Well, It’s official. We are going to be THAT house on the block.
You know, the “holy shit what were they thinking, that probably looked good on a 2″ square, but on a whole house!”
Yeah, that house.
My landlords are obviously off their rockers. Whatever. I think it will be fine. It could be way worse. It could be orange and brown…wait…it almost is orange and brown. Sigh.
Without Further ado….
The Main house color:
Benjamin Moore - Baked Terra Cotta
And The Trim:
Benjamin Moore- Frappe
To me it looks like Pink on pink. Like a giant pink house…lol!
Downside of all of this is the house is covered in lead paint (on top of asbestos shingles)! AHHHH! This means no going into the backyard for a week, and I probably shouldn’t really hang out here much either….sigh.
Oh and I leave you with a current look of the front house in case your forgot what it looks like…so just imagine it like this but pink.
I took about a million pictures of this room, so many that I just don’t have the patience to edit them at all, so they will be raw straight out of the camera. That’s fine, right?
I just really wanted you to get all the angles and details and such.
The rest of the accessories came from Thrift Stores, Pier 1, Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, and Target. I really try hard to find deals whenever I can. I shop at Goodwill and other Thrift stores to fin little treasures that I can refurbish. However we have invested (with help from our families) in some nicer pieces that help bring the room together. Not that Ikea is overtly NICE, but it works for us. The couch was the best purchase we ever made! We love it, and feel so lucky to have found it!
Anyways the only room left is the bathroom, which isn’t that exciting, but I’ll show you it soon. The spare room is a total disaster still, which is fine as we don’t actually have any furniture to put in it. So it will be a future project when there are more funds.
I just finished painting (and photographing) the spare bedroom, which for a TEENY TINY room, took FOR-EV-VER (Sand Lot anyone?).
It all started one day when we were at Home Depot, and their “GREEN” Paint was on clearance for $5 a gallon, apparently no one really wanted eco-friendly paint. However it only came in a select number of colors. There was a lot of pressure to pick a color for the spare room fast, so I went a little crazy and picked Mauve. But not a cute purple Mauve, more like un ugly grandma Brown Pink mauve. I don’t know why, I just did. I don’t pick colors under pressure well.
The bedroom previously was BRIGHT Robin Blue with dark brown (almost olive-y black) trim. Once the mauve went up I immediately hated it. My mom and sister kept saying “When the blue is all gone it will look better” and “when the trim is all white it will look better” well, after almost completing the job we realized…nope…its never gonna look good.
This is not the first time I have painted an entire room only to hate it and re-paint it. In our old house I painted our bedroom Navy after seeing a picture like this however mine room didn’t really look like that, it looked like a dark blue cave. I had a god cry and then Mr. Gaunt convinced me to just suck it up and re paint it, which I did.
So that’s pretty much what went down here too. I scrapped the Mauve and bought a nice gallon of OOPS (a miss-tint that is discounted to $6) Paint at a local paint store. Only problem is that it’s a flat finish which is not my favorite, but its a spare room so I’m not that concerned. In the end I couldn’t be more thrilled with this decision, it looks sooooo much better.
The stripes came at the end, when I got hair up my butt and decided I needed a little pizzaz! Id like to say I measured and spent hours taping off, but that’s just not true. I did tape off, but I eyeballed it, no measuring at all. Shockingly they look pretty even, yay good eyesight!
NOTE: In the “Before” pictures, it looks like a blue/grey wall color, but its way brighter. The most accurate representation of the color is the one of my sister on her knees painting over the bright blue.
As you can see, this was quite the process. I should have primed the trim as well, as it took about a million coats of white to cover the brown. The whole thing was very frustration, so I did it slowly when I had the time. It took me about 3 weeks to finish…lol! It’s going to be a very cute Guest Room/Office/Craft Room.
It’s funny to call it the “master bedroom” as it’s probably only a foot larger than the other bedroom. A very tiny room.
When it came to painting, this room was #1 on the list, although it was actually painted in between the THREE coats the living room took. The funny thing is, the original color didn’t even really bother me much. I kind like a retro-olive-lime-green kinda color. The problem was that it looked like it hadn’t been painted in 20 years! Whatever idiot painted it before us used a Flat/Matte Paint, which not only isn’t washable AT ALL, but it also attracts dirt like it’s it’s job. Yuck! Like you could tell where the bed had been because there was definite “clean” spots and then greasy dirty spots all around it. It also looked like the last owners were really into Blu Tack (that really weird blue putty used to hang posters) and there were crusted on blobs of that everywhere. The trim alone was enough to make someone gag, the dirtiest grimiest off-white you have ever seen.
