago!

With the heat wave we are enduring (weather.com tells me it "feels like" 104 degrees right now), I can't imagine getting to all the outdoor projects we have on the list. But, the weekend looks great and I'm hopefully we get to tackle the deck!

Stay tuned . . .

Living room progress

 

The last time you saw it, the living/dining room looked a little like this. And this . . . 

  

A weekend of solitude was all it took for me to muster up the motivation to tackle painting the living room. I mean, we had only lived with the newly framed primed fireplace re-framing for oh . . . three years.

Painting the trim is next. Hopefully we'll get it done in the next three months rather than three years!

Progress

Here's a quick teaser photo:

This past weekend I made some serious progress on the living/dining space (even the kitchen!). Details coming soon.

The Non-Weekend Weekend

Can you really call it a weekend when you spend both days on home projects while running to and from the hardware store? While I guess it's the end of the week, this past weekend we busted our tails getting stuff done.

The horror of our ceiling got to be too much so we finally decided to have it painted. There is a reason I haven't posted a full picture of the kitchen light. . .

So, a year and a half later, we tackled the ceiling. I gotta say, painting the ceiling is a huge pain in the ass. The amount of plastic we used to cover the floor and some of the walls and the light fixtures was insane. We (plus three painters) spent about two hours of time just laying down all the plastic sheeting to make sure nothing was going to get messed up.

It took me about 30 seconds before I looked down and my hand was smearing blood on plastic. It ended up being a tiny cut. Seriously, just mention "home project" and my body will split open.

In the end, the change was huge! No more holes in the ceiling or ugly patch marks, no more blue square around the light fixture.  Things are looking up!

 We even had time to paint the fence outside. 

To say we were exhausted at the end is an understatement. But, it's always worth it in the end.

Mother F&*%^&*#$@$!!!!!!!!!!!!

This morning, as I was backing out of out parking spot, I hear a cruuuuunnnncccchhhh sound. With the 50 mile per hour winds this morning I figured I hit a trash can that blew behind the car. I wish. I gingerly stepped from the car and spotted a crushed paint can on the ground. Super. We have about 4 paint cans in our double wide parking spot (that sounds like trailer talk, right?) because we have yet to bring them to the waste facility (you cannot throw them away since they are toxic). Somehow, my neighbor pulled out all his paint cans and added them to the mix, thus there are about 10 paint cans looming at the edge of our parking spot. Want to come over? We are wicked classy over here.

But, I digress. Now, back to the F*&#ing paint can. I picked it up, lightly at first to test if it was full. It seemed empty so I began to carry it over to the pile-o-paint-cans. However, it peed on me. Dripping gray-tan paint all over the bottom of my dress pants, my foot and ballet flats. Being a warm day, I was not wearing any socks so the paint slathered right on my skin. Me and the paint are no longer friends. I was able to wipe it off, throw away my shoes and continue on my day. Now, my pants (expectantly) have hardened where the paint was. Super.

Serenity now.

My next house. ..

Will have to have an island in the kitchen. And, I want it to look just like this:

This counter top glows via lights underneath. So amazing!!! It makes the space interesting without having an overwhelming feature present all the time. More on this kitchen can be found here.

Future Plans Friday: 2

A ladder. Dan is always asking if we have a place to put a ladder. Yes, we have tall ceilings, but we also have a tiny rowhouse. The ladder will have to wait for another day. Check out some cool ones here:


http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/pillows-decorative-office-accessories/alaco-library-ladder-022575

Future Plans Friday: Outdoor Kitchens

I love to cook. Dan loves to grill. So, it would seem fitting for us to have an outdoor kitchen. This is most definitely in my future plans. It won't be as fancy as some of those shown here - but a girl can dream, right?

* photo from This Old House

* photo from backyardcraftsmen.com

Check out this photo slide on HGTV!

Later Dude!

No, I haven't moved to California - but I am saying "peace" to my not-yet-hired contractor. For now anyway. I am so sick of people telling me "well, this is a high cost of living area" when I am pulling my hair out over an estimate. Yeah, I get it, OK. I lived in Manhattan for over a year - I KNOW what a high cost of living area is. I expect to pay more for my house and my milk, fine, I get it. But, what I don't understand is why renovating a house costs 2x as much in Washington, DC than it does in Nashville, TN. It shouldn't. A 2x4 from Lowe's does not cost twice the price, nor does a granite counter.

Salvation came this week in a nice man named Jorge. Jorge is a painter (who painted our neighbors house and did an amazing and quick job) and came to our house last night to give us an estimate for painting the house and fixing some exterior molding around the windows. He looked at the house, asked about 10 questions, and gave us a quote. Done and done. Then, he asked if we would like to get our own paint to save money and make sure we were getting the quality we wanted. Um, yes. He told us the number and Dan and I looked at each other with twinkles in our eyes, trying to keep poker faces. Sure, sounds good. Jorge then told us he was sorry but he could not start for three weeks. Since we haven't picked a color yet - that is for the best. We showed him to the door and squealed with delight!!! His estimate was UNDER, UNDER our budget. Not only that, but it included extras...for no extra!! I said, oh, and can you paint this gate? Sure, he said - same price.

Another glorious estimate was given by Roy, a hardwood floor guy. He came in 25% less than Dude. Fantastic! This was also under what we had budgeted.

So, it looks like in about a month we could have hardwood floors upstairs, and. . . a freshly painted house!!! Weeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!