Living Room After

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 original BEFORE video is HERE

The painting is HERE

ROOM STATS:

Paint: Ralph Lauren (color matched into Glidden) Forde Abbey in Eggshell. Trim is Ultra Pure White in Semigloss.

Couch: Costco (2009) $550, Beat THAT Room&Board!

Coffee Table: Ikea Lack (this is actually the 2nd one we have had as they do chip over time)

Rug: Ikea GISLEV ($20…seriously, go buy it)

Entertainment Center: Ikea BESTA + Doors +Feet+Knobs

Book Cases: Ikea Billy + Glass Doors

Desk: Target (only I found this one for $35 at Deals Only!)

Floating Shelves: Ikea RIBBA

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.

Living Room Before and After

The livingroom in this house is pretty awesome, its huge and square and has nice windows. Now the we have decorated it I like it even more, but when I first walked in, it left much to be desired. The paint was a very dingy beige, with beige trim and beige ceilings. The walls were also FULL of cracks and dirt and yucky! Its kind of hard to see the major difference, but I swear it looks so much better, cameras hide the dirt and distort the colors. I SWEAR I did NOT paint it the same color, the last two pics show the more accurate color difference. Ugg…I REALLY need a good camera.

Oh and the color is Ralph Lauren Forde Abbey in Eggshell with Ultra Pure White in Semi Gloss.

TJ Breakfast

TRADER JOES:

-Fat Free Vanilla Greek Yogurt

-Low Fat Vanilla Almond Granola

-Strawberries

-Organic Honey

Mr. Gaunt and I walked to The Farmers Market and got BreadFarm Samish River Potato Bread, and walked back home (3.2 Miles). It was super windy, but felt great to get some exercise in. Then we drove down to Seattle to go wedding dress shopping for my friend Mallory, and lastly Ikea. Mr. Gaunt bought an entertainment center because our old one we had to leave with the house. All in all a lovely day.

My Closet and Pants are too Small

First things first, Mr. Gaunt arrived on Tuesday safe and sound. Hence the lack of posts.

We have been working on un-packing the house and finding a home for everything. It’s all a bit overwhelming.

My job will start on April 19th, but hopefully I can find something else to do in the mean time.

Today I worked on putting clothes away. the closet in our bedroom is TINY and only Mr. Gaunt’s clothes will fit, so I have the hallway in the guest room. It’s still tiny and sucks a bunch. One day I will have a good closet.  I had a few boxes of clothing that I hadn’t seen in a couple of months as we had packed a lots of extra clothing away a while before we moved. Some of these included pants that I SWORE to myself would fit by the time I un packed them. I would guess that they fit even LESS than they did before.

I feel horrible about my weight right now. Mr. Gaunt does too. We have both gained more weight than we would have ever liked to. It’s a vicious scary cycle of weight loss and gain. I promised myself I would never gain back the weight I had lost, but I have put some of it back on. It makes me feel absolutely dreadful!

I don’t have any specific plans for how I’m going to fix this problem, but I will. I know what I shouldn’t and shouldn’t do. I have a wedding motivating me too.

There is lots of money, weight, moving, wedding, job stress in my life right now. I’m just trying to chill out and make things better. Sigh.

In brighter news Mr. Gaunt and I too a 4 mile walk this morning, plus we have spent the last two days unloading a truck and unpacking, so the exercise is getting in. Tomorrow morning we will be doing Lake Paddens 2.6 mile walk.

And I promise to share a few more house pictures this week.

Anyone else feeling super down about the winter weight blues? Would love some motivation right about now.

Master Bedroom Paint

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.

Could Be’s. Should be’s. Summer Plans.

There are plans in the works for our big move (6 weeks for me) that I’m getting pretty excited about!

I have 2 possible job options, both seasonal, but would give me until the Fall to find something different. Both sound equally appealing, I will be happy with whomever will hire me. Both would hopefully start in March/April.

My mom has also found us 2 possible homes! Both are owned by her landlord, one a funky downtown apartment (that will probably be rented by someone else) and one a “fixer-upper” two bedroom house! The house came as a bit of a surprise, as Mr. Gaunt and I have major down-sizing plans. However this house offers an entirely different set of perks than anything we have lived in before. Like a huge fenced yard with a nice big shop! The yard even has garden beds already built. It is also in need of repairs, which would give Mr. Gaunt and I the freedom to kind of make it our own. It’s not a for sure thing, but I’m getting all excited at the ideas and plans for the summer.

Here are a few things I would like to do this summer:

-Grow our own Veggies! (and flowers)

-BBQ every night that we could (we have owned a BBQ for 2 years now, never taken it out of the box)

-Go for walks around the neighborhood

-Have parties in the yard (might need to hunt out some patio furniture at Garage Sales)

-Drink more (I know this seems like a very funny goal, but I NEVER drink these days and I miss it)

-Dry my clothes on the line (woop such an eco friendly thing)

-Make sun tea

-Attempt to buy local and organic all summer long

-Eat more fish

-Learn how to use public transportation (I know, Im lame)

-Mow a lawn (not joking, Ive never done this)

-Go to a you pick berry farm

-Float the river

-Make curtains

-Finish planning my wedding

-BE HAPPY!

Eeek such good feelings about all of this! Come on good stuff! Very Very Pumped! Now if mom would just email me photos!