Picking out Paint Colors

We've finally gotten to the point where I get to pick paint colors for the interior of the house.  It was much easier than picking for the outside, that's for sure.  Mostly I just used the bedding I had for each room as a guide and picked some colors I liked.  We're going for all neutral-ish colors, so it wasn't too hard.

For Bedroom 1 (the largest guest room), I had two options:

Left:  Wool Skein  Right: Ancestral Gold

While I liked the idea of the gold, in practice both Landon and I liked the tan a lot.  So Wool Skein won.

For Bedroom 2 (middle room) which is going to have some really dark purple bedding from Ikea I tried out only one color, a very very pale purple called Discrete White:

I swear, I painted a swatch just to the right of my hand.

For Bedroom 3 (also know as the craft room/office) I thought I wanted something kind of brighter, so I tried the same Blonde color we tried on the outside.

And we didn't like it on the inside either.

While it was ok, it wasn't really what we wanted.  So, in the interest of saving money on paint, we decided to use the color from Bedroom 1 on these walls as well.  So, the aptly named Wool Skein will get used in the craft room as well.

Bedroom 3, painted.

And the closet/yarn storage.

Bedroom 1 painted.

So pretty.

Bedroom 2 Painted.  Just a hint of color.

Fascia, Soffits, & Baffles....Oh My!

This weekend was a busy one with lots of work going on outside.  There were a lot of repairs that needed to be made to the outside of the house, and we wanted to get them out of the way before it got too cold and the days got too short.  So it was all outside work this weekend.

The soffits came down Saturday with the gutters and facia following on Sunday.  New soffits were made to replace the ones that were beyond repair and all the soffits got holes cut to help the air flow in the attic (there is currently none).  Some of the facia boards had to be replaced as well.  And everything had to be painted before it could go back up.  Oh, and we found that they hadn't braced the eaves out properly, so we had to add some bracing to shore up a saggy eave line.  It was a lot of work, and it's not all put back together again, but it will look good when it is done.

Is that a gutter in your yard?  Yes, yes it is.

Taking down the facia boards.

Now what?

Brother-in-law Tom assisting.

Work station in the driveway for cutting new soffits.

The baby birds were not impressed. 

Newly painted soffits.

And facia boards.

And unpainted baffles waiting to be installed.

Putting in new baffles.

Adding insulation.

This was before I discovered I was very allergic to the insulation.

Yup, just like that.

Working on adding screen to the soffits.

Electric Stapler fail.  Let's go back to doing it by hand.

Rehanging some of the facia boards.

And realizing that the roof in front of the front door was sagging. 

Still trying to figure it all out.

So, that's where we are now.  The soffits along the front are all down, along with the gutters and facia boards.  The Soffits have been repaired, painted, and re-screened.  Although, the facia will have to be repainted with flat paint since the semi-gloss finish meant that the entire house looked the same color while the sun was up.  The eaves have all been repaired, except for in front of the door where we need to add support.  And everything is stacked neatly in the entry way since it rained all day today!  Yay!

And the Soffits Came Down

So, in going back over old posts last night, I realized that I never updated you on the final stage of gutting our kitchen--removing the soffits above the cabinets.  It happened a week or so ago, but since I never shared the progress, consider this your update.

Pulling it all down.

Getting there!

Watch for falling insulation

And covered pot lights.

So close.

Cleaning up the mess.

All done!

No more soffits.

Or weird shallow pantry.

It's Magic

Just a quick mid-week update.  Things have been busy this week.  I had my graduate school orientation all day on Wednesday, so that limited my time at the house.  But things are moving along.  We've started painting (with color!), so look for an update soon.  To keep you informed, though, I figured I'd give you a quick update on a simple project I did a week or so ago.

I was needing some instant gratification and the boys were all busy with other things (involving lots of beating and banging if I remember correctly) so I decided to work on the the door coming in from the garage.  It was dirty and nasty and had been bothering me since we closed on the house.

Dirty, dirty door.

 See, the man that owned the house before loved working on cars.  In his garage.  And apparently he never washed his hands before coming inside.  So the door was super nasty, especially right in the middle.

Grease and grime and dirt.  Ewww.

Eventually, we'll probably end up painting it when we do the garage, but for the moment, I wanted to clean it up some.  So I attacked it with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

I wasn't sure when I started if the Magic Eraser was up to the test.  But, it turns out, it really is magic.  I scrubbed and scrubbed and low and behold, it came clean.  There are still a few places where I couldn't get.  And there is a big patch around the door knob where they painted the door at some point, but didn't cut in and didn't take the knob off.  But it looks 100% better than it did.

Much better.

Thank you Mr. Clean.

Weekend Wrap Up

It was another busy weekend at the house.  Saturday started with taking out one panel of the three panel door in the family room so we could frame it in to a smaller size, order a door, and get the store to come out and measure.

The glass came out first. 

Next step the door.

Almost there.

TaDa!!

I think this is called "Open Concept"?

Unfortunately, after trips to Home Depot and Lowe's, we found that not all companies carry 96" sliding doors standard, some are bigger. So the door was set back in until we decide on a brand and know how far we need to frame it in.

But there was more to do.  I spent my entire weekend priming walls in the three extra bedrooms.  And, I'm excited to say, that all three are now sanded, patched, sanded, primed, and ready for a final coat of paint.

Yay for Primer!

Much better than before.

This was the before.

While I was doing all that, Landon and his Dad were working on the master bathroom.  The ceiling in part of it needed to be replaced as did the subfloor.  Saturday was the ceiling day.

Sky light?  

And we found a few more surprises.  When we took down the vanity lights, we found that they were not one light fixture, they were actually three small fixtures mounted together.  And, there was no light box in the wall.  They were all just mounted to the drywall.

Not the correct way to mount lights.  

Other than that, it wasn't too bad.  Although I wasn't there for the floor removal.

You said you wanted an open concept, right?

But now, there is a new ceiling and new subfloor in most of the bathroom.  And, thanks to Ann, we have a totally awesome layout that leaves us our closet!

New subfloor.