Venitian Blinds and Thrift Store Finds

We've lived in our house for two weeks, and we are just now starting to get things cleaned up and organized. I've discovered that sometimes things come together more slowly than I would like, and I just have to learn to be okay with that. We finally cleaned up most of the painting supplies, and now we are making progress on my favorite part - arranging furniture and decorating. So far I've made several trips to Home Goods and Hobby Lobby for supplies and decor. But today I worked on mainly mundane tasks which are necessary but not a whole lot of fun. Like cleaning blinds.

The previous owners of our house were gracious enough to leave behind their wonderful, good-quality venitian blinds for the windows. When we we took them down to paint, however, I noticed that they were filthy. I don't even want to know how many years of dirt and grime are on these things. So before re-hanging the ones in the kitchen window today, I decided to give it a good scrubbing. Nothing a little Dawn soap and water can't fix, right?

Let me just say, it's hard on your hands and knees. I wasn't very happy with the previous owners for leaving me dirty blinds. Gross. I mean LOOK AT THESE THINGS. You can tell a clear difference between the top two slats that I already cleaned and the rest of the grimy ones.

Here they are all clean and sparkling white. At least I know they're clean now... even if no one else will notice. 

Another project I worked on today was sprucing up an armchair I found at a local thrift store. I've been looking for cheap furniture because I don't like our old craigslist couch that we got for our apartment when we first got married. It's cheap white vinyl and not very comfortable. Obviously we are on a budget, so I've been scouring craigslist and thrift stores for anything that will work, fully expecting to find a reupholstery project. And then I came across this chair. 

It was marked for $20, which was absolutely reasonable (I love a bargain!), but then they were having a sidewalk sale where everything outside was half off. So I picked up this little beauty for just TEN BUCKS. It was a little dirty and had a few stains, but for $10 I wouldn't be out much money if it didn't clean up well, and the fabric was at least in good shape, with very little wear. At the very worst it would make a nice chair for the office. So I snatched it up and took it home, where it's been sitting in our garage for the past few days. Today I decided to clean it with some soapy water and a rag, and let it dry out in the fresh air outside. It looked GREAT all cleaned up. Most of the spots came right out. So now we have a nice comfy reading chair for our living room. Proof that you can, indeed, decorate nicely on a tight budget.

The Cockroach

Something caught my eye. Something black. Something sly. Something horrible. My worst nightmare. It froze and looked at me. I exclaimed in fright, gasping for air. I slowly slipped down off my bed and headed toward my closet for a shoe - any shoe. My work flats would have to do. I crept over to where the creature was. It was gigantic, but it moved quickly, and scurried under the TV cabinet. It was gone. But it couldn't be! I knew I would never sleep if I let it be, so I declared war and decided to battle it to the death. I cautiously banged at the furniture, hoping to scare it out of hiding. It didn't budge. I grabbed the TV and set it on the floor so I could tip the cabinet on its side. I lowered it slowly and peeked around the bottom corner, dreading what I might find. Sure enough, it was there. It was taunting me. I whacked at it with my shoe, but again it was too fast and sought refuge under the dresser. It occurred to me that my shoe was not heavy enough and wouldn't inflict the deathly blow needed to finish off the monster. So I ran back to the closet for more appropriate ammunition. I headed back to the battlefield armed with my heaviest, flat-soled shoe and peered underneath the dresser. It paused, waving its antennae menacingly, trying to feel out its foe. I couldn't reach it, so I had to move the dresser. It moved to the opposite side. I hit the dresser with my shoe, trying to scare it. It moved, but barely. Finally it made a run for the corner in broad daylight and I ran after it, whacking my shoe in panic. It clung to the baseboard for shelter, but it wasn't enough. At last I had the upper hand. I inflicted my final blow, skinning my knuckles against one of the objects I had knocked over during the battle. I stood triumphant, bleeding, and panicking, unable to catch my breath. The horror of what I had faced washed over me and I felt as if I would pass out, throw up, or collapse into a full-fledged panic attack. But I knew I could rest easy now that my foe was vanquished. It would no longer haunt me, for I had claimed the victory, while it perished eternally to the watery abyss of the toilet.

Pinterest Projects and Puppies with Liz

My friend Liz flew down south all the way from Nebraska to visit me this week. So far we have been hanging out, shopping, going to Home Goods and Hobby Lobby, and of course we can't forget getting a puppy.

Meet Huxtable, the cutest puppy on the planet! He hasn't mastered potty training yet but he sure is adorable! (Guess that makes up for the messes, huh?)

