Master bedroom, check, Hallway, check.

For those who didn't know me at the time, I bought my house because I loved the master bedroom. Not. It was pretty hideous, although not nearly as hideous as the wallpaper my friend Terry-Ann had in one of her bathrooms when she moved into her house -- cats in cowboy hats. seriously people? seriously? I had the joy of a gorgeous fuchsia-ish accent wall and pale yellow walls with the most awesome floral border ever. The hall was papered in a rather boring blah vertical stripe. Need I say more? Check it out.

Obviously, the fuchsia and yellow and the gorgeous wallpaper border had to go.

In an effort to go neutral, the purple (and all my crap) got a makeover -- as did the green in the hall. Check out the not so trippy new shroomy look. I totally give the guys at Porter Paints in Vicksburg major props -- it only took two coats to cover the periwinkle purple. The first shot also shows you a smidge of the new look in the hall -- wallpaper turned to green turned to stone gray. The house is really starting to shape up and look good. Madison appears to approve as well.

Stop on by

And visit for a spell. You only have a few weeks, but you can stay in my newly painted guest room.

Remember when I moved in, it looked like this:
Then I painted it purple. Apparently no pictures exist from that phase. How exactly that happened, I don't really know.

Now it is beautiful 'mushroom'. Which sadly looks an awful lot like the original color. However, it is far less pink-y and more builders beige-y now. Plus, the walls no longer have grease or smudge marks where the A's pictures were hanging AND we've got the HOT new floor now!!

Regardless of color you are ALWAYS welcome to come and stay in the guest room :)

Stone Gray City

I'm painting this weekend. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL outside, so Daisy assumed 'the position' in the window while I worked.

Here is a glimpse at the finished product. More product pics to come as the overall final product becomes finalized. :) I think it looks A-ma-zing! With the new floors it really has a put together look.

Kitchen Update!

Finally, I know you've all been eagerly awaiting this one...

Here is the kitchen table as I ate dinner at the table for the first time in a while.... Apparently Madison was pretty happy too! More updates to come in upcoming weeks.

2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17...

Theme: Prime

I spent my weekend working on the kitchen. Namely, preping and priming it. hardy har har...

I finished off the cabinets. They just need new hardware and the doors can all go up. I need to put up a little trim, however that will be one of the last things to go up. Then I washed down all the walls, spackled up the fifteen million holes left by the previous owners, and sanded down the areas on the walls and doors where there were giant globs of paint left hanging out by the previous owners. Next came removing the remanents of the wallpaper border around the top of the paneling and above the cabinets, not entirely a small job. Finally, I brought out my best friend, the painters tape. I should note, current pet peeve: people who paint over outlet covers and the outlets such that the next painter is worried that she is about to rip the electrical box out while taking them off.

Last step: priming the sheetrock, paneling, and doors. It took two coats of prime to get it past the point of being gross. The A's who lived here were just gross. Not only did they do things like leave globules of paint on the walls and paint over the switches and outlets rather than installing new ones of the appropriate color, but they had a wood burning stove that smoked up the entire house. Once their pictures etc. were removed you could see the outline of everything they had on the wall. It was also apparent once the wallpaper border came off. I'll be painting everything with real colors soon. Here are a couple of 'befores' that shows the goreous border as well as the grease and smoke outline on the wall as well as some 'middle of the project shots' to keep your curiousity at bay. Look for more to come in upcoming week (s)!

Pantry Painting

Not to much to report on from the Ladies of the House. We were quite excited by the lost premiere last week, in case you hadn't gathered. It was great, but introduced many new questions and didn't help me to come to any sort of closure. I'm going to be very very very sad when it ends. I might have to do something drastic and turn off cable or something. I just don't watch that much anymore, nothing meets my expectations after L~O~S~T.

In household news, I'm back on the improvement bandwagon. You might have been wondering what all I had been doing lately. The answer was nothing much. Two weeks ago I took everything out of the pantry. I threw out anything past date (which was scarily more than I want to admit)and gathered things that were in date that I have no real intent to eat to donate to the food pantry. Turns out I have a LOT of grains. I could have told you that though. Everything that was left after the purge made it's way into the cabinets with rolling drawers while the pots and pans eventually made it into the pantry. It seemed like a better way to organize things and not waste so much food. Before re-filling the pantry I repainted it. I don't think it had been painted since 1979!! It was all yellowed and gross and full of scratches and whatnot. After painting, it turned out nice and clean and white and crisp :) Next task, painting the hall closets.

