My Home - Some Small Updates

I have been working on a few small projects around my house.
I had a deadline set because we have had lots of company over the past month, and even more events on the calendar.

A little push to be productive is never a bad thing!

The biggest project was actually one that I hired out.
When we first moved into our home a little over a year ago, I had much of the first level, bathrooms, and bedrooms painted. Except the master. That is still on the list!
I did not have the two story family room, or hallways leading to it painted though. It was a big job, and the entire space connects over railings and open space.

I have regretted not having it painted before we moved in every day we have lived here!
Until now! It is done! I had it painted the same color as the other rooms on the first level. Benjamin Moore, Hazy Skies.
Yes, I do need to adjust the frames in this photo so they are more evenly spaced. But I am too tired to do that right this minute.

While I was taking pictures, my camera died. So I went ahead and broke out the iphone shots. With how bad my camera is lately, they are probably close in quality anyway! Another thing on the list!

I went ahead and had the painters do quit a bit of patching while they were at it. Oh my! Did I end up with a mess on my hands! After they left, I spent the next six hours dusting everything we own, and vacuuming all the upholstery in the house! A white film covered it all, in-spite of drop cloths.

Other than the dust, which I is something the painters can only do so much about, I have been really pleased with this painting company! They have done all the painting in the new house, and they are FAST! I love fast.
Here is one guy using what looked like a blow dryer on the walls. I am sure it was more specialized than an actual blow dryer, but it seems to do the same job!

Two story family rooms. Still not my favorite. But it does feel fresher with the new color!

I have struggled with what to do with this fireplace since we moved in. It needs an update, but I am not sure how much money I want to put into it.
The new paint does help diffuse the gold undertones of it while I decide. So I am happy about that! I will probably end up leaving the tile for now and just worry about getting the t.v. positioned in a different spot over it. It is much too high right now, with a giant gaping hole behind it. It was built before the days of simplicity when it comes to televisions on the wall.

Another thing on the list!
 (P.S. the walls in the sunroom are grasscloth. I love grasscloth so much I wish I had more of it in my home. There are a million options when it comes to color and texture! So fun!)

Another view of the paint.

I framed the floor plan of the first home we owned, and built. Well, we still do own it, but we rent it out.
The plans have all of our notes and the added costs of what we debated upgrading scribbled in the margins. I love that we still have this and can see what we were concerned about back in 2003! I want to do a third frame with the sketch of the model we built on the front cover. I just need to dig up the plans from where I filed (threw) them!

My dirty little secret about this room?
While I was taking most of these pictures, I had a massive stack of unfolded laundry in the middle of the floor that I kept shifting around to get it out of the shot. Priorities right?

Another project I had been waiting to complete after the painting was done, was a gallery wall in the hallway upstairs that overlooks the family room, and front entry on the other side. I bought RIBBA frames from Ikea, and had our photos blown up at Kinkos. They can do it on their photo paper in a matte finish.
I love how it turned out, but the first round of frames I brought home were ALL broken! Del was nice enough to haul them back to Ikea for me, with the glass falling out and breaking all over the place because the wood was falling apart left and right. They replaced them kindly.

This hallway was in need of something on the walls! I am loving this!

I like to sit in Del's office while he works after we get the kids to bed. I can read or pull out my laptop in this chair. I bought a cool lamp at an antique shop when we moved in, and I guess it's age caught up to it, because it stopped working, and I am pretty sure it needs to be rewired.
I decided to go ahead and get a lamp I have had my eye on for a couple of years now. I bought a mirror from this company before we moved in, and it must be their thing, because both times the iteams from them have arrived, the packaging makes me panic! They are always boxed in the most massive boxes!

When the lamp arrived, Del was home, and he asked me if it was a coffin! It was that big! I reminded him about the mirror's box, and assured him I did not order a four foot wide lamp! The good news is, the lamp was definitely not damaged from shipping, and the kids had a box to play with for two weeks!

Oh, and that I love my lamp! I love lamps in general, one of my favorite home accessory pieces.
The rest of this room is a work in progress. On the list!

For the past couple of years, I have been collecting art in gold frames. I love the look, and I cannot explain why. This is my most recent find. I got it at an antique shop here in my town, and I love it! It was painted in the 1940's, and it came framed! It was such a good price for a framed painting! Online shops would have sold it for three times as much! I am eyeing another painting at the same antique store that will accept offers. I am going to come in low and see what happens. I think the other one belongs on my wall hanging right below this one!

This was another antique painting I found a while back in an art store. I did have to get this one framed. The framing cost more than the painting, but it makes such a big difference in the look of it!

This one is in my powder room.

Here are a few more of in my collection. One, I ordered from an One Kings Lane, one is from a thrift store and I had the matt switched out to white, and the plein air painting was done by one of Del's best friends growing up, Rick Kennington. He is very talented, and I hope to get more of his art for our home!
Is that thermostat not in the absolute worst place possible!? Right in the sight line from the front door too!
I have a sketch in a gold frame I saw in mind for my collection. One day. I love adding to my little collection!

A few months ago, I decided that I wanted the cabinets in our hall bath painted. They were in pretty bad shape actually, and the whole bathroom had a cute ocean theme. Cute, but not what I was going for.
I used the same color paint as the trim in our home, in an oil based finish. The guy at the paint store tried to steer my toward a water based, but I think when it comes to kids banging cabinet doors, and water, you just have to do the oil. They have made huge improvements to the oil based however, and I found the smell so much more bearable than it was even three and half years ago when I had my kitchen painted in my old home!
I have pulls to add to the top cabinet faux drawer fronts. I was debating doing it, but I think I will go ahead and put them on.

The white makes such a difference in here! I want to frame out the side of the cabinet with wood, but I am in no rush.

I wanted to do something to add a little UMPH! to this bathroom's builders grade cabinets, so I ordered these inlays online, glued them on, and then painted over them.

I am definitely going to do this same thing in our powder bath downstairs!

Here is the before, well, technically, mid sanding, shot of the bathroom, from the opposite angel.

Lastly, I found a cabinet to put under the television in the basement! We had our electronics sitting on the ground down there forever! I ordered these brass knobs for it separately. I love the hammered gold!

So, sorry to bore you if you hate home mumbo jumbo! Things have been busy, but it has been fun to see some small transformations!
Now I am in the middle of dealing with the far less fun issue of a leak in the roof! Yay!

I will end with a picture I took as I drove through the entry to our neighborhood. These trees line the drive. Popcorn popping on these trees for sure!