Now that the fumes have cleared...

I did so much painting the bedroom and hall bath on Wednesday, I actually fumed us out of the bedroom for a day. I spent the night on the couch with Dash liberally applying his own version of accupressure (more like accucrusher). Aaron spent the night on the office futon, which actually allowed him to catch some Z's.

I must apologize for the lack of "before" pictures. When I finally get up the motivation to get things done, I don't dare stop for fear I'll find some reason not to do it. I did scrounge up some older pictures that should give you an idea of the previous wall colors.

The hall bathroom is now just some trim paint shy of being completed. The original color was my own combo of some leftover white paint and leftover "Stampede" from the livingroom. The only picture I could find that showed it was this one of Dash being a nosey nuggins, back when we'd just moved in. The toilet was in two parts and the door frame wasn't finished, which is why Dash could barge in whenever he wanted.

The hall bathroom is now the same color as the master bathroom - "Gravel". Very clean, but very bland. Aaron actually said he liked this color better than my homemade creation. Insert pouty face here.

Here is the bedroom's original color - "Blue Oasis". It is darker than the picture shows and was meant to be soothing and calm. It ended up more annoying because the shade of blue did not go well with any of our blue bedding.

The bedroom is now painted with a color called "Secret Passage". Yeah, I know... bedroom, secret passage, insert innuendo here. It is one shade lighter than the color, "Flagstone", that we painted the office, which I've always loved.

Accidentally Over-Committed

Last night around 8:30, I decided I'd be productive and put the first coat of paint on the shelves for our new linen closet.  I grabbed a can of white paint and a screwdriver to open it. Unfortunately someone forgot to clean the lip of the can before they closed it up and the damned thing was painted shut.

I could have just given up then and there, but I'm stubborn (The hell, you say, not our Julia!). So I kept hacking at it, chiseling out crusty dried paint, until finally I PEELED the top off the can of paint. The paint mixed well but it was a bit on the thick side. So now I have a problem - there is no way the lid is going back on and this paint is not gonna last...

And that's how I got to put my sheets and towels into my freshly painted linen closet this morning.


Another project down, so many left to go...

Bathroom MASTERED!

Somehow, I never got pictures of the disaster that was the original master bathroom. Just picture ugly wallpaper covered in small flowers, ugly yellow-lighted medicine cabinet and a sink set into a bright turquoise countertop.


Now we've got nice room with clean lines and simple colors:




Shady says "Why are you standing in the tub?"

... hey, it's a small room, how else could I get a good picture of the vanity?

Progress... 4+ years in the making

When we started work on the house, I had two projects very dear to me - Upgrade the master bathroom and build a linen closet in the empty corner of the hall bathroom. But we never got beyond clearing out the corner and a failed attempt at removing the awful master bathroom wallpaper. Finally, we hired a contractor (who showed up on time, loved our animals, and came in on budget - you're jealous, I know) and we now have...

A LINEN CLOSET!


And... A FINISHED MASTER BATHROOM!


Ok, actually it's only partially finished. I'm guessing the toilet in the tub tipped you off. The contractor ran into some snags with faulty parts in the sink and shower, so he's coming back next week to finish it off. In the meantime, he left the walls fresh and clean so I could choose the color of my choice and paint to my heart's content. And since he's coming back on Monday, that's keeping me motivated to actually do the painting.

Have you ever noticed that painting a small room is a lot more prep and cleanup than actual painting? I have. I put the first coat on the ceiling as part one of the process tonight.

To prepare:

• Go to Lowe's, agonize, pick out a paint color, buy it
  
• Find the paint tray, roller handle, brushes... discover that we have no rollers
• Go back to Lowe's, buy rollers
• Get home, change into acceptable painting gear, put my hair up
• Turn on the tunes
  
• Stir, and stir, and stir the ceiling paint..
• Grab damp and dry cleaning clothes
  

To paint:

• Pour paint
• Roll for 2 songs
  
• Do the edges with a small brush for 1 song
  
• Peer up and attempt to see thin spots... hard to say with that bare bulb blinding me

To clean up:

• Pick up all paint covered items and carefully transport them to a room with running water
• Close master bathroom so dogs don't play with supplies
• Wash edging brush and stir stick
• Wash paint tray and roller handle
• Wash paint roller until you are certain the manufacturers have created trick fibers that constantly release milky paint water ad nauseum

Tomorrow, or later tonight if I'm feeling particularly ambitious, I'll be painting the walls. The paint color I chose is pretty bland and has a name befitting a bland color - Gravel. It's meant to compliment the new shower curtain and bath rug that are of similar non-offensive color schemes. I'd love to be more colorful and creative but with a 5 x 7 room, I figured less was more.