August Update

Howdy! We're back from our travels and our guests have left, and boy has it been forever since we've posted. There are many new things I've been meaning to blog for a while, so let's get right to them, shall we?

I'll start with the biggest news first, or at least, the biggest project. While my Mom was here, she painted our guest room/craft room. Yes, you read correctly, while she was a guest in our house, actually using the guest room, she painted the room. She is awesome. Thank you, Mom. This is a project we'd wanted to have done for some time, but we kept putting it off because....well, you read this blog & know what happens here. But Mom was ready for the challenge.

We had a variety of thoughts on color; I had previously wanted this room to be a periwinkle that I had seen in a friend's office, but after the change in the pink room (to dark blue) I wasn't sure if that was still going to work. We tried out a couple of paint samples that we had and ruled out both colors, deciding that the "French Lavender" was too bright and the "Spring Green" was too dark.
This shot also gives you a sense of how the room color needs to be OK with the blue room (and also the dining room, since there's also a door between this room and the dining room).

I think it's also the best shot I have here that portrays the original color of the room, which I had come to describe as the color of an old Band-Aid, fabric kind. I thought initially that it was sort of a neutral color, but after a while (this room was my office when we first moved here) I came to loathe this color and its ace-bandage-ish tone.

The room also featured a wallpaper border up by the ceiling:

It was sort of bland; we didn't realize until we were up on the ladder that it's actually textured. The worst part is that our ceilings are VERY high. So we were going to be scraping wallpaper up high above our heads, working on ladders. This part was not fun. Using a lot of vinegar and a ladder was had to lean up against the wall, we managed to get the thing down:


But we realized that we couldn't paint using a ladder that we leaned against the wall. We discovered that Taylor Rental near us would rent a ladder (just $12! who knew?) and then we were also able to borrow one from our fabulous next-door-neighbor, so it all worked out.

Mom did the vast majority of the painting. After about 5 minutes of painting, I came to the conclusion that I do not like, nor am I good at painting. But Mom did a very professional job, getting a coat on the ceiling, doing the color, touching up trim, and painting all of the baseboards (which really needed it).

Here's an after shot so you can get a sense of the color.
What's that down in the lower portion of the picture, you ask? I'm so glad you asked! It's Ella Fitzgerald!


My lovely friend Gab gave me this switchplate ages ago, and I brought it with me when we moved. I just hadn't found the right place for it. This is totally the right place! Hooray!

OK, here are a couple more shots of the new walls:


We're very happy with the color. Thanks, Mom!

That's all for tonight. I hope to post more soon.