MAKING A HOUSE INTO A HOME

Some friends of ours have begun a new adventure, moving to France and it has inspired me to get caught up on my blogging from last summer's (2013) trip that Dave and I had taken. Although I keep a journal, I have decided to hit the highlights, summarizing the work that we had done while we were at the house.

One of our projects was staining the balcony off the master bedroom. Dave felt like this needed to be done right away and it turned out great! It was too time consuming for just one person so I helped out and we managed to get it done a lot quicker!

A little before and after of the balcony:

We had several painting projects that we accomplished as well. The more we do on our own equals money saved. Our first project was the second bedroom upstairs. It was painted a ridiculous color of florescent green. This room will be Dave's hobby room, housing his extensive collection of Colorado dairy memorabilia. The carpet isn't too terribly bad so if we start having to cut back, he said he can live without having hardwood floors in here. What neither of us could live with though was the psychedelic wall paint so it had to go! I had chosen the wall colors in April, as well as stocking up on primer so we were able to jump right in! When the upstairs remodel begins, there will be trimwork such as, door framing, baseboards and crown molding added as well. We also changed out the outlet covers.

We painted the master bedroom as well. I had chosen two different shades of grey to compliment the blue pine walls. The master bedroom has 2 smaller rooms off the main room. One, I refer to as the balcony room which is completely covered in blue pine, the other I refer to as, the dressing room. The dressing room has a smaller closet (in need of doors)and I will use this room for putting on makeup, fixing my hair, etc since the upstairs bathroom only has one vanity. It had stark white walls which are incredibly boring; although I should give thanks that it wasn't painted green! I painted it the darker shade of grey and added new switch plate covers.

The main room section of the master bedroom was painted as well. Due to the blue pine on the walls, we didn't have to paint four whole walls. This room we painted in the lighter shade of grey.

Our last painting project of the trip involved the upstairs bathroom. Two of the walls above the ceramic tile was painted that same hideous green color. I seriously don't know about these people! We soon wiped out all remaining traces of the previous owners eclectic taste in wall decor! After priming the walls, we could get some nice color on it! We replaced the white cabinet with something more rustic as well.

It felt good getting the painting done and we were pleased with the results. The only remaining area is the upstairs hallway which won't take very long to get done. It's surprising what a relatively inexpensive investment like paint can make!