One Step Closer to Grout

And this is a good thing. No, really.

I came home the other day and found this waiting for me:

A jar of premixed thinset on the tile...

Lots of tools...

And baseboards!

Yes, Doug had cemented the loose tiles (there were still two) in our bathroom, AND he put up some baseboards to boot. He ran out of material before finishing the bathroom, but at least the light won't leak into our bathroom from downstairs anymore.

Wa-hoo, grout here I come!

Here Comes the Bride...Now We Need a Guest Room

My niece is getting married!

Here's what this means to me: many relatives will be descending on me in about a month and hoping for a place to stay. We were firmly raised with the notion that a relative's house is much better than a hotel. Not sure I believe that anymore, but I do love having company, so I am happy to let family come and stay.

My guest room needs some help, though. As does the company bathroom, aka the kid's bathroom. Oh, and the downstairs bathroom. What to do, what to do.

Here's what we have right now:

What does this say to me? Storeroom.

The front bathroom is pretty featureless.
Unfortunately, it has two boys that use it regularly.
Please don't use your imagination here.

The downstairs bathroom is a little scary without walls.

I'm hoping to get some paint on the walls in the guest room, and at least a door on the downstairs bath. And everything needs to be deep cleaned. Seriously considering hiring a cleaning service to deep clean everything before family comes.

Because...did I mention that Doug and I are catering the wedding reception? It's a light buffet, but it is for 100-150 people. The first time we've done anything on this scale. So wish us luck. Food, people, party! And exhaustion, but that can come after the reception.

And the Winner is....

Linen. From the Eddie Bauer line of colors at Lowe's.

Instead of trying to get Doug to agree to a color (we're talking front room/dining room here), I just decided to pick one. So he said he wants white. Or off-white. I just can't live with that. Even though I had mentioned earlier that I was getting used to the off-white in the front room, I think I was deluding myself.

So I found the perfect color: a grey-brown with green undertones. And I went to town.

Living in chaos

Prepping: washing, patching, sanding...again and again...

It took me a good week to prep - partially because the space is just so large, partially because the walls were filthy. We are talking walls in a stairway and a dining room where five children are running around on a more-than-daily basis. There were nicks and bangs, too - many from before we moved in, but I will take responsibility for a few myself.

Then! I started painting. Personally, I like to paint the trim first. It is much easier for me to get a straight line working from the walls into the trim, although many people recommend doing the trim last. The trim is painted in my favorite white, Swiss Coffee. Not that exciting, but easy to remember and it goes with just about everything.

Then I started on the walls. It was a little more gray and green than I was anticipating.

I started in the dark hallway, and was a little panicked...
though I hid it pretty well, I think

The hallway is my least favorite place to paint: lots of doorways (lots of cutting in and switching back and forth from rolling to cutting) and it's very boring...who cares about a hallway anyway? But if I start there, then it's easier to keep going and get everything done. If I start in the main room, the hallway gets neglected for years (it was the last thing to be finished at our house in South Carolina before we put it up for sale). This hallway is also visible from the front room, making it a little more important for it to look decent.

Then I got going on the front room. Holy moly, is there a lot to paint in there! But here I fell in love with the color (again - I was in love when I chose it). The contrast between the white trim, the red door, and the Linen color is sophisticated, subtle, and just stunning. How do I really feel? I loooooove it.

Little Giant ladder. A must for cathedral ceilings or stairs.

There are even a few walls with a second coat already! It did take a whole week to get the first coat up...and it will probably take at least two for the second coat. But I'm more than halfway there. And I'm motivated by the fact that I can't allow myself to decorate until it's done. And I really want to decorate. Hehe.