The Family Room Is Shaping Up

Well its been two week. That went fast. (And slow -- as mom life seems to do.)

Ok so last thing I told you was about our food stuff.

That week was essentially a waste as far as getting house stuff done. I was of singular focus -- and not too emotionally stable.
The next week I got maybe two small things done. Including organize two drawers in the kitchen. I had my eye on doing that for a while, but was of course always too busy. But I really used that week to slow down. I took baths at nap time. Watched Netflix while in there. Just tried to kinda heal up my heart. Also a trip to the library to get a huge pile of books on allergy recipes, to look into. (It was kinda awesome to find some many. Not that all will work.)

So no real house progress.

The other small thing was more Blake’s work, followed by my painting.

I asked him to make me a pedestal just for my dyer. Our laundry room is just wide enough for the machines and a walk through. So there isn’t a lot of storage space. I thought putting our dyer up would give me space I needed for laundry baskets.

  We are also making one of those cute ironing board hangers:

He did an awesome job. They looks great. The pedestal works Perfect. (Ironing board thing, not install yet.)



We secured the dyer to the pedestal with some metal braces and screws. He just drilled a pilot hole and then screwed straight into the sheet metal of the dyer.  Its on there nice and secure.

I had been nervous that if the girls tried to climb on the dyer door the whole thing would fall over on them. But my dad checked it too and said “Oh yeah there’s no way it’d all fall, the door would break off long before that ever happened, its really stable.” So all is well there.

It has adjustable feet to keep it level on our slanted-towards-the-drain floor

I have to say that our laundry room doesn’t feel too put together yet though, because I’ve been stashing a ladder in there while I paint the family room. (Have to hide it while the girls are awake so no one plays “climb that awesome thing.”) So its kinda crazy doing laundry around that. But that’s temporary.

It is REALLY nice to have the dyer up higher. It actually fantastic for getting wet clothes in to. And we did make sure not to put it too high, I can still easily turn it on. The cabinet I plan to put above it however, I definitely will need a stool to get into. Oh well. I was planning the cabinet to hold rarely used stuff anyway. (A shelf will hold regular use stuff over the washer.)


Then after that I spent my time getting the family room spruced up.
I started by taking down all the stuff on the ceiling and spray painting it. We have 6 recessed lights that had black and grey surrounds. We have two heat vents up there that were a gross, dirty, gray-khaki color. And then two eye ball lights that are kinda a white-almond color. So I wanted them all to be flat white. Took them down, took them outside on a nice day and spray painted away. It made a huge difference. (I haven’t done the eye ball ones yet -- Blake needs to unwire them for me still -- they are just hanging down from the ceiling for a week now! ha!)

We also had a nice new fan my parents had given us for Christmas. So despite the fact that the fan in here wasn’t too bad, I thought it would upgrade the room to use it in here. We left the light off of it because I thought tall people would walk right into it (not that I would come anywhere near it.) Plus the room already has 9 other overhead lights, so why bother.

I think our recessed lights used to have covers over them at one point. But there is nothing there now, and it looks kinda messy to me (you can see popcorn ceiling overspray in the in-between-spot), so I’m gonna try cutting florescent light covers (like for drop ceilings) down to size and see how that looks.

Anyway. Then I painted the popcorn ceiling my fav white. Swiss Coffee.

And can I just insert here (if I haven’t already said this) I am SO GLAD I took my time with that, and found the right white. If you notice things like that and you are in the place where you’ll be picking a trim (and or ceiling) white its definitely worth the time investment to find the right one for you. I’m not exaggerating when I say that at least 10 times a day I just take a moment to sigh and be pleased. I even got the gold seal of approval from Blake -- he, unprompted by me, had a tiny conversation about how it is a really good white. (This is coming from a guy who doesn’t look at that stuff at all, ever.)

Painting a popcorn ceiling is a whole new thing for me. It takes a TON of paint! (Plus this is a big room 23 x14 - ish.) I did it at night (of course -- the only time this momma can work) so it was pretty hard to tell what I was doing. I don’t really recommend night time ceiling painting -- but you can make it work if you have to! I think it basically took a whole gallon of paint to do this room’s ceiling. (I used up one can and part of another, so can’t really tell for sure.) But it was well worth the paint and effort. The room looks so much cleaner.

