Changes!

Le Master Painter Kellen

Took a brief break here as we had decided to undergo some changes to our home before our big homeschooling adventure begins in a week! It was time to rip out the old and bring in the new...


Old Linoleum

New Tile (pre-grouting)

New Laminate

It was definitely worth it, but was not without much stress. First off, the bronchitis that Kellen had just gotten over decided to rear itself first in Lorelai and then in the Dada right at the beginning of all the work. As they were upstairs coughing up their lungs Mama winged it and had to make several decisions in between Jamba Juice runs.

One decision I made was to paint (since everything had been moved out... what better time right?). Not just the walls, but also the cabinets to give them a more modern face-lift. Who knew how hard it was to pick a color and that your particular lighting could have a big effect on a final choice. With D on his sick bed we did finally manage to pick a color for the walls (neutral since the tile was so dramatic... this was a hard consideration), I foolishly went and bought all the paint since we were so sure of the color only to find that it looked too pink on our walls with the lighting we have in our home.

The horror! I hated it! What to do on a shoestring budget? Raw Umber saves the day! A big thank you to the contractor for this suggestion. Off the cans went back to the store and one ounce of raw umber was added to all (what did we have to lose afterall), luckily the resultant color was one that we could live with. The end result is a wall color that is a warm (kind of like a very creamy coffee color) and looks reasonably good with our tile choice. Having never painted before and with much to be painted, it was definitely interesting! D managed to help paint quite a bit once he felt quasi-human again and luckily we also had Master Painter Kellen to help. : )

Slightly feverish, D summons up some strength to help with the painting prep

Feeling a wee bit better, D grabs a roller- the final color is darker and richer than appears in this picture

The newly painted black bi-fold door makes the frosted glass stand out more

The new window valance for the kitchen


Here's a list of changes we made:
new tile (dining room, kitchen, entry way, downstairs bathroom), new laminate (living room, entry from garage), new fixtures in downstairs bathroom including toilet, painted walls in kitchen and dining room, painted bi-fold door to downstairs bath.

Soon to do:
Paint walls in downstairs bathroom as well as undersink cabinet
Paint entryway
Paint cabinets in kitchen

Now we get to save up for the next big project: as the master bath shower pan broke and began leaking through the ceiling downstairs on the same day that the laminate was to be put in. No more using that shower for the time being and wow isn't that interesting timing *grumble*. One of the many lessons I have learned during this process... once you begin work on your home it is truly like a house of cards!