Pure White

Earlier this week, I decided to paint a small 12-inch section of the trim in my office white.  I taped off the area, placed a spiffy little plastic tool under the trim to protect the carpet, and brushed on one coat of Behr's Ultra Pure White paint (the off-the-shelf stuff).  Imagine my surprise that a.) it worked and b.) one of the kitties has perfect aim and got a nice hairball right on the area I had painted the night before!  Way to go, kitty cat!

I think later today I'll try to give all the trim in that room one coat of paint.  But for now, you'll just have to picture it in your mind!

The master's suite

I wish I had a huge master suite, with a clawfoot bathtub and dressing area.  I'll just have to settle for my big rectangular room and tiny closet for now.

I'm taking this post to say HALLELUJAH I FINALLY FOUND THE RIGHT PAINT COLOR!!!!!  I painted one wall a beautiful deep turquoise color, Mirage Lake by Behr, but was absolutely stuck on what to do with the other three.  I knew the dark color would just be too much to have everywhere, so I was intent on finding the perfect white color with a slight blue/green tint to it.  This was what my wall looked like after purchasing waaaaaaaaay too many paint samples in various shades of green, blue, and turquoise:

That's eleven paint samples!  But it didn't stop there.  Eventually I added two more.  One was too white but I liked it in the morning light.  The other was too blue and I liked it more in the evening light.  NOT GOOD.


Eventually I stopped at Lowe's and picked up Valspar's Dew Drop and Olympic's Honesty (I may have gotten those mixed up).  I was inspired after seeing John & Sherry's grey living room over at Young House Love and decided to try a green-blue-light grey shade.

Behr's Arctic White (top left), Behr's Spa (top right)

Valspar's Dew Drop (bottom left), Olympic's Honesty (bottom right)

 Arctic White was too stark (biggest color swatch), Dew Drop was more grey/white, and Honesty was a bit more green but still white - these were the main contenders in the end

And the winner is.................DEW DROP!  I like it and think it will even better when I have the other three walls painted.  For now, this is what I'm looking at on the wall across from my bed:

I'm well aware it's wet, but you can see how it looks wet vs. dry

Doors doors doors

First, I'm super proud of myself because I figured out how to fix the garage door all by lonesome with minimal Googling!  Many thanks to the random commenter who said "Try reprogramming the controllers."  I had not idea HOW to reprogram the controllers, so I got out my little step ladder, found a tiny little button on the back of the big opener box, and TADA!  Both controllers work now.  In a few years I'll definitely replace the entire system and install sensors and a keypad, but for now, this will work just fine.

Second, I hate storm doors.  Really.  The storm door that I had when I moved in never closed all the way.  It was always open a tiny little bit.  I didn't think anything of it until the first weekend in October when it was 40 degrees out and windy.  I was woken up from a great nap with Chloe by a huge CRRRRACK!  The dog started barking and shaking and eventually piddled on herself while I ran around trying to figure out what had fallen over.  When I couldn't find anything inside, thinking a cat did something, I ran through the garage, only to find my storm door blown all the way to one side with a giant crack going down one side.  The glass was intact, but the door would only close a tiny bit.  I put a trash can in front of it then proceeded to call around in an attempt to figure out what the heck I was supposed to do.

One hour and two frozen hands later, I had managed to screw everything apart to get the sheet of glass removed.  After that, it was time to get the door off.  The screws were stripped and bent and the door jamb was in multiple pieces as well.  FANTASTIC.  But at least the offending door was removed, right?

 After being pushed closed, this was as far as it would go.....

 Nice big crack down the side, plus my awesome trash can/keeping door closed attempt

 ALMOST!

 An inside view of the damage.....

Stupid door

I'm pretty much convinced that the previous owner's husband was the Mr. Fix-it type.  Nothing wrong with that....except that he didn't seem to know what he was doing on a lot of little projects.  There were multiple holes in the door jamb, so I'm under the impression that he installed the now-broken door without fully knowing how to do it correctly.  Also, on a sidenote, he's a terrible painter.

Fast forward to mid-November.  I finally decided to get the door replaced.  Eventually I settled on the right door for me, with the glass and screen built-in to make changing them over in the warmer seasons easier on me.  Home Depot offers the $97 storm door installation, so I knew that was the way to go.  They were also able to repair the door jamb for a little bit extra.  The two guys who did the install were great, and one lives in my neighborhood, so now I have his card for when I need something else replaced or repaired.  The door works like a charm and looks great too.