Lookin good after painting

And added bonus. I went ahead and painted the guest room’s ceiling the second night of ceiling painting because I already had the roller wet. (That ceiling is mildly textured, so I thought I should use that thick roller.)

That’s one thing I’m loving about painting this house. It literally cleans it. Because there are cobwebs everywhere, and painting makes me clean them (err... mostly just paint them away!)

After I did that I realized I should have calked the trim at the ceiling first, but I just did it then, before I painted trim, and it worked out great.

This is a HUGE gap from the room being uneven. I had to do like 5 layers of caulk here!

I was absolutely shocked by how much of a difference the caulk made. This was my first time caulking anything, so I was worried I would mess it up, especially with the popcorn in the way. But I actually found that it’s really easy to do, and even easier next to popcorn because you don’t have to worry about it being smooth.
The ceiling and the trim had tons of tiny gaps between the two from the popcorn.

Messy bumpiness and holes at the ceiling line

Smooth perfection

 I hadn’t really realized how jenky it made the room look until it was gone. I spent like two days just mouth agape staring at that caulked line marveling at how much better the room looked. Huge upgrade to the space for so little money and time.

Then I painted trim. I just had the ceiling and window to do since at some point before I did do the floor trim.

The ceiling trim in here is odd. I think it’s a 2x4. Seriously. I definitely want to layer real crown molding over it (hopefully soon -- I’m having a hard time looking at that 2x4 since getting paint on the walls.)

And then I finally started painting the walls two nights ago.

This is even pinker in person -- the whole room used to be this color -- even the trim!! EEK!

I've got one side done now. The other side should go faster since there’s no window to cut around. 

Still working on getting the pano pics on my iphone straight

I really like the paint color. A lot.

This is close to the in-person color. It tends to photograph greener than it is,
 even tealish (and its not teal.)
Its a green gray.

But as much as I love it, at the same time, I feel super hesitant about it. I feel like its drawing attention to all the things that are “right” yet.
When it was white it had the look of “oh yeah…that room…whatever….we don’t care.” But now that it’s painted I feel like it looks like I think the room looks good -- but I don’t yet. lol. Does that make sense. Sometimes I think too hard. I’m always thinking too hard.
Our furniture in here does not go with it at all.

Nor does the mess! ;)

But I don’t plan to keep the couch in here -- I want to move it to the living room when we have a floor in there! :)
And the green chairs (that used to be in our duplex’s kitchen) are likely destined for craigslist, along with a bunch of other stuff we have.
But yeah its making my furniture look crazy I think.

I’m not even really sure what kind of furniture to put in here to make the space flow right. I’ve been pinning thoughts.


The bolder wall color also really makes the vertical blinds stand out in a terrible way.
I’ve been trying to figure this out.
The window in enormous. So any sort of blinds will have to be custom. (Read: expensive.)
And as much as I hate how vertical blind look, the way they they physically work (open and adjust) on a window of this size is kinda hard to beat. The light comes in and makes the TV screen unseeable during the day and at night you feel like you are a TV screen for the neighbors without the blinds closed. So we need something there.
I don’t want just curtains.
SO….
My current plan is paint. (What can’t paint do?)
I’m gonna paint the blinds. No spray paint. I’m just gonna roll it right on them. (After I remove them from the track.)
Our blinds are that woven fabric. So I know paint will stick. The fabric is gonna get crunchy. But why would that matter?
I just have to pick the color.
I’m down to white or attempting to paint this kind of bamboo like texture on:

It will take forever. But if it looks good, it might look really good.

I just can’t decide if brown would be too much in the space. If maybe white would be the better call.

If you have thoughts, share please!

I also plan to hang curtains over the blinds and layer in goodness.

I have plans for our fireplace now. (Don’t know when we’ll get around to it. But I’m planning it.)
Something like this is involved:

Via

But I think I want to leave some brick showing around the fireplace itself. 

Via
(I think I like the white boards more than grey)

And maybe paint the visible brick black? I don’t know for sure. But I do know I don’t like the brick one the fireplace and someday it will be changed.

It really bothers me that there is brick on both sides of the room, and they don’t match each other. I do love the other brick in the room. Its aged and perfect.

I also need to change the light on that brick wall.

This room is an add on. So that light is the old back door’s light.

It’s vintage and quirky. And I wanted to like it. I tried really hard. But it’s not cutting it for me.