On top of the gross paint, there was also LARGE cracks and nail holes around the room. I filled all of these with Putty a few days before, then sanded them smooth. The area where the blaster is full on splitting is not permanently fixed, but there are no gaps really anymore. Its attention to detail like this that makes your paint look that much better in the end.
So reminder that you can watch the 360 video of the whole house (and this room). Here are some picture of the BEFORE. Sorry that the wall color keeps changing. The pictures were taken with my kinda crappy (cant white balance) camera at different time of the day (the first photo is the most accurate for color):
Gross. I know.
So after cleaning, filling holes, taping off, etc. I actually got to the painting. It took me 1 whole gallon to paint the four walls, something about plaster walls sucks that stuff up! The color I chose with Martha Stewart: Yellow Magnolia, however I had it colored matched into a Glidden Paint (for price reasons, and since Glidden owns Martha, its kinda the same thing without the fancy label) in Eggshell (no, its a sheen not a color). The trim is just a Gallon of Glidden Ultra Pure White (like off the shelf, no tint) in Semi Gloss.
Oh and I painted the ceiling with the leftover paint from the living room! Its Ralph Lauren’s Forde Abbey (however Ralph Lauren paint is no more, so I had them just shoot the formula into Glidden, as Glidden also rep’ed RL, and its the same paint) in Eggshell Sheen.
SIDE NOTE: I worked in the Paint Department at The Home Depot for a long time, which is why I know a fair amount about this stuff. I plan on doing a Paint products and knowledge PK in a later post for you all.
Sorry that this is the first update, its been a bit of a transition moving to Washington (from Colorado) but I finally have something worthy of talking about.
So prior to us moving here, my mom found us a little old house to move into. For the last 3 years we had been living in very nice upgraded condo, but never had a yard or a patio or anything like that. We knew when we moved to Bellingham that we wanted a different sort of living situation. Something that well help us focus more on the lifestyle we want to live.
Now I will be the first to say that I had a minor freak out when my mom and I met with the landlords on day one. I knew the house would be older and wouldn’t have the brand new shiny appliances I had been a custom to. However I was not prepared for the dirty grimyness of the place. I felt overwhelmed by the amount of money and work that would need to go into a place we were just renting. On top of that, Mr. Gaunt is till in Colorado, and he is the one that keeps me focused, keeps me level-headed.
So I went back and forth on how I felt about the house. Was the work worth the benefits? Could I handle crazy unreliable landlords that felt it fine to leave a bathroom unpainted and house uncleaned? (note: I spoke with them about having it professionally cleaned, and they are giving me a $150 budget to pay someone to clean)
During all of this I am living at my moms on her couch with all my stuff spilling out of suitcases. I’m a bit in the way, and my 4.5 years of life in Colorado has definitely changed the way I look at life and things a bit. Its been hard. Not stepping on people’s toes, not freaking out. I’m not really a “go with the flow” kinda girl (I’ll add it to my very long list of NEEDS IMPROVEMENT). All in all my minor freak out turned into a balls out yelling and crying freak out…..ugg.
So I did what I always do, I called Mr. Gaunt. And we talked for an hour. Talked about the pros and the cons of everything. Talked about all our plans that we had. Talked about how to clam me down and focus. Needless to say I’m pretty pleased I am marrying his butt.
Last night (after said total meltdown) my sister and I went back over to the house to make a video for Mr. Gaunt. Being there at night actually made the place feel warmer and cozier than in the day. And my sister was really great at pointing out all the cute things, and agreeing at all the dirty things. I felt better overall. This might work.
So Mr. Gaunt (I say this, because although he is not here, we are a team) and I have hired a family friend to come in and do a good cleaning, using the $150 our landlords will pay, and then paying whatever else on our own. After that I have to get some repair supplies, paint, contact paper, etc. And spend the next few weeks making this funky old house a home.
So I leave you with the Video we made for Mr. Gaunt. Please ignore my dorky voice and commentary. Oh and because it was night I was unable to film the yard (which is almost the best part). I will do a 2nd video of that later….maybe today.
The Family Chapters 
