Master Bedroom: Third Time's the Charm!

While the paint had barely cured on the guest room/office I had already moved on to our master bedroom.  As with the guest room, this paint job was a long time coming.  I had painted it about 7 years ago with what was supposed to be a lovely ivory color.  The problem is that our master doesn't get a lot of sunlight until late in the afternoon so even the lightest of colors appear dark.  This means the lovely ivory I had picked looked rather yellow once it was up on our walls.

(I didn't think to get any type of before pictures until after I had started taping bur you can see the yellow.)

Not only that,  I painted the room at a time when finances were slimmer in our household so I used cheap paint...really cheap paint.  At the time I was desperate to cover up my previous paint job which was a light lavender (I don't know what I was thinking either).  So using cheap paint to cover up a darker color with a lighter color meant not only three coats but also that I could always see the original color bleeding through in spots.  However, in the meantime child #2 came along and with two little ones in the house finding time and motivation to repaint was not all that easy.

It took me a while to decide on the paint color this time around, I was determined not to make a third mistake.  I first settled on Sherman Williams Ivoire which I spied in a Better Homes and Garden magazine.  The picture lived in my Smash book for a long time, I liked the deep, wheaty color.  Then right before it was time to paint I hopped on Pinterest to view the color up in various rooms (which, brief aside here, thank God for Pinterest...it has literally saved me hours of time with all this painting and made my decision process so much easier this time around).  I quickly realized I was headed toward another yellow disaster.  Ted was also happy to quickly remind me of my "ducky yellow" bedroom that I had in the house I rented when I was in graduate school.  In my defense I was thrilled with how bright and cheery the room was at the time but the point was taken.  I was not having luck with yellow bedrooms.

So instead I went with more of a neutral color, similar but a bit lighter than the guest room...Behr's Cream in my Coffee. And here my friends after another marathon Friday night/Saturday morning painting session (and three nights spent sleeping in our newly painted guest room) is the final product.  I am beyond please with the new color.

What's next on my "to do" list for this room?  Definitely not as much as the guest room.

• Ted's nightstand.  It's probably going to get the whitewash here soon.  Right now it's the odd man out, doesn't fit with our dressers and doesn't fit with the other nightstand.
• New lamps...I already know what I want.  The existing ones will be relocated elsewhere in the house.
• New artwork for over the bed.  The existing pictures were very old and fading quickly.  I'm not sure if I will reuse the frames in the same spot with new pictures or get something different completely.
• Reframe our wedding pictures.  I'd like thicker, possibly more decorative frames.
• A large piece of artwork for the space between my dresser and the bed.  In a money is no object world I would actually have a single window put it there...it just seems like one should be there and wow, would it provide a lot of light to the room.  Under the current budget, new artwork will do.
• The rocking chair in the corner.  It either needs to be painted or more than likely I need to find something else for that corner.  It was the rocker from the kids' nursery and when big boy and big girl rooms came about I didn't have anywhere to put it.  Plus it is/was a convenient place to sit when the kids are splashing in the big tub. Besides holding dirty clothes we do occasionally sit in to put on our shoes and stuff.  This means, it will be a chair of some sort.
• Down the road...new bedding.  That set is still holding up well but is beginning to show it's age.  Plus I'm getting a bit sick of it.  However, new bedding for the guest room and Katherine's room will take priority.  In short term, maybe new fluffier pillows and a throw blanket.

This room also seems to have the least amount of touch up compared to the other two rooms, which is a relief.  I'm planning on doing any of that plus some guest room touch up after I've finished Katherine's room.  It's been almost two weeks since we finished and I'm still just as thrilled with the results.  Here's to some good night's of sleep in our future!

You Suggest, I Haul...