Home Renovations part 8 milliion

If you recall, I claimed to have finished painting my office/library/puppy room. Well, here are some pictures. We finally put the futon in there. Thank God Jody and Lucy were able to help me. We wound up having to take it partly apart to get in there. That is not such a fun thing to do, and we hadn't taken it apart since the big move from IL to TX. You can't see from this doorway picture, but I've got some book shelvves in there too. Hello, this IS my library too!

The reason for the big futon move? For the cost of a lunch (I'll make sure it is a nice one!) I got a new couch and chair. Lucy had gotten a family couch and chair recovered, so she was ready to get rid of her old one's - for some reason they didn't need garage furniture !?!?!?!? They brought them over today, and we are happy campers and the Jersey house! I knew I wanted a couch in my living room, but I had forgotten how much I wanted one. Here is the current look. I may rearrange, especially if I get some othter furniture I"m looking at.

Saturday is as Saturday does

We had an all around Saturday sort of day. This morning the ladies of the house all gathered on the couch to watch the U of I -OSU football game. Unfortunately it didn't turn out as I would have liked. Fortunatley, we held our own except for all of those turnovers. If only they could learn to play well I would see lots of wins in our future - because they have the raw talent, that is for sure.

After the disappointment of the loss the other ladies were devastated. I tucked them in to sleep away their misery. Meanwhile I headed back to the dreaded office for another coat of paint. I think it is the last. Later on I hung new blinds in there. It is actually looking halfway decent. I'll post pictures once I get the furnitue in there. For now I leave you with my sleepy furry children. After they have been tucked into bed they are likely to stay asleep like that for a surprising amount of time.

Worker Bee

I've been a busy bee around the house. Last Sunday was a work day - mostly because I was procrastinating doing other, job related things. Amazing how much you can do around the house when you are avoiding doing things in the workplace! It was a day to get little things done around the house. Including

• Mowing the leaves in the yard in an attempt to avoid a repeat of last year,
• Putting another coat of paint on the door to the sunroom in my bedroom so that it matches the trim,
• Hanging blinds on said sunroom door,
• Putting a new doorknob and deadbolt on said sunroom door,
• Painting the other side of my bathroom and closet doors,
• Rehaning said doors with new hardware,
• Painting the interior of my vanty doors, and
• Rehanging said vanity doors with new hardware

It was a lot of little stuff that should have done forever ago. I got a new drill about three weeks ago, and I'm enjoying using it on all o the stuff I said I was going to do forever ago. Here are some pics. I hung new blinds in the window earlier in the week. It finally is looking put together in my room!

The Room looks so much better with doors on the closets!

The Door is awesome. I love having blinds that darken the room - and so does Madison

Look at the pretty vanity.

Purple People Eater

A belated Happy Memorial Day to one and all. Not sure if there is more than one reader out there, but a belated none the less. We had a pretty hard core weekend. As in, I worked hard.

At St. Paddy's day I found a set of quilts for my spare room. This weekend I painted the walls. If you recall, they were fairly blah and icky.

Now they are PURPLE! Yes, not the easiest color to pass of when selling the house, but I'll slop on a couple coats of a neutral when I'm ready to unload it. THere is so much other stuff to do before I can unload it that I imagine I'll go through several other colors between now and then. So, the Hotel Sarah Jersey is up and running - feel free to book a room!

Painter's Update

I forgot to post this picture of my dining room! I put the final coat on the top half a couple of weeks ago. It looks soooooo much better in the Cabernet color than it looked in the Pink/Peach Color. Now the DR just needs a new coat on the white paneling, the trim re-painted, new blinds/shades, a new light fixture, and re-staining the built-ins. I guess I have my work cut out for me.

BEFORE

AFTER

Welcome Back Sarah

I’ve been without internet access on the homefront for about a week now, and I have really been feeling it! Plus, you all have missed out on some ‘important’ discussion from your favorite blogger. Here is that much anticipated, picture that I promised. Please ignore the mess and the painters tape that needs to be removed. I need to get the ladder out! Recall the befores, shown below, and then you will be even more amazed!

The weekend, Bring it on

It is pretty common for us to walk around the lake and see deer tracks over by the dam. I know that we live ‘out in the count’, and I know that there is undeveloped land practically around the corner. I try to remember to be careful when coming home from work around dusk. But, the other night I had a crazy experience. I was coming home late at night. I was in my subdivision, not three houses up the road, when I noticed the neighborhood dogs running around. I said, gee those are some big dogs, that looks bigger than the tan dog from across the street. Suddenly, the realization hits me, it isn’t a pack of dogs, it is three deer running across the street! Thank God I wasn’t five seconds earlier or the Camry would be toast.