I want this one. 

From Lowes

I think the color will tie the black chalkboard door in well. And it looks like an on purpose art illumination light. Not so much a strange back door light for no reason.

And long term -- like way later I kinda wanna make the ceiling a wood plank one in here. Popcorn -- not my fav. I think wood plank would have the right touch in here. But that’s a way later thought.

But what I do like about this color (now that I’m done talking too much about it’s cons) is that:

• It looks fantastic next to the brick that I like.
• It’s sort of neutral without being neutral.
• It’s soothing. (I need all the soothing I can get these days.)
• It seems to make the room bigger to me, even though its a dark color. I think it defines the room so you actually recognize it’s size instead of it blurring together when it’s all white.
• I also LOVE it next to the window. There is no way to capture that in a photo because the light from the window plays with the effect. 

But this color next to the big view of outside makes the whole room feel outside. It was gorgeous next to the dreary day yesterday. Felt like you could sit and watch it rain all day while writing poems by the fire -- no problem. (Or at least pretend to. Or hope to one day.)

Anyway.

Actually most this week and last I’ve been battling my thoughts. 

I’ve been kinda overwhelmed trying to keep up with it all:

• Being a mom.

• Still waking up like 4 times a night. And I go to bed around midnight! (If Ruby isn’t still asking to nurse, Jasmine is waking up with a bloody nose. The kid gets a lot of night-time bloody noses!)
• Trying to figure out allergy food for our whole family.
• Redoing a house.
• Let’s not pretend I clean right now.

• Thinking about school for Jasmine (yeah its early still -- but with the food allergies I want to make sure I keep her safe and sound.)
• Generally hoping to be perfect. (I gotta figure out how to get over that -- but tell a perfectionist to not want to be perfect, and I go on a hunt on how to do that just right. :) )
• And missing my alone time something fierce. (Introversion.)

I’ve been trying to work on my thoughts.
The last couple days have been better.
I’ve been trying to make sure I think better thoughts.

Hilarious example: (Male reader warning…slightly awkward moment ahead.)
You know that mom version of “Let it Go? that out there around the internet right now?"
I listened through it once and laughed. It got stuck in my head.
But the line it always starts at, when my head plays it is, “Here I stand saggy boobs and all.” If I hear that all day long, while sleep deprived, and looking more drab that I ever have in my whole life

Paint clothes over pjs, randomly stuck to my slippers,
but I DID put a scarf on my hair…because that makes mirror moments less painful! :)
This is a GOOD day people!

(because when would I find time to do hair and make up. And why would I paint in nice clothes?) I start to want to weep.
So after a couple days of this I decided I’m re-writing the song. My head is now playing the song as saying, “Here I stand sexy boobs and all.” (I’m not gonna get into how I can talk myself out of that idea in 3 millaseconds, I can --- I just have to choose not to.) And I’ve been surprised how big of a mood booster that is -- hearing sexy instead.
Goofy example I know.
But I think we gotta take care of our heads.
I’m just started to get back on that.
I’ve been a really horrible boss as a self-employer/employee (aka mom in charge) -- I never compliment my work, always critique. I was thinking about it and I relized if I was middle management and treated my employs as badly as I do myself in my head, I would be fired, no question. When I realized that it hit me in a way I never thought of before. So I’m trying to take a step back and be kind to my employee (aka me). It does make a difference.

Oh ok, and ramble on...
(you are getting two weeks of life and thoughts in no particular order)
My uncle gave us his dinning room set!
I’m really excited!
I had been wanting Blake to build us a farm house table. But... free is fantastic!
And I think this table will fit right into the look I was wanting -- with a little love and paint maybe some stain.

It also had a side buffet thing. Which I think I’m gonna use as an entry cabinet. (Also with love and paint and maybe some additional legs.) To store shoes and things.
(No Pic yet)

And he is also giving is a china cabinet too! (No pic yet)
I’m pinning ideas for that one too.
I think its going in the living room.
And it might become two different pieces of furniture when I’m done with it. We’ll see. The china cabinet isn’t at our house yet -- only so much would fit in the truck when my parents brought it down.
We had my mom’s birthday here that day.

My first gluten free, allergy free cake. It was actually good!

That was a great day to spend time together. The girls had tons of fun with Granana.

Ok so that’s all for now.
I need to cut this off.

See ya next time.