After K. finally fell asleep for her nap (more on that later) I set to work rearranging the living room furniture per Bryn's suggestion. Unfortunately the loveseat is too big to fit where the Korean bar is (called the Korean bar because Ted's parents bought it when they were in South Korea and it actually folds out to become a dry bar) but the other arrangement worked. Here are the results:
There is something cute about it and I have told myself that I will live with it until tomorrow. I am thinking it will be a good arrangement for after Christmas, however, I don't think it will stay for Christmas (sorry Bryn). Reason is pure logistics, I don't think our tree will fit in that space by the front window. We have an artificial tree and I lost all complete sense of space when I was in Michael's buying it, its huge. I love that its big but there's no way its going in the middle of the front window without the person sitting on that end of the couch feeling as if they were sitting IN the Christmas tree. So back to the drawing board!

Phew!

We started the weekend like this...

And ended it like this!My goal for the weekend was just to get the bathroom primed. However, I easily completed that on Saturday so I decided to finish things up today. What a relief! The major part of the renovation is done! There is of course some touch up to be done, which I can tackle over the course of the coming week. Also, one of the shades to the light fixtures was slightly chipped (and Miss K. learned that do not touch means do not touch!), so I need to head over to Home Depot on Friday and pick up a replacement. Speaking of light fixtures, just look at how beautiful these are:

Thankfully we picked a simple design, so a replacement shade should be easy to find. Over the course of the next few months, we'll also pick up the assorted hooks, towel holders, pictures, mats, etc... We'll take our time to figure out what we want and as we see stuff we'll get it. I am feeling a huge relief because my evenings will no longer be spent in the bathroom. I can catch up on all of the other things on my list, like the September picture album.

Besides painting this weekend, Katherine and I also went to pick up her Halloween costume. I must admit, I was extremely dissappointed with the selection, its the first weekend in October, what gives??? I wasn't really picky in terms of type of costume, which is a good thing because there weren't many choices. We were all set with an Elmo costume, which I thought would be perfect because she loves Elmo. However, I wanted to try it on her real quick. Nothin' doin', she was more content hold the Elmo costume rather than put it on. Seeing as this might be problem if she was expected to wear it most of the day at preschool, we needed another costume. For some reason I quickly thought of a black cat and mentioned that to her. She got immediately excited and exclaimed "CAT!!" So back over to the costume area where we lucky to find that there were three different styles of cat ears and tails. K. picked out the leopard ones. Then over to the toddler clothing where we were able to find a long sleeve black shirt and black legging type pants. Pair those with her black Mary Janes and Score! What an easy costume. It should be really comfy for her, since really, she's just wearing normal clothes and I'm super please because those clothes will have a longer shelf life than just Halloween!

And I also officially placed my order for contacts. So far, I had been using trial pairs while I figured out what I liked. I've settled on Acuvue Oasys. They are much thinner that the first pair I tried and I noticed the difference right away. Still working on the solution, I think the best option for me will be to rinse the lenses in saline before I put them in, the all in one solutions seem to make my eyes itch but are needed to disinfect the lenses. I received a sample for Clear Care when I placed my lense order, so that is next to try. I still don't plan on wearing them everyday (like when I have to spend all day in front of a computer screen) but I love the flexibility they offer me.

Finally, and I am WAY behind in posting this...A big CONGRATULATIONS to my sister Colleen and her fiance Sven on their engagement!! We all found out about it last weekend but I wanted to wait before I posted so that they had to chance to spread the news first. I'm sure there will be lots of wedding planning updates soon!

Now its time for a nice hot shower in our freshly painted bathroom and bed!

Fall has arrived!

Goodness, Wednesday already, the first half of the week seemed to fly by. Katherine got her second haircut yesterday. It was even more adorable that the first cut and of course I didn’t have a camera with me to capture the moment. She sat herself on the chair like a big girl (booster seat of course) and let Kim cover her with a smock. And she got quite a kick out of checking herself out in the mirror. All in all she seemed pretty chipper about the whole experience, especially the lollipop at the end!

It looks like Katherine had her last romp in her kiddie pool for the season this past weekend. We had very warm temps in the 90s but fall has definitely arrived this week, highs in the 70s for the foreseeable future. The weekend after next we’ll be in Massachusetts celebrating the nuptials of my cousin Bill and his fiancée Bryn. While we’re up there, we’ll be taking Katherine to The Big E, which I am VERY excited about. Then it’s October!!! The first weekend is reserved for painting (finally!) our bathroom but then we should have some time to enjoy some fall activities. I’ll also have to start the search for Miss K’s Halloween costume. There will be a party at preschool and I think Ted and I will take her around the neighborhood for her first time trick or treating.