We had some beautiful weather here in the ‘burg. This evening the girls and I went for a little walk around the lake. Everyone is starting to take advantage of this weather to get things done. We stopped to chat with the family next door for a few minutes – it turns out we go to the same church. A couple of weeks ago I followed them to mass, and recently she had notice me at church. We are really starting to fit in around Lake Forest. On the way back around we got to stop by and talk with our other next door neighbor. Luckily, he hadn’t even noticed the excessive dog barking lately. I wish that were the case for me. He has noticed that our neighbor out back has put up a spotlight that shines directly into our back yards – not so cool for trying to sleep at night.

It has been a productive day in the Jersey house. I didn’t do the yard work that the weather was asking me to do. Instead, I started to finish off last weekend’s paint job. The minute I decided to put an offer in on the homestead I had a few visions of thing I wanted to do. Today I finally put my living room paint vision into practice – painting the beams in the vaulted ceiling to set them off from the ceiling. I never had any doubts that it would look good, but it looks even better than I thought it would. It really defines the room. I don’t understand how the previous owners thought that it was a good idea to paint it any other way!!! You need to check it out! I’ll be posting pics soon.

Busy little Bees

It has been a fun time in Vicksburg lately! This weekend was happening! Saturday afternoon was an exciting time. I spent the afternoon working my booty off in the back yard. After several weekends of work I finally got the fenced in portion of the back yard cleaned of leaves. The crazy thing - there was more grass under there than i thought! While there is plent of mud, there is some real green stuff out there too. The girls had a ball with me in the yard. They didn't even need to play with me, they were just happy to roll around in the dirt and lie in the sun.

Saturday evening I moseied over to Jackson, and hit the PetSmart for a crapload of food. The spoiled babies got new toys too. I hit the Borders while I was over that direcion. We enjoyed a delicious dinner over at Keifer's. Keifer's is a fantabulous place over in Jackson. They have great food - all sorts of greek/midle eastern foods. The hummus was absolutely to die for, and the gyros are pretty tasty too. The cottage fries are crazy huge! The atmosphere there is great - they have this awesome patio, and sometimes they have live music.

Sunday was yet another productiv day. I finally hit the paint wagon again. Over the course of the long afternoon I was able to paint the ceiling in the living room. I even started on part of the trim. It will definitely look nice when it is done!

This afternoon I had to cut out of work a little early to take Ms. M. to the vet. She has a nasty rash on her belly. When it itches she starts scratching it and it gets really infcted if I'm not careful. It is pretty bad right now. Hopefully it will get better soon. She has a bunch of drugs to try to get her straight. In honor of our productive weekend we took a walk around the lake this afternoon. If I don't walk them fairly often, they start to act like they have never been outdoors before.

trashy, of the white variety

yes, if you came into my house (almost wrote apartment there) right now, you might think i was white trash. my dryer is currently sitting in the middle of my kitchen. there is a reason for the trashy-ness. after talking about it for weeks, i'm finally painting. i'm starting with the laundry room - hence dryer in the kitchen. the laundry room is a good place to start because no one will see it unless i want them to, so i can test my painting skills. this is also a good place because the last time the previous owners painted they must have forgotten the paint tape. i think that it would have killed me to leave it be for months. plus, they had tons of "built ins". not just the built in cabinets, but several home made shelves. i decided the shelves needed to go, so they went out. it was sort of fun to get to start demolishing things.

so, i spent today washing walls (amazing how filthy they were - thank you God for amonia, vinegar, and baking soda: they do wonders) and removing shelving. then i got to pull out the spackle. this was always my favorite part when i was little. between the holes from the shelves and all of the other random nails and screws, there were a lot of holes to fill. i even did a whole patch in one spot! i'm proud of my work. i started taping too, so tomorrow morning i'll finish taping and get going wtih the paint thing.

the other big problem i'm having is with the bulit in cabinets. three of them have doors. the previous owners did things the quick and easy way - they just painted over the hinges. that is a big no=-no in my book. i wanted to replace the hinges when i repain the cabinets, so i'm attempting to get them off. it is proving to be bigger trouble than expected - i can't get the doors off by pulling out the pins, and most of the screws are painted in so tightly that i can't get them out. :-( if you have any suggestions, i'm all ears. somehow i will get this done.

meanwhile daisy is loving being in the house. last night we just walked up to the stop sign and came back home. then i put her on the tie out in the back while i fired up the grill and watered the lawn. she really likes the hose. when i sprayed water in her direction she started chasing it and having a ball! one day i'll put her under the sprinkler and see what happens.

tomorrow i'll post a mid-point picture of the laundry room. for now this "before" will have to do. from the picture you can see the excellent job that they did on the trip. you can also see some of the home-made shelves that are no longe a part of this room. considering how much spackle got put up today, i think that next time the room gets done i might need to re-drywall it!