Then the family came to visit.  Somehow, as people were going in and out, the spring mechanism was bent.  I found this out when I got up at 6am the day after Christmas and heard a creepy creaking sound, which turned out to be the door swinging in the wind.  GREAT!  I was able to get the replacement part and a chain to attach to the top to keep it from being opened too far.  I'll admit that I'm afraid to replace the parts myself, so I'll be calling my friendly installer to come fix it, but at least everything is ready.

The lesson learned?  Be careful with pretty new storm doors and have that chain installed BEFORE you open the door to far.

Problem solved!

I'm stuck

Having lots of ideas and inspiration can make for some difficult design decisions.  For example, I love the look of white trim throughout a house.  I think it would look great in my house, so I start to get excited with the idea, then remember that my staircase is solid wood and would be a real pain to sand, prime, and paint.  Let's not even get started on ideas for the kitchen!

Some ideas I have will actually work for my house though, like:

• Repainting every room
• Floating shelves (shelves exactly like these are ready and waiting to be painted in my garage, but I'm in need of a few more and have no carpentry skills)
• Refinishing the cabinets in the kitchen
• New lights in the bathroom
• Building/buying storage

That's just a handful of ideas, mainly the little, easy ones I can do now.  I have some pretty grandiose ideas at times, like the white trim mentioned above or adding onto the master bedroom above the garage so that there are two full bathrooms.  What can I say, I get ahead of myself sometimes?

To paint or....paint

Let's talk about that taupe-y color that was all over my house for a minute.  I'm not kidding when I say it was ALL OVER my house.  Living room, one upstairs bedroom, second floor landing and the wall leading up the stairs, bathroom, and even the basement (but in a lighter, more do-able shade).  I liked the color initially, but after less than a month, I felt like it was too dark.

After my mom came to visit in early October, I knew I wanted to paint the bathroom.  It was a good place to start because it was a small room, right?  Kind of.  Painting around a toilet and towel racks was no easy feat!  But I took a long, skinny, windowless little room and seriously opened it up.

 The previous owners really liked this color, but the room seemed longer and skinnier than it really was.  Don't you just love the generic cabinet, counter top, and sink?  Oh, and the light fixture!

 Not the best "after" picture, but it'll do for now.  Adding two paint colors to the wall and a curved shower curtain rod really opened up this room.

I used Behr's Mint Majesty for the main color in the room.  I can't remember the name of the blue color above the shower, but I think that may get covered with the main color.  It doesn't quite "flow" for me.  I have tons of other ideas in mind, particularly pulling that mirror off the wall and replacing it with two smaller mirrors, replacing the light fixture, and eventually installing a new counter top, cabinets, tub, etc.  Okay, a lot of that room.  It's a little outdated, but we'll come back to that.  I'm doing what I can afford now for the room, and little tweaks can do a lot!

Next up, the living room, which felt small and cramped as the days got longer.  My chocolate brown couch was blending in with the wall.  It took me one night to find the right color, Behr's Chai Latte, but it took me almost a week to paint the room!  Three out of four walls were repainted in here, only because the fourth wall is the one heading upstairs.  Awkward angles combined with short girls don't mix!

Much better!  Next up, I'm tackling the two bedrooms upstairs and the office.  Chloe will also get to do some art projects for me, so I'm sure she'll enjoy that!  Speaking of the puppy, she's gotten awfully big since I brought her home!

Tour-y Time

Let's continue with the introduction of the star of the blog, the house!

This was the living room before I moved in, during the inspection.  Tons of houses out here have "Pottery Barn decor" which means that this color and similar shades are all over.

 

Kitchen/dining area with two huge sliding glass doors

This color was EVERYWHERE.

                               

And this is what the bathroom looks like now (more to follow)

Baby gates are very important for keeping puppies out of places they shouldn't be in!

Living room after!  As much as I liked the tan/taupe/whatever color, it was just too much for the living room.  I used Behr's Chai Latte in here to brighten it up, and OH MY GOSH what a difference!

Obviously that's only some of the house!  Finding all my pictures if turning out to be more difficult than I thought!