The never-ending project...

So, two weekends ago, we began painting the living room. This is by far the largest room in our house, therefore the largest painting job we have tackled to date.

Before... plain white walls:

We got up on Saturday morning, went out for a yummy breakfast to get us properly fueled for the project. We went to Home Depot for the paint and got home to get started. After painting for a while I was exhausted (still dealing with this periodically). I needed to take a quick nap… 2 hours later, I woke up  and Brad had been busy painting the whole time!! After I painted for a while, we had to take a break to go pick this up…

More on that exciting stuff later!!

Sunday proved to be busy so we didn’t get much more done and left it undone until the following weekend. (We had planned on 2 weekends, so this was fine.)

Samson assisting with the taping.

Gypsy - "Finish painting the window already... this is my area!"

A quality check by Zoe... who then side-swiped the wall and now has beige to add to her colors!

Yep- he is using the mantle. 

As we were painting, I began thinking that I didn’t care for the color too much. It just wasn’t dark enough… but I kept hoping it would dry darker. I had even been through SEVEN different samples before finally settling on the chosen shade… “Wax Sculpture”.

Not wanting to repaint or mention such a thing after Brad worked so hard (while I snoozed!), I kept pushing that feeling aside. However, all week, as I would walk into the living room, I just didn’t like it. I felt like I couldn’t even tell the room was painted!! I wanted to warm up the room and this color didn’t do anything to help that. I got a boring tan instead of a warm taupe.

Original white on top... new color on bottom. Not enough change!

 

By Wednesday, I had decided I couldn’t take it. I mentioned it to Brad and being the wonderfully patient man he is, he suggested we repaint if Home Depot could help us darken the full 2 gallons we still had. I called them that night and to my surprise, they will darken paint “as many times as needed” to make us happy! YAY! So, that night, Brad began to RE-TAPE everything he had already pulled down. Oops. Luckily we hadn’t tackled any of the 17 foot vaulted ceiling yet. Although, he claims the room was about 75% done, I say it was more like 60%. Something about him being an Engineer makes him think he is right… oh well. I took some friendly abuse on Facebook as his friends welcomed Brad to marriage and told him this would happen over and over again. He, he, he…

Fast forward to this past weekend. Saturday morning, we again went to breakfast and then Home Depot. The Paint Tech and I played with the mixture a couple of times. I finally decided I liked it 50% darker. So, she remixed our existing paint and we added an additional gallon to go back over what we had already painted.

See how tall the room is!?! (You can see the darker color on his right.)

The minute we started painting with this new color, I knew it was the right decision. I was much more what I envisioned and you could definitely see the paint on the walls! We worked hard that day and got a lot done.

After church and a nap on Sunday, we picked up where we left off. We soon realized that we were running out of paint. I continued working while Brad went to Home Depot for more. He took one of the existing cans with him so they could alter the paint again with the “50% darker” shade. When he returned, all that was left was touch up and the hard stuff… the edging along the 17 foot ceiling. Brad (who isn’t too fond of heights and tall ladders) steadily painted with an extension rod and edger. He passed it down to me and I re-loaded the paint. We worked methodically and painstakingly like this for about 4 hours.

Then we were finally able to enjoy dinner and celebrate in a massive project done! Or so we thought… as we sat on the couch eating dinner, I kept looking around the room and something just wasn’t right… All of the edge work and touch-up didn’t seem to be drying. Then the bad news finally settled in and I figured out what was happening and I had to break it to an exhausted and sore Brad. The 4^th can of paint we had added that day hadn’t been properly matched to the 50% darker shade. In fact, they gave us the original shade… a much lighter shade. So, now our walls looked like this…

UGH!!!!!!!!

Home Depot was closed by the time we figured this out. So, we sat there, our happy balloons completely deflated, surrounded by horrible looking walls as we realized we were going to have to do all of that work… again.

