Let's Take It Outside

Progress:


Up next: Till this area for raspberries.

And prune these beasts:

Productive Weekend

What a weekend!

Rain barrel #1 is set up. Still need to figure out where to put #2.

Started a veggie garden. So far I've planted tomatoes, cabbage, spinach, lettuce, a few Vietnamese herbs/lettuces, jalapeno, cayenne, basil, mint, thyme, and sage. I also found a strawberry plant near our garage and moved it in to this bed. Next step = raspberries!

Almost finished the extra room in our basement (aka the brother-in-law suite). I know the picture doesn't look like much, but we've put a ton of work in to this room so far:
-tore down two walls of paneling
-used hydraulic cement to waterproof foundation block
-ripped up a row of floor tile (following all Health Department guidelines of course :-)
-sealed floor tiles
-used LevelQuick to even out floor
-cleaned a zillion cobwebs off the ceiling with the shopvac
-tore about 200 nails out of the ceiling (I did this myself and surprisingly my neck doesn't hurt)
-painted remaining paneling (color is Behr almond cream)
-painted exposed brick walls with masonry waterproofing paint
-cleaned out the entryway to this room & painted the cement floor
-installed new carpet

We still need to rebuild the ledge above the blue foundation walls, put in a carpet runway in the entryway to the room, and put up some curtains. Someday we'll dig an egress window too.

This was the room at our inspection. Yes, that's a tanning bed.

And here's the room now. I know, doesn't look too impressive, but it's been a lot of work!

The carpet plan:

While Andrew and "the boys" were putting in the carpet, I went upstairs to paint the door in our living room. As soon as I was ready to do the first coat, I accidentally scraped the door with my nail and the existing paint came right off. Hmm, previous owners obviously used the wrong kind of paint. So I started scraping away. Here's a mid-scrape photo:

Busy weekend! We're loving our house a little bit more every day.

Fire!

We had our first fire in our fireplace last night. The great state of Minnesota is clearly confused because it's May and last night it was in the 30s. Brrr. The fireplace works great!

I also re-painted our living room this weekend. Love the new color. It's Behr Ocean Foam. Next step is to paint the crown molding white because it looks very yellow (read: gross) next to the new paint color.

Reason #981 Why I Am NOT A Designer

So I painted our living room what I thought was a nice terra cotta color (see my post below for living room inspiration photos). Turns out it's more of a mauve. Not exactly what I was going for. My mother recommended green to contrast with our natural woodwork, but I wanted to do something different. Mother always knows best, right?

The tricky part is our very open floor plan means you can see pretty much everything from anywhere in the house. We love this "lofty/warehouse" feel, but it makes decorating a bit difficult.

The color is cayenne by Martha Stewart. Lovely color, just doesn't work here. Do I leave it and keep decorating the room or find another color? I'm thinking a green or gray.

BEFORE shot looking from kitchen in to living room:

Same view after paint job:


Looking in to office (aka room of randomness):


Love our fireplace and bookshelves. All of this furniture (expect the coffee table) will head downstairs soon.


View from living room looking in to kitchen/dining:


Whether I paint again or not, I'll be decorating the living room pretty much from scratch.
Things to do:
1) move couch to basement family room and get new loveseat
2) find fabric to reupholster two chairs I have
3) buy area rug
4) arrange furniture with loveseat floating and facing the fireplace, two chairs facing in towards loveseat, and coffee table in the middle. perfect for cuddling in front of the fire!
5) decorate mantle
6) paint entry table, get new lampshade for entry table lamp, decorate entry area/wall
7) paint front door
8) remove mini-blinds and make curtains
9) get rid of creepy eyeball-looking spotlights and find new light fixtures

Suggestions for color palettes etc. greatly appreciated! This decorating novice needs all the help she can get :-)

It's The Little Things

The littlest things make me happy. Like the new door stopper we put on our front door so we don't smash a huge hole in the plaster wall. Yes, that makes me very happy. This photo makes me realize how dirty our door is though. Gross. Another painting project!