Home Reno - Let's Call it Quits

Let's not drag this out any longer.

This post is full of pictures

and the home decorating is not

yet complete

but it does finally feel like home.

The living room is a difficult

room to photograph

because it's narrow and

it really doesn't get a lot of 

natural light.

The large windows in the front of the house

are under our patio cover

so the light doesn't always stream in.

I realize I should have taken this picture

with the television turned off.

I just don't feel like retaking it..

I am loving my new floors.

I love the fact that

when I clean them, they are really clean.

Unlike the nasty dog hair carpet

that was in here before.

The rug is a a cheap Target rug and 

it is probably temporary.

Right now it serves as a place for the dog to lay on

and it's easy to clean.

I like the pop of color it adds to the room.

The living room is open to the dining room.

So far, this is my favorite room in the house.

I love my new red Karastan rug.

It was a splurge for us but I love 

how dramatically it changes the space.

I originally had it in the living room

but that's where the dog spends most of his

napping time and this rug and

a white dog don't mix.

Holy crap!

How is my dog not bald?

I can't believe how much he sheds this time of year.

I moved the liquor into the dining room

and set it up on my Great Grandma Pearl's

sewing machine.

(You can see my new baseboards pretty well in this pic)

 Not sure how she would feel about that.

Next to the booze is a 

sign I made out of wood slats I had in the garage,

painter's tape, and spray paint.

(It May Just Be The Booze Talking But I Want You To Know That I Love Booze)

That sign cracks me up

almost every time I walk into the room.

The reading nook is right off the 

dining room.

 The coffee table has been in my family for years.

When I was six,

I wrote my name in crayon on the underside of it.

The bowl of antique wooden apples

was given to me by Sally.

I've been looking for large wooden apples

forever and couldn't find what I wanted

so she gave me hers.

She's like that.

The kitchen is just to the left of this area.

When we were talking about doing something 

about the flooring a year or so ago,

we were going to do it in stages.

I am so glad now that we did the entire house

all at once.

I don't think I've ever owned a home

that had one consistent flooring material.

It makes my life so much easier.

So there is my mini home tour so far.

Again, there are more projects on the back burner.

I need to work on my office.

I work from home and have my computer set up

on a fold up camping table.

My files are in a litter box.

A NEVER USED LITTER BOX, thank you.

Thanks for stopping by!

xxx-ooo

holly

Home Reno - Part 2

Let's see.

When we last left off,

the floors were done and I 

was the proud wearer of clean underwear.

What I didn't tell you was

that when the floors were going in

I started noticing how awful my baseboards were.

They were 2 1/2 inch baseboards

painted the same color as the walls

and also textured, just like the walls.

No Bueno.

So, to follow my theme for the month,

I decided on a whim

to rip them out.

And then I just did it.

Brian was at work at this time also.

Funny how that happens.

I told him that if I couldn't have new baseboards

that I didn't want any baseboards at all.

I would love to tell you that

I am really not as horrible as I'm making myself

out to be but....well, you know.

I was on a roll.

A high, I tell you, a home reno high!!

Baseboards were my crack.

So, Brian drove to Mesa to pick up my baseboards

that I had only seen online.

I was hoping I would like them.

And I did.

The only thing is, the baseboards

only came in 16 feet lengths.

Sixteen feet is really long.

Go out and measure your car and then come back

and finish reading this.

So Brian had to take his tractor trailer to pick up

three bundles of these.

1)  You are seeing the back sides,

my baseboards are not this ugly.

2) I chose 4 1/4 inch Spanish molding

in primed MDF.

3)  I should have mentioned that all pics have

been taken with my iphone and have  not

been edited.

Ain't nobody got time for dat.

When all the flooring was finished,

our friend, John, who is a wonderful carpenter,

came in and installed out baseboards.

Love them!

I don't have any pictures of them installed

for you to see, you will be able to see them

in the "after pictures" in Part 72 or Part 87

(depending on if I start a new project).

Side note: 

We have a pocket door for our office.

We very rarely use it.

I tried to close it the other day and it wouldn't close.

I figured it had just fallen off the tracks.

It wouldn't budge.

It was then that I realized that I never told John 

about the pocket door, and when he 

nailed in the baseboards,

the nails shot through walls into our door.

So that's fun. 

Now, here's where things get ugly.

Paint.

PAINT!!!

So, yeah, I then decided that now would also be a great time to paint.

I love the paint color in my bedroom

and decided to go with it.

As you know from an earlier post, it didn't go well.

The color was horrible.

I won't go into it.

I'm still a little sensitive about the whole thing.

I decided to hire painters

because it's only money, right?

The only thing I had to do was choose a paint color.

I would rather sit on my dust covered sheets

in my dirty underwear eating Whoppers for another week 

than ever have to choose paint colors again.

This was the moment during the renovation

 that I lost it.

Everyone has their breaking point.

This was mine.

I even cried once.

I never told anyone that.

Paint does that to me.

Whomever says that paint is the 

easiest way to change the look and feel of a room

is a bad ass liar!

If baseboards are my crack,

then paint is my Methadone.

Painting sucks.

Hiring painters to paint entire rooms

of your house only to hate the color would suck more.

I had a week to pick a color since

the painters wouldn't be able to come in 

until a week after the baseboards.

I spent every day of that week

driving to various paint stores to get 

samples and slap them on the walls.

I had huge blocks of paint on every single wall

and didn't like any of them.

One would look great during the day

and then awful at night.

One would look lovely on one wall,

while looking like mud on another.

I couldn't choose a color.

I couldn't choose a finish.

I couldn't choose a brand.

I lost sleep over it.

A friend told me, "It's only paint!"

I killed her and buried her in my garden.

I finally found it.

The right color, in the right finish,

from the right brand.

I'm almost embarrassed to tell you this.

This color has gotten a bad wrap.

I chose Sherwinn Williams Navajo White 

in flat but the paint itself was Dunn Edwards.

I loved the color that Sherwinn Williams had

but didn't like the finish.

Dunn Edwards had a nice flat finish 

with good coverage.

It's a beautiful creamy light yellow.

I chose White Fever for the ceilings (flat)

and baseboards (semigloss).

We were now on month two of having strange men

in our home on a daily basis.

I wanted everyone to go away. 

I wanted to swim naked.

I wanted to pee with the door open again.

Let's leave it at that.

 I'll be back soon with Part 3.

xxx-ooo

Holly