I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was painting my mom’s Bathroom. My sister and Mr. Gaunt and I all went in and bought her new towels, shower curtain, rug, and a gift card for paint. Then she bought stuff to repair her always running toilet, and cleaning supplies. We spent a good full day cleaning, painting and fixing it up.
All the linens are from Target, specifically this line. The paint is Martha Stewart, but GAH I’ll have to check with my mom on the color. Trim is Ultra Pure White. The one thing we still need to do is raise the curtain rod, as this shower curtain is super long.
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.
The house is mostly unpacked and decorated….yay! It looks pretty darn cute if I do say so.
Before I show you some of the decorated rooms, I wanted to show you Video #2 of the house after I painted and did repairs to all the rooms. Again ignore my rambling awkward talking (in fact its best to just turn your sound off): Oh and in case you want to watch VIDEO #1 (pre-repairs and paint) Ill post that one first:
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.
Tomorrow a wonderful creature will come to my house, and bestow upon me the ability to see the whole world and all its glorious beauty…
….err…
Comcast is coming to hook up my internet tomorrow.
WAHOOOO!!!!
my mom “borrows” internet from the bar downstairs, and it comes in and out depending on where you are sitting. It annoys the crap out of me. I can hardly blog, let alone upload and edit photos. Hence the lack of anything interesting on here. It also means I have been staying at her house the last two weeks instead of my own, as I have no furniture and no Internet: No Pandora, No Facebook, No Netflix, no nothin!
But after tomorrow all that will change, and I will probably attempt to stay over there more.
And despite the lack of posts, I have actually been really good at documenting my house re-model. I have taken lots of before and afters to show you later this week!
Painting is taking WAAAY longer (and way more paint) than I had thought, as we have plaster walls and they drink up the paint like its their job. Lame. But things are coming along well.
I miss Mr. Gaunt more than anything. I’m glad we had some time apart, but I would like him back now. And my stuff, and my cat. A few more weeks and they will all be here with me!
Oh and today I bought some Zig Zag fabric that my sister and I are gonna make pillow covers for! I got it at Fourth Corner Quilts, they have a waaaay better selection than JoAnns, and my fabric was 50% off!
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 
