Home Decor

Have I mentioned my quandaries with paint? Hmmm… yes. I have a serious problem. Mostly due to a serious inability “picture” anything in my head.

When I painted my living room, I went through no less than 8 different colors. Do you remember Bridget Jone*s Diary? I wanted the color of the walls in her garret apartment. It said “warm, cozy and comfy”. Finding that color in a paint was a very long process, however. There is no “garret apartment” color, FYI.

I finally found the color I wanted. I love it. In fact, I love it so much, that I later purchased one of those decor signs with a homey saying on it, in the same color. To hang in the living room. To say it wasn’t very noticable, is an understatement. Totally faded into the wall.

So I moved the sign into the kitchen. Really pops against the blue walls. Looks fantastic.

But now I have a hole in my living room. Finding another sign was going to difficult. Not only would I have to find the right color, but also the right saying. One that wasn’t too preachy, or twee… and be able to find it in about 5 minutes, which is the Cuddler’s shopping limit. Right.

Instead I found Jennifer of Onion Grove Mercantile. Or rather I found her blog Notes from the Heartland. Gardening, DYI, kids… all the stuff I love to read about. And you can probably tell where this is going… I had her paint a sign for that spot. One that is so personalized it makes me squeal. It makes my mother jealous it’s so personalized.

My great-grandfather was a rancher. My great-grandmother was a rancher’s daughter, going back to the days before Canada and the US had really settled on a border. Every story about them tells something about the ranch. The flowers (of which cuttings are now planted in multiple locations throughout the state – I have a granddaughter of the famous rose bush) or feeding the chickens, even stories about the neighbors are still told! The ranch was sold a long time ago – ranching was a hard thing during the 70’s and 80’s, especially when the US government started ‘paying’ people to stop. It’s not an easy life, especially in a place so rural that cell phones can only get signals on mountain tops.

The sign was designed around that piece of family history. I was pretty specific, but Jennifer took my requests and ran with them… even when I changed them!

I asked for a specific type of wood color to mimic the beaten weathered look of wood in that area. Jennifer suggested the colors for the text – which I totally trusted, because of my color issues. At the last minute, I asked her to include my great-grandfather’s brand, incorporated between the ranch name and town. It’s being shipped as I write! It’s going to work so well in that spot and NOT fade into the background!

New Project

Spring time is the time to spruce up, make things anew and let the sun shine in! I have next week and I am planning to clean, declutter, paint, repair and weed up a storm. So, of course, that means starting a new project – because I might as well finish up a new one, while finishing the others. That makes sense right?

Ok, so my thinking might be a little off, but it works for me. Lala’s room was the original master bedroom. It has two closets. Lala does not need two closets. I do, however, desperately need storage space in the kitchen. For a mid-1950’s kitchen there is almost no storage space at all. Where did they put all those futuristic gadgets? The fine china that never got used? The canned goods for atomic attack?  Anyway, my kitchen feels cluttered and disorganized. A pantry would be fantastic!  I’m already planning out the shelving plan. 

First, the beadboard was removed from the dinning room by the contractor (I don’t do stuff requiring a circular saw)  - I really hope that brown stuff was some kind of glue… but really, in this town (where taste went to die) it’s entirely possible that someone thought it was cool color.

 

Also, please note the yummy wallpaper. I’ll bet it went perfectly with the dark brown hexagon tiles on the floor.  Actually, I find it really interesting to see the layers and wonder who was living here at the time. What were they thinking? I know it was in style – did someone put it up thinking “this is going to be soooo cute!” and fall in love with it?

 

 

Then the wall was removed. The pantry will have a pocket door (*squee!*), and that required much of the wall to be removed. Then we realized that probably the shelves from the closet would need something to hang on to that wasn’t the pocket door – yep, the whole wall had to come down to rebuild it to be able to hold the door and shelves and anything else I wanted.

Notice the cuddler helpfully attempting to electrocute himself. Luckily, not only were the wires capped, but they were also tucked into the wood and then wrapped heavily with electrical tape. My contractor has little kids too!

Everything was shimmed, screwed in place, wired, nailed, etc. all in preparation for the dry wall tomorrow. Hopefully, the contractor will be finished by Tuesday. Then I can start my painting and shelving.

Is it sad that I’m excited for a place to put canned goods? And the ice chest. A place to put the durned iced chest.

Bathroom Colors

I know that many people have a hard time choosing color – I know that I do. Originally, I thought I would paint the new bathroom with an aqua color; it would look fantastic with all the white. Unfortunately, what it did not look fantastic with was the blue glass tiles.

So, I have a bunch of new samples. I want something that leans toward a warm tone. It’s cold enough around here – warm colors at least will trick me into thinking I’m warm. However, I’m starting to lean towards the grey on the far right – it has a blue undertone, so I’m still wary.

The grey on the far left is a M*arth* Stew*rt sharkskin color with a green undertone. The yellowish one has brown undertones, as does the 3rd grey, but it’s so light, it’s almost white-ish.

 

Opinions?