One minor setback in the bathroom redo. My success in painting the gold frame around the mirror has not been a success at all. As I was cleaning the mirror, the paint started to come off onto the paper towel. When I ran my finger along the frame I ended up with a silver finger. Crap! What went wrong? I thought there was a prep step I had skipped. Then yesterday morning I ran my finger along the silver paint on the wall. Yup, silver finger. Surely the paint should have stuck to the wall. I bought Rustoleum paint too, which I thought was a good brand. So I did some online searching and sure enough, others were reporting the same problem too. There was even a person who commented that they tried to apply a clear coat over the silver paint to stop this and the paint ended up running all over the place. So what to do? Well, first I need to sand down the frame this weekend. Then I think I am going to brush on a primer to cover up the gold paint. Then we will try repainting the frame. Instead of spray paint I am going to stop by the craft store and get something I can brush on instead, should be a bit cleaner to apply. So there you have it, my task for this weekend!

Now for those that are thinking we should just take the mirror down off of the wall, yes we have thought of that. We’ve thought about getting two mirrors to hang over each sink. However, we are concerned that we are going to get ourselves into even more of a mess than just having to repaint a frame. The mirror is glued to the wall; everything I’ve read about removing it basically involves prying it from wall with as much force as you can muster (think crowbars, hammers, and safety glasses…never a good combination) and then repairing any damage afterwards. Some sites even talked about cutting out the wallboard that it is mounted on and then replacing that sheet of wallboard. Yikes!!! Probably really simple but something I am not prepared to jump into right now. Maybe down the road, for now I’ll just try to repaint the frame.

Weekend Update

We're enjoying a nice long weekend (for myself and Miss K.) around here. I am happy to report that the bathroom is all sanded! I didn't end up needing the electric sander, things smoothed out very easily with a sanding sponge. WHAT A MESS! Not only was there dust everywhere, I must be honest and admit that we haven't exactly been too thorough in our cleaning of that bathroom recently. I am ashamed to admit I having been taking showers in there. So after the sanding was finish, the place got a complete top to bottom cleaning. There are still a few spots on the walls that I need to be touched up either with spackle or some wallpaper remover to get off some stubborn glue but that should take maybe an hour tomorrow. This means I am just about ready for paint!!! Phew! I have tentively planned the first weekend in October, right after our trip to Massachusetts to do the painting. This gives me plenty of time to finish prepping and get those light fixtures up. The end is in sight!

On Friday I took Katherine to the library while we were doing our morning errands. I needed to pick up a book for Ted and I knew she would enjoy the chance to look at the books herself. I was right, she had a ball. The Zebulon branch library is small, quaint and very family friendly. Miss K. ran right over to her section and started grabbing books. I was concerned that she would trash the place however, Suzanne the librarian (who I know from book club) said "that's her job". Luckily she didn't make a mess of the place and we picked up a handful of books to take home.

Ted ran a 10K race early this morning in Rocky Mount. I'll let him give the complete update but he says it went well for him. K. and I were going to go to cheer him on but since he was planning on leaving at 6:15 in the morning to head over to the race he felt it would be better for us to stay home.

A cute moment from this morning. Katherine found her play phone in her toy box. She picked it up and had a little conversation:

"Hi"
"Yes"
"I know"
"Yes"
"Bye"

Not much report on the potty training front. No repeat performances of the success earlier in the week. And this weekend, Miss K has not been too fond of the sitting on the potty. I'm trying not to force it, she'll get it when she's ready. However, something her teacher Caroline said this week made me think of last year at this time when we were waiting for those first steps. Caroline said: "She knows the whole routine and wants to sit on the potty all the time. I believe she's ready." I had immediately flashbacks to her teacher at the Dix Preschool, Mona, saying: "She can walk, I know she can walk, she just doesn't want to." Mona, Marcie, and Janet, if you're reading this, I know you're chuckling right now. That's my girl!

