Well sister, I bought a house! Since you can't be here in person to help (and judge) me every step of the way, I thought posting my progress on the blog (that you started but don't maintain) would be a lovely idea. I can't believe I worked in two digs in one sentence. I've gotten better at this! :)
As exciting as it is to be a first time home buyer, after packing, moving, and unpacking, I'm exhausted and the fun has gone! After moving in, I spent my first week in the new house patching and painting walls and the glorious popcorn ceiling. All of this so I can hang curtains and not fear that my neighbors are watching me watch TV. I realize I could have hung the curtains at any time. But I didn't see the point if I would have to take them down for painting. Might as well paint first! I started off in the living/dining room, since that is what greets all front door users. Two of the walls in this area were a dirty white and the other two were a purple-y gray. You can see the two colors together below. (Little disclaimer...I know my house is a complete mess. But why put things away to only move again during painting? Also...my phone is the best camera I own. Take a moment to deal with that fact and my terrible photos.)
Rough yellowed ceiling too! But before I could even get to the ceiling, I had to patch some walls. The corner of every window had three sets of anchors. Fortunately the old metal anchors had the front part twist right off. I left the body of the anchor inside and patched over it. And when I say they twisted right off, I naturally mean each took 2-3 minutes of pulling and struggling while standing on a chair whose screws needed to be tightened. I live dangerously.
I also must ask - who needs this many holes over one doorway? What is this about? I made the same complaint to mom, who as you know had generously flown out across the country to help me move. While I patched all 176 holes above this doorway, my mom was cutting down shrubs out front, planting flowers and tomatoes in pots, cleaning the garage to eliminate the animal odor, tidying away everything in the shed and meeting all my neighbors while I hid inside. She might have not had the proper empathy my for standing on a chair with a putty knife in the cool house. Weird.
But honestly, yanking out anchors and patching 1,089 holes wasn't the worst of it all. The ceiling was. I'll offer some unsolicited advice here. If you ever buy a home and want to paint your ceilings...pay someone to do it for you. This is miserable work. Especially if your upper body has the strength of a wet noodle. I'm totally buff now, but it was a painful process. I even bought that EZ-Twist paint roller, where the paint is sucked into the roller tube. It's a slick device and helps with the mess, but you're still rolling above your head over and over and over. Plus when the popcorn gets a little wet and is knocked off by the roller, you get little popcorn paint dots all over you, your hair, your clothes and your dog that decides to lay down in the middle of your drop cloth.
I also have DIY ADD, which means I kept alternating between painting my ceiling, my walls, and doing trim work. When I would need a break from doing one, I'd switch to another. Or I'd sit on the couch and take pictures of unfinished bits of ceiling and wall. That's also helpful.
It's a long room...since it's two rooms. And I needed breaks.
But doesn't the new gray look fantastic against the clean white trim? The gray is Valspar's Granite Dust and the white is Sherwin Williams Snowbound.
And with the tall mounted curtains and rod, it's simply beautiful. Stuff is randomly placed on the sofa table, just so I could tidy up the living room enough to put down my new rug. So don't text me and tell me that the basket don't match and are spaced too far apart. Girl, I know.
The darker gray slipcover is going back on the couch. I just didn't want it on while moving and painting for fear it would be ruined. Since the gray cover costs $200 more than the tan cover, we obviously left that tan sucker on. The gray chair below has the weirdest tint in the below pic. Probably because I'm using my iPhone (not even a newer one) and not a real professional camera. I already warned you, so don't cry about the pic now!
Anyway, that's my week 1 progress. I'm going to hang the same curtains and curtain rod in the dining room part of this room tonight. And then decide what artwork will get hung and where. I meant to do that last night, but I hung out with my neighbor instead and we took tours of each other's homes. I bid you adieu dear sister and I hope and pray that I'll get my housewarming gift from you soon!
Love,
Em
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