Projects

We have been making big changes around here since we've been feeling very cramped. Ben offered to give up his office, so we sold all of his professional equipment. We cleaned out the office and I started the preparation for project Room Switcheroo.

I started by measuring the rooms and came to the surprising discovery that our current bedroom was the smallest room and the office was the largest. Gee, no wonder we felt so cramped. The "stuff" was getting all the room. New Plan- our bedroom will be the largest room, Carlise will get the smallest room, and the little two will continue to share the same room. First step was to pick out paint colors. Ben & I chose a nice creamy oat color for our room. Carlise chose purple- that's my girl! And Josephine wanted pink so we found a nice shade that complimented the sour lime green already in their room.

Our house was built in 1954 and is 1100 square feet. It's lovely, small, and has a cottage feel to it. It has some things that need work done, but is for the most part perfect for us. One of these things that needs work is the walls. At some point in time there was wallpaper ripped off the walls and it took the top paper layer off the sheetrock. Then the walls were painted 3 times. So there are some nice large areas of walls that need to be patched instead of the ripped wallpaper divot look it's currently sporting. Normally, I'm a very quick "just get it done with what I have" project kind of gal, but I wanted to do some prep this time to help me stay sane. So I took the extra time and spackled the walls to keep my OCD at bay. It made a HUGE difference! I found this awesome non-shrink Zero VOC spackling that you can paint 30 minutes after it's on the wall!

I've also never paid attention to brands for paint supplies and typically use what is least expensive (shoestring budget).  I lucked out this time and got our paint for only $11/gallon. So I used the money and bought some better quality Wooster rollers. They were literally lint-free, which was a very worth the price difference from ol' cheapies. Besides not having to constantly pick stray fibers off the wall, I got great coverage as well. And to finish off my paint tool set, I bought a Purdy brush for all the cutting in I had to do. It was a huge difference from the first paint stroke and is still going strong after 3 rooms. But, I was especially impressed with the little yellow sticker on my brush that told me it was handmade by professional brushmaker Lee. Thank you, Lee! You did an awesome job, which helped me do a great job.

I still need to redo all the trim before I post pictures, but they are coming!!