Brad talked to Home Depot on Monday and they are going to replace the paint and any used supplies for free. Now if only they could compensate us for our labor. So, next weekend, we will finish the paint and install this...

YAY!!! That's right- we installing laminate in the living room. Well, when I say "we", I mean Brad, his friend Ricky and my Father-in-law, Larry. Can't wait to see it!!

Busy bees...

That is why I haven't blogged in a while... we have been Busy Bees!

Thursday, 8/11 - Sunday, 8/14, my Mom came into town for a visit. It was a fun Mom & Daughter weekend. Sadly, my Mom and I are failures... she is an avid scrapper and I am a blogger and we didn't take a single picture the entire visit!!

I had taken that Friday off of work to spend time with Mom and we started our weekend with lunch at La Madeline. We were joined by my Mom's cousin, Cindy and her granddaughter, Jade. It was a nice girly lunch with laughter and catching up. After lunch, we headed to the Outlet Mall and began our path of retail destruction that would last most of the weekend! After we had checked out all of the kitchen gadgets stores and a few clothing stores, we headed to our next stop... the holy land of home furnishings... IKEA. Not only is it a fun place to shop but it is a time black-hole. By the time we finished there, we were exhausted. We went home so tired we couldn't see straight. After Brad got home from work, we grilled some yummy pork tenderloin for dinner and called it an early night.

The next day we were out and about early. First stop was a large scrapbooking store so Mom could stock up. Hattiesburg isn't exactly a hotbed of scrapbook supply stores, so she took advantage of our Archivers store. I killed time in the TJ Maxx next door and got into trouble of my own! The next stop was Wild Birds Unlimited. My Grandmother was an avid birdwatcher and had several different kinds of bird feeders outside her windows. She bought my mother her first bird feeder stand... and as a surprise, my Mom bought me mine! I will post a separate blog about this as soon as it is installed in the back yard and I can take some pictures!

With my new bird feeder stand loaded up, we headed back to Georgetown for lunch. I took Mom to a new local favorite of mine... Laurie's. It is a fun little place with yummy salads, soups and desserts. Once we were stuffed, we swung by the house to pick up Brad. (He had stayed home to work on his brakes while we shopped.) We went to a movie called "The Help". This was based on a book that my book club had just read, so I was very excited to see it. All of us thoroughly enjoyed it and I really recommend it. The casting was perfect and they stayed VERY close to the book. After the movie we got Rudy's BBQ to-go and enjoyed a low key dinner at home. After some TV and reading, we called it a night, exhausted... again.

Sunday morning Mom joined us for breakfast at Taco Cabana. We visited and then said our goodbyes. We headed to church and Mom hit the road for the second part of her road trip- seeing friends in Bastrop. It was a jam-packed, fun weekend and I am so glad she made the drive!


This past Sunday, we drove to San Antonio for lunch. It was our Sister-in-law, Gina's birthday. So, after Sunday School we headed south to a yummy Italian restaurant called Maggiano's. We met Brad's parents, brother Doug, Gina and their daughter Irina. It was a quick trip down but it is always nice to see the family!

Since then, Brad and I have been busy painting. Do you remember what I said after we painted our master bedroom? "As much as I would like to get the living room done, the high vaulted ceilings may have to be left to some hired pros!"... well, we have decided to do it on our own. Pictures and a blog to come... it will take us two weekends to finish it!

Welcome!

One more house project was completed this weekend and for the first time, it was to the exterior! Our front door got a makeover!

Before:

The hardware was about 10 years old. The brass had seen its fair share of use and was tarnished and worn.

Off comes the brass kick plate!

I handled all the painting. Brad taped and took care of replacing the hardware. As with all of our household projects, we are closely watched by Samson and Cheyenne. This particular project was a great example of their personalities...

Samson must be close to the action all the time.

Chey wants to be involved but just nearby.

After:

A perfect red with the brick.

New hanging plants too!

New brushed nickel hardware!

So pretty from the street!