Home Improvement

When I first bought my house, I had a punch list of things to do approximately two pages long. In fact, someone asked me why I would buy a house with such a list… why not just find a house with all those things already done. After having looked at about 100 houses and having viewed other since then, I’m pretty sure that my dream house either does not exist in this area or is just too far out of my price range. Either way, here I am.

The punch list is not only extensive, but it’s also expensive. And time consuming. Thus the reason that it’s only about a third crossed off. One major project this summer was to re-do the bathroom. All I can say about the old bathroom is purple toilet. That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? To say a bit of money, I did not have the contractor put up the wall-paper or paint. Paint is definitely in my skill set. And wall-paper can’t be that hard. I’m a teacher. I’m good with glue. Also, the wall-paper is white. Simple.

Cue six months later and I still haven’t finished the bathroom. What can I say? The school year started and I got busy. Toss in two small children and the idea of wall-paper sounds really scary. But I’ve slowly been working on it.  I started with scraping off the ‘texture’ off the wall.

The previous owners looooooved textured walls. Every wall in in the house was hosed down with those little dry wall nubbuals. Except the kitchen, thank heavens. Anyways, I heard all these horror stories from people who had attempted to de-texturized their walls. One person even said, I would probably have to re-drywall all the walls. Scary! Then I tried scraping it with a scraper-type tool. Came right off. *Sigh of relief” A little scraping and a lot of sanding and vacuuming and I was ready to go. By the way, I scraped in December. And then did nothing for another two months. I am not speedy.

I did experiment with a paint color in November, but I’m still undecided. Everyone who has come to house is required to give an opinion. Only one person voiced my concerns – why did I go with a green, if the accent tiles are deep blue? We’ve been friends since 1984, so I think she’s pretty honest. I’ll let you look at the photos and decide for yourself.

Yesterday, I had some free time and I decided that I would put up that wall-paper. It’s the paintable bead board wall paper that everyone was talking about last year. As soon as I saw it I knew that was a project within my skill set. Saws scare me (My kids aren’t old enough to dial 911). This wall-paper requires paste, which means it requires a child-free zone to cut, paste and book. Also, if you only have one bathroom, you need a time frame in which children will not be using it, because they WILL need to use the bathroom when you are in middle of putting up a sheet. Also, the paste directions are vague and require math unless you have enough time to do an entire large room. It takes a few minutes to thicken up – like instant oatmeal. Also, having a small paintbrush handy to paste those edges that might have missed, is a good idea.

As you can see the dominating color in the room is white. It’s a super small bathroom (I’ve seen half baths larger), so a few concessions had to be made to get that airy feel. First is the white on white – the floors are white with a hint of sand and light blue. The bath tile is while with small blue accent tile and of course, the white toilet. After five years of purple toilet, I would kiss it… you know… if it wasn’t a toilet. Oh, the sink is also white. There is no counter, because after trying to jerry-rig one for a couple years, I know it will just make the room feel claustrophobic.

You can see the wall color in the photo on the left, but I think it’s truer in the photo on the right. You can also see the blue accent tiles. Is it a good combination? Maybe I should go with a dove grey?

I’m trying to stay with warm tones, because it’s always cold here and there is not heat in the bathroom. I don’t, however, really want to try to discover a good browny/tan color. It took eight testers and a year to find the right shade for the living room.

What do you think?

Check it off the list

The weather held. I prayed all afternoon that it wouldn't rain and for once it didn't. Sometimes living in a year round green environment gets annoying. One year, it rained for three months straight. EVERY DAY! By the time I could finally mow the lawn, I had to use a weed whacker first because it was too high for the lawn mower to take - and still wet at the base. Anyways, I'm relieved that my house no longer looks like it is inhabited by hill-billies.  Now I'm just waiting to tackle the moss... it's taking over the front yard. Part of me really wants to leave it. You don't ever have to mow moss.

Yesterday I also signed up to take the West-E Social Studies exam so that I can add a social studies endorsement on to my certificate. Sounds simple right? Take the test, pay the money... done deal.

Today I started delving into the study guide. Um... economics? it's been about 20 years since I've done that. Specific court cases? Not so much.. Brown v. Board of Education, sure... but the Boldt decision? I have a boat-load of studying to do (no pun intended.. fishing right - boats... get it?) So far, I've got an APUSH study guide to read and plan to get economics for dummies (highly recommended by those who've taken the test)... but I haven't a clue as to where to study the WA specific stuff that wasn't covered in my Washington state history courses.

And the kicker! I signed up to take the test on April 17th! So, guess what I'm doing for Spring Break? And just yesterday I was wondering what to do.

I Did It Myself!

 Lala inspired me - all that desire to accomplish daily tasks. Or discovering new things.

The sink in the bathroom has been a slow drainer for awhile now. According to "How to Sew a Button," some baking soda and vinegar would take care of the problem. Initially, it wasn't working. Then I read the rest of the instructions (which are laid out very simply... I've just a short attention span, apparently), which indicated that a pot of boiling water should be poured down the drain after the foam had subsided. Really, that part should have double stars next to it, because without it the process fails.

What new adventure will tomorrow bring? I can't even imagine.