why the house is cranky

For 3 days I have been almost constantly within earshot of Stella, with no school, no husband, no other activities taking her away for even a half an hour. Matt has been gone every evening until bedtime is mostly done. Did you know that it is possible for a 5 year old to talk constantly? No, I mean, constantly? and also, that a great deal of the talk is really more of an argument than a conversation? So my big fun, my big party time this Saturday evening, is that I'm going to spend 15 minutes playing blog. To say I could use a little time out is such an understatement....

Above are photos of the previously red room - now white! I like it very much. I have pictures of the office painted white, too. Let's see if I can add them, too.

Oh, this is a terrrrible picture! Books not really set up yet, curtain I tucked into the shutter is sticking out all weird...But I guess it will make for a good half-way-there picture. I think that this room needs -- chair rail, beadboard. Do you see the snowball growing ever larger? I am going to try to integrate blue in here somehow, but also keep things light. I'm planning on putting in a black and white rug so that this room will coordinate with the room across from it (in the photos above).

Another recent change - got the strap hinges for the front door! I love it! Can you see how I actually painted the trim of the door a different color than the rest of the exterior? Heh heh, last year I actually told myself that it MIGHT be possible for me to paint my house MYSELF. it's true, I'm completely insane! But the house does need to repainted, siding repaired or replaced, pretty soon...as in, this year or next! shudder! i can't even imagine the cost of that frighteningly enormous project.


Happy Saturday night!

white paint

the paint is done in the office - it's white now!

moved the desk to the middle of the room...it's amazing how this opens things up to something new and oh! i just have so many thoughts about how to finish up the room now. don't have pictures 'cause don't have the camera dock set up yet.

i'm going to get a black and white rug for the floor (and hope it is not too jarring) and i might hang up some 70s floral print curtains that were given to me years ago. i have a wooden curtain rod in my basement...

as far as returning the black and white prints to the wall - i'm a little intimidated about it. firstly, since the pictures will have to stand alone on an entire wall (no couch underneath) i feel like i need one bigger one somewhere in there so it is not too "busy." i wish i would inherit some cool retro-ie things to put up. i would love to do something funky and different....it will come to me. an object would be awesome...hmmm. have also considered even wallpapering just one wall with a white background print, with a floral/bird motif. anyways, here are some photos i like... thinking about chairs and an office chair, someday, an office chair, something colorful? i'm gonna check ebay sometime and see what comes up. although shipping for furniture is crazy expensive, even if you find a good deal on ebay, you pay through the nose on shipping.

rambling, rambling...

this coral print would be perfect!

Paint Progress and FLOR

Here is the state of the previously known as "red" room...it is taking me forever to paint, but eventually it WILL be done. And a picture of the FLOR tiles i put down in the kitchen. I love that I could make the rug the perfect size for the space. I like the colors. Might be a problem as far as stuff showing on them, though, since there is not much pattern. I chose them because they were supposed to be suited for "high traffic," but in retrospect, a pattern would be better, since it's more of a "high likelihood of spill" area rather than high traffic. anyhoo, it's done, it looks cool, i like it.

Master Bath

I think I said I would post some pictures of the bathroom? Since it is actually straightened up and clean, I figured today was a good day to take some. Note the very grouchy mug on stella. uggg!

Just some pictures I've saved

Looking at these rooms I like I realize, hmmmmm...Matt is right, I do like "girlie" style. suppose there is no cure for that!

Bookcase

I put some left over wallpaper in the back of this bookcase. I thought it would lighten it up a little. but the real problem in this room is the wall color...but oh, oh, im still not done painting my other room yet. and i dont love the idea of doing another room! it just takes a lot more time than i actually have.

Kitchen

Hello!
Thought I would post some pictures for a friend of mine who is going to be designing a kitchen soon and likes how my kitchen turned out. Creating this kitchen was a serious "labor of love." It was a long, hard, often stressful process...but now I can say that I have successfully completed a really huge remodeling project - pretty much all by myself. But, reality check here, of course I did NOT build or paint the cabinets. The people who did that were awesome and deserve a ton of credit. The cabinet maker was able to interpret my designs (although I was very detailed, down to the very inch of every bit of this space). The man who spray painted the cabinets and stained the hutch part of the kitchen is extremely talented, and the final white color was from him "getting" the type of white I wanted. I looked and looked and couldn't find a swatch that seemed right, but he must have used this color before and chose it for my kitchen. He was awesome.

I think part of the appeal of the kitchen is the vent over the stove, with the shelf, the corbels underneath. Also the varied heights of the cabinets creates interest and gives more of a "furniture" feeling. They are also of varied depths. Many people have said to me, "why did you make that one part wood and the rest white?" I think that it adds to the furniture and custom look of the room. I wanted to make something that looked like a hutch. There is beadboard detailing in the back. behind the stovetop is a simple tile, it is blueish green. I wanted a white or light countertop and that was really hard to find. Wound up using granite because my father in law loves granite. I think I would have chosen corian because it is so tough and comes in a cabillion colors so I could have had white? But this pretty greenish granite looked awesome in the end. I also love the faucet, it's sort of old fashioned country style. It is polished chrome...nickel? now i cant remember. Anyways, so many decisions I sweated over in this kitchen!!! I can't even begin to detail them all...But hopefully my friend will find the pictures helpful. bye for now!