Puppies aside, Liz and I decided to try out a pinterest project that I found - covering lightswitch covers with scrapbook paper and modpodge. Jamey and I really liked the idea of having old maps on the switchplates since it will give the place just a little bit more vintage flair and old-world charm. And it's different. We like making little things unique to us. Here's Liz measuring and tracing out the scrapbook paper.

Then we glued the paper to the switchplates and cut out the holes. We coated the whole thing with a layer of modpodge to seal it and give it some more durability.

And then we wielded a mighty screwdriver and installed them with our handy-woman skills. I think they turned out awesome. It's an easy way to make something so utilitarian look like a piece of artwork. 

We'll probably do something similar in the kitchen once we finish painting.

Adventures in Painting- Part 2

Tonight I discovered that I am a big fat hypocrite when it comes to painting. You see, I inherited two kinds of conflicting genes. First I got the klutzy genes, which causes incurable symptoms such as dropping things, tripping over your own feet, and falling flat on your face. But then I got the extreme perfectionism- the inability to accept any sort of flaw or defect. So when we started painting I gave Jamey strict instructions to adhere to. Don't overload the roller. Cut straight lines. And don't drip any paint. And then tonight I proceeded to break all of those rules and more by stepping in the paint tray. Total foot immersion. No dignity left. At least we covered up the carpet before we started painting.

After being thoroughly laughed at by my husband (and deservedly so) I gathered up the rest of my self respect and my paint roller and kept on going. And the walls turned out splendidly. Except that for some reason the paint started dripping down as it dried and I had to fix it in a panic. Jamey's half didn't drip, so I guess it must have been my fault, not following my own rules again, and accidentally overloading the paint rollers. That's about par for the course for me tonight. 

But in the end, it somehow turned out. Here it is after cutting all the edges (which took FOREVER):

Aaaand here's the finished first coat:

I think I like it. At least I had better like it because I've decided I'm not painting this room again for a long time. I agree with Eeyore (who slept the entire time)- it's too exhausting. 

We still have a second coat to do, and then we're on the the other half of the room and the kitchen. 

Adventures in Painting

Day 5 of Home Ownership:

I told Jamey when we bought this house that the first big thing to go would be the maroon and beige walls, and that it wouldn't be a "get around to it eventually" kind of project. NO. It HAS to go ASAP. Everything in this house is some shade of brown or boring beige (the guest bath is a horrid baby-poo brown and that is the next thing on my list). But I cannot live with the giant maroon wall in my living room, painted back in the early 2000s when accent walls were THE THING to do.  (Not that I'm against accent walls. They are great when they are done right, but when you insert a random dark color in an otherwise spacious room, it seems to make it feel smaller, because all you notice is a giant dark wall. I'm pretty sure they accented the wrong wall here.) Here is a picture of the living room before we moved in:

It totally clashes with the marble fireplace and tends to look pink in some lighting. Doesn't set it off at all. Not really our style at all. So we painted some color swatches on the wall and finally decided on Behr's Light French Grey, which should hopefully bring out some of the gray-blue in the marble and make the fireplace the focal point, not the entire wall. 

But first we had to prime the dang thing. 15 foot ceilings are a first for me, I must admit, and so is maroon paint. No big deal. I went to Home Depot and bought a can of Kilz primer and a really long pole for my paint roller. Plus I have a husband who is over 6 feet tall. That should do it right? 

I spent my entire day prepping the walls, filling holes and sanding, so that we could tackle priming tonight when Jamey got home. We tag-teamed it, with him doing the upper half and me doing the lower half. 

Here we are after cutting the edges (you can see the sample swatches on the wall. The middle swatch will be the new color):

And here it is after rolling on a coat of primer:

Only took around two hours to do and it's so much brighter already. Can't wait to get it all painted!!

Switchplate Transformations

We closed on our new house last Thursday and moved in yesterday! Everything is still mayhem and boxes are everywhere but it feels so good to be in our own home. We also made a trip to Home Depot for paint and supplies so we can start prepping the walls and painting over the existing beige-brown and maroon in the living room and kitchen. (Horrible color choices!) We picked out a lovely blue-grey color that will set off our marble fireplace an hopefully make the room feel airier. But the absolute first thing to go was this horrid light switch cover in our master bedroom. Isn't it beeeyoutiful? 

Here it is with our new light switch cover. Doesn't quite go with the wall color but that will eventually change too. 

Ta-da! And there we have our first home improvement project. Easy peasy. Wish they were all this simple!