We aren't quite down with the entire project... The columns need to be painted. The worn bench will eventually go away and be replaced by more plants. I am also on the hunt for a pretty year-round wreath for the door. Otherwise, we are pleased with the fresh new look and we welcome you to visit anytime!

On fun side note... since we re-keyed the house and had to get new housekeys, I got to choose a fun one! Brad isn't so happy, but I love it!

Doggone Days of Summer...

On the weather this morning, the weather man said this week would be "cooler than last week" and then showed a highs of 104. Today marks 54 days of temperature at 100 degrees or more this summer. Being a Native Texan, I have come to expect and deal with the hot summers, but it is still TOO HOT! So, we decided it was time to treat our hot dogs with their own swimming pool!! Our dogs are predominately indoors. However, when you are covered in fur and all black like Samson, it doesn't take much to get hot in this weather!

Since Samson is a Lab and they are usually water dogs, we figured he would like it but we hadn't ever had him around water to know how he would first act. As expected, he was curious but very anxious at first. We let him walk around and check it out and then he realized he could drink it! After treating it like his own super-sized water bowl, Brad picked up Samson's front paws and put them in the water.

Slowly but surely Samson began to get that this could be a good thing! Meanwhile Cheyenne is just zooming past us, not paying any attention to the new pool.

We tried telling him to "Sit"... but he caught onto that when his rear end got wet!

Samson got the hang of it really quickly and then we couldn't get him out!!

Then it was Cheyenne's turn. She has never been a water dog. The times I have taken her to Town Lake or around any body of water, she prances along the coast line, only going in just below her stomach. I saw her swim once and it terrified her. So, I was hoping that the level of this water wouldn't be as intimidating for her. She was NOT having it at first. 

Eventually Brad did the same thing with her and put just her front paws in. She ran away. She eventually came back and then walked through the pool not staying long. 

She repeated this over and over again. Eventually she stood in the water and you could tell she finally understood its purpose! 

"What? I am in... are you happy?!"

It was really funny to see how they each had their own way of drinking! Samson had fun putting his entire snout into the water and blowing bubbles!! Chey would drink the water by biting it!

Once they were comfortable with the water, they would both run in and out of the pool. This of course, meant the water quickly got very dirty. Oh well. 

Then Samson decided the water felt so good, he wanted to roll around... in the DIRT!! He moved too quickly for me to stop him, so we just laughed and watched him enjoy the dirt like a pig!

It was a fun addition to our backyard. As the day went on, I would glance out the window when the dogs were out and at least one of them would just be standing in the pool cooling their jets!

Happy dog!

Master bedroom makeover...

We have had the paint for the master bedroom forever but just hadn't gotten to it. With the successful work on the guestroom done, we felt inspired to continue on and do the master last weekend. This is perhaps one of the most dramatic makeover we have done so far and I couldn't be more pleased! 

When Brad and I started dating, his bedroom was an overload of floral. I am not a floral person and was surprised when I saw this in a guys bedroom. Come to find out this was left from "previous administration" and Brad had just not ever done anything to it. So, one weekend I helped him shop and pick out a new bedding set to get him on his way of packing up the pink rose craziness. The red and black bed set is what eventually inspired the rest of the room and the master bathroom (an easy sell for the Tech graduate). 

Before:

The material over the bed was intended as a mock window.

After:

The bay window (behind the bed) is a darker charcoal gray while the rest of the room is a light shade of gray. 

We bought several art pieces and drawings of places we visited during our honeymoon. Once we get them framed, they will be added to the now bare walls. For now, we just have this fun picture of London (thank you IKEA!). 

Brad is changing out the doorknob. We are slowly switching out all the brass for brushed nickel throughout the entire house.

I have since added a nice reading lamp behind the chair for a comfy reading area (the chair is a recliner).

The end result is great and makes the room so much more cozy. So, I guess our next major paint job will be the kitchen. As much as I would like to get the living room done, the high vaulted ceilings may have to be left to some hired pros!