TGI...Thursday!

Just a quiet Thursday night around here. We've had an excellent week, Katherine made a very smooth transition into the two year old room and her teachers report she is already sitting on the potty. It actually happened her first full day in the room, they were changing her diaper and she just went over and sat down! Since then, they report that she won't even wait for her clothes to come down. Obviously nothing is happening just yet when she sits but we've made a big leap forward this week! Tonight when I asked her if she wanted to sit on the potty she ran right into the bathroom and climbed up on the toilet. Of course when I put the Elmo potty seat down and tried to get her to repeat it, no such luck. Oh well.

Katherine has also begun to say "Thank You" in the past week or so. It actually sounds more like "Daaayy Dooo" but what is really surprising is that she always says it at the appropriate time. I also think I caught a bit of "Your Welcome" the other day too, which I always say to her after she says thank you.

The big girl bed is working well so far, we haven't had any climbing out bed after we put her down or at odd hours. I can't complain (and probably shouldn't speak too soon) but bedtime has been quite smooth lately.

I'm sure you've all been watching the weather reports and it looks like Hanna is headed our way. In Raleigh they are predicting a nasty Saturday, rain and wind. Perfect day to hunker down and...paint a bathroom ceiling! I was noticing the other night that the ceiling could use a coat of paint and since I am redoing it, I should take advatage of the opportunity, so to speak. What's left on the to do list you ask?

• Paint the ceiling, white of course
• Install new light fixtures (no picture online, so you'll just have to wait and see!)
• Make any wall repairs from the old light fixtures.
• Sanding...lots of sanding, this should help make it quick
• Prep for wall painting, I don't paint walls without lots of painter's tape.
• Paint walls, distant valley is probably going to be the wall color
• I might also spray paint some of the faucet and drawer handles, I am encouraged since the mirror came out so well.

Wow, that is quite a list. I am hoping to be done by mid-October, remember most of the work is done during weekend naptimes, especially the painting. We'll see!

No More Wallpaper!

Woohoo! I finished scraping all of the wallpaper off the bathroom walls last night. The main part of the bathroom went really fast and was done a few weeks ago. The paper in the little room where the toilet is was a pain in the you know what (how appropriate!). I have a few words for the people that designed that wallpaper and for person who decided to put it up there. It was a textured paper that came off in small chips. Needless to say it was very frustrating. There is still some of the backing paper to get off in there however, it peels right off once you get it wet so that should take all of an hour to get off the walls. After that its spackling...lots and lots of spackling. Not only was the paper a pain to get off, the walls were not properly prepped before the paper went up (in any of the rooms) so there are quite a few spots to patch. I'll post some pictures soon to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. I also need to get behind the toilet but since I need to take the tank off the toilet to do this, that will be a project for another weekend, possibly the one coming up.

That was pretty much the major activity for the weekend. Katherine surprised us by taking a 3 and a half hour nap on Saturday, which is unheard of these days. I think she was still getting over what she had earlier in the week. Sunday's nap was the much more normal 2 to 2 and half hours. On Sunday morning we did one of our regular activities, window shopping at Lowes to decide on the next home improvement project. We've pretty much decided its going to be storm doors for the front and back. We also want to paint our front door, its black right now and we'd like a cranberry shade, but we don't want to leave the front door open all day. A storm door would solve this problem plus it will let in a lot of light (or fresh air) on nice days.

The Time Has Come...

...the Walrus said...to rip down the wallpaper in our master bathroom. I can't take the stripes anymore! The obligatory before pictures...
Check out the beautiful paper that's in the toilet area.We'll post progress pictures along the way. This is not going to be a major redo. Though we'd love to gut the place and completely redo it, for now we'll have to settle for paint and maybe a fixture or two. Oh, and I will probably spring for new towels, rugs and a shower curtain as well since ours are starting to get a bit worn. But Step One, get this awful wallpaper down!

I know it says that Ted posted this but its Beth...Ted is out for his morning run.