Nature baby's room redo painting

I painted the ceiling a few days before Christmas, I did the pitched parts and the flat part. Technical terms, I know! It went surprisingly quickly, about an hour from start to finish and I did 2 coats. Then the sun hit it a few days later, out came the 3rd coat. The third coat was tricky to see where I had already painted and what needed a once-over. I supposed that's why tinted ceiling paints was invented.

As I painted the samples on the walls, I knew right away which one it would be. Galaxy purple, girly but subtle. I wanted her room to be calm and bright. The walls were easily covered, well as easily as textured walls can cover. The person who thought texture walls are a good idea is the devil. THE DEVIL! 2 coats and the walls were done. I'll be doing small touch ups for a long time, textured walls being the devil and all.

For the ceiling I used Valspar Ultrawhite, it's the same white I used in the living room and the same I will use for every ceiling in the house.
On the walls is Sherwin-Williams Galaxy Purple.

What do you think? I'm inclined that say that it's a huge improvement. Her room is now bright and girly, there is a clear difference between the walls and ceiling but it's subtle, definitely a color that she can live with for many years. By the time Nature Baby wants to new color I should forget how much of a pain it is to paint textured walls.

This will be my last painting project until help arrives, I just can't get enough done during nap time. I still need to paint the trim and the doors, the doors are bad! There is pain drips, scratches and dents. That'll be a project. And ALL the hinges are painted. Why! Can someone explain that one to me, please? I haven't decided if I will strip them or just buy new ones.

Now is the fun part, decorating! I'm not going to spend a ton but I did already by this little turquoise bench, I love it! It's the perfect height for her to put her books in and put some things on top. I have a few DIYs to do, and I'll be posting about them too! The only thing I've put back on the walls is her little elephant bunting, that was mine when I was a kid, hung in a very similar spot in my room for years.

What do you think?

Painted Brick Hearth

From Modern Prairie Girl

So, this past week I got in into my head that I need to paint my hearth. This has become an all consuming obsession. I've been reading and reading over again how to do it, what primer to use and paints, now I think I need to do it. I'd like to add a wood shelf on the top layer of bricks and paint it all bright white to match the wainscoting.

There's nothing wrong with it, per se, it's just... blah. I obviously took down some of the pictures on the mantel and wall. All the other junk is hiding in the kitchen.

What do you think, wouldn't bright white look much better?  Am I crazy? Is it going to get filthy beyond belief with two kids, a dog and a some-times being used wood stove?

Currently coveting: Cuckoo clock

I have no idea why, but for about a year I have REALLY wanted a cuckoo clock. It's part whimsy and part function that really makes me happy. Here's a few that I'd love to get my hands on. And of course I have somewhere special picked out for each one.

This happy little fellow would fit perfectly in my living room.

Any of these three for the playroom

I love this one, I think it's so stinkin' cute!

This one in the dinning room

and of these would do just fine too.

this little fun guy

I like this little horn blower

Those little goats! 

Oh man those little guys at the top and that roof line. 

Most of these I found on Easy, there is a ton more and they are fantastic! If you're feeling generous, feel free to send me one!

Nature baby's room redo

Nature baby's room is ugly. U-g-l-y. I ain't got no alibi it's ugly. So ugly and dark! See!

I've been wanting and trying to paint her room for a while.  I was hoping to get it done while MIL was here but that was a cluster, to say the least. It's tough to paint a kid's room if you have to do it while they're awake and someone else is here.

Much like the room re-dos from last year, I'm not going to spend a ton of money. The dresser I bought on Craigslist last year for $80 (including the huge mirror that is in my living room) and painted. I would like to change the hardware. I'm waiting to find a bookcase and side table on Craigslist, because I'm cheap and with some patience Craigslist is AWESOME! I spent $30 or so on the thermal curtains in the fall and I'm going to replace the light fixtures and smoke detectors in both kid's rooms. The lights only have 1 bulb and are not bright, even with LEDs. Ideally, I'd like an enclosed ceiling fan with a light, but they're expensive! $500 and up! I can buy a portable air conditioner for $500, so that just seems silly. We'll see. Everything else we already have. I'd like to add a few shelves for breakables, frames and a lamp that need re-wiring from my Nana.

The ceiling has to be white. Every room in the house has the ceiling and walls painted the same color. I'm not sure what the thought process was behind that one, but it's not good. I could (very easily) go on a giant rant about it, but I will not. Remember my living room? Geez Louise! Here's the Before and After in case you're curious.

Good bye phone jack and messy lines.

Why, why why? Why do people paint hinges and hardware?

I see you paint blob, and I will sand you! Up next, paint samples and choosing the colors!

2016 goals

Can you believe it's 2016, I certainly can't! 2015 was a big year for us with really great highs and really low lows.

This year I've got goals!

• Paint every ceiling and the 3 bedrooms
• Build a fence, even if it's just cattle panels.
• Improve the garden (more on that coming up later)
• New play set for the kids, the death trap has got to go!
• Upgrade a few things in the house the dishwasher, get a few bookcases, figure out a better toy stage system, some new light fixtures for above the table and the bed rooms. 
• Stop looking like a hobo all the time. I should to start getting my hair done regularly (once a year doesn't cut it and that'll give me some knitting time), get some new jeans. Mine are bad! And just take a little bit of time for myself, I'd like to not be so tired all the time
• I'd like to knit something nice for myself, it'd been a long time since I made anything for me. I have a ton of this I'd like to make but always end up starting a project for someone else. 

I think my goals are reasonable and all very do-able. I'm keeping it simple for 2016.
What are you working towards this year?

Dining room redo: Project Code name Can of Worms.

It all started off with paint. easy-peasy. Then I couldn't get anything under the baseboards to prime and paint them. Simple let's take them off. Who knew baseboards were a lid of a can of worms. Prying those suckers off was a pain! There's about a million nails, nailed into God knows what! And then there's the gap into the abyss. Seriously, who builds a room with an exterior wall with a 2" gap between the floor and the wall and then puts a wind machine inside the walls.

One of the boards cracked and broke in half, I put the pry-bar through the 1/4" dry wall in 1 spot. Again, who builds a room using quarter inch dry wall.

I primed the window frame. I don't know why but every time I prime with either a brush or roller it ends up being an uneven mess. After priming came sanding. That made and huge dusty mess but at least it's smooth.

To fix the baseboard I used wood glue and clamped it. The next day I used wood-filler, let it try, sanded, primed and painted. I can still tell it's cracked but only I can tell. 

Thank goodness I managed to get the baseboard fixed, filled and painting without any other problems. 

All the patching, priming, sanding, paining and touch-ups were uneventful, it just took forever!

I cleaned the light fixture, let me tell you it was disgusting.

I still need to do something with the light fixture. I hate it, there's nothing wrong with it. I just don't like it. I'd also like to replace the blinds with roman shades, curtains would be too much as they'd take up 2 of the 3 walls.

Living room part three Paint choices!

Picking paint colors is hard! Who knew there was so many greys and whites! Do you go with what you like or the old adage "Take the color you like and go two shades lighter"? We wanted something classic to go with our 100 year old farm house. 

We brought home about 20 different grey paint chips. They all looked great in the store then we got them home and put them on top of the wainscoting and waited. And waited. Finally we narrowed it down to two greys and two whites. 

The paints we were considering are

Valspar Metropolis (Top Right of each sample)

Valspar Voyage (Top Left of each sample)
Valspar Bistro white (Top white)
Valspar Ultra-white (Bottom white)

We went back to Lowe's and bought 4 samples. Always buy samples! They're cheap and SO worth it. We painted about a 18"x18" square on two walls. Why two walls? One has direct sunlight in the morning and one is ALWAYS indirect. The colors look different depending on the time of day, natural light and even the bulbs in the lights, as you can see in the above photos. Both pictures were taken at the same time of day. Big difference! We left the paint samples up for about 2 weeks before choosing the winners. I'm going to be honest, the samples I picked where not the winners and I definitely can't tell the difference between the whites.

Which ones did we pick? Wait and see. The transformation is so good! What would you have picked?

Get caught up with Living room redo part 1 & Living room redo part deux

Living Room redo part deux: Hello lights and fixed window trim!

Here we go, it's time for the electrical! We had a few companies put bids in before choosing our electrician. Let me tell ya, they're expensive! Definitely worth it to not burn our house down or electrocute ourselves! Mr. Scribs cut all the holes for the outlets and boxes for the lights. It was easier than expected once we made sure there wasn't any studs where we wanted everything.

We put gang boxes in where the TV would be so there is no visible wires, everything goes in the wall behind the TV and out near the bottom. Well worth the extra money and effort to not see any ugly cords!
All the windows and doors on the first floor have the same trim. They all have the weird over-hang on each side. I don't get it. Doesn't make any sense to me, so we took it down, cut the extra off and fixed it.

Before

 After

Much better! Up next the fun stuff, paint swatches! Don't forget about part one!

Living room redo. Part 1 goodbye wallpaper, hello cedar walls!

We're finally getting around to redoing our living room! I say finally like we've been putting it off for years, we've only been here for 3 months. It is an enormous room! Theres 2 windows, 3 doors and about 400 square feet. I know theres  a lot of potential in there! The first thing we needed to do is get rid of the wall paper. Let me tell you, that was a spectacular woodsy scene!

Tan walls, tan ceiling, red wainscoting, wall paper border mid wall and extra molding. It was… let's just say not our style and dark.

The wall paper came down fairly easily. We peeled off what we could before wetting the rest with sponges and hot water. Wet, scrubs, pick and peel. Surprisingly after 3 nights we were finished. That was the easiest part.

Next came figuring out where we'd need plugs and lights. I have no idea how the previous family only lived with 4 plugs in such a big space and no lighting. At all. It was like a cave in there, even with lamps. Obviously we needed to have some lighting put in. We opted for four wall sconces, added 4 plugs and a light switch. Good god, electricians are expensive! And who knew that were wasn't a "proper" place to put a sconce other than the tallest person shouldn't be able to see the bulbs. We marked the walls where we thought we'd like the sconces by putting up pieces of paper and leaving them there for about a week. We drew a spot of the TV and marked for outlets and left it for more than a week. By the time we were ready to cut the holes we knew thats where we wanted everything.

Cutting holes in the walls always makes me nervous, our house is almost 100 years old. I was convinced there was going to be a nightmare of something in there. No dead bodies, no monsters living in there. Thankfully there was a pleasant surprise. PILES OF CASH! No wait, that didn't happen. Our walls are two inch cedar planks with half an inch dry wall on top. Hello insulation! 

  

No wonder the stud finder kept showing studs everywhere! Step one complete. Wall paper removed!