Another room done: The Teenager’s Bathroom

You remember when I posted something about taking one room at a time, and trying not to get overwhelmed at the thought of ALL the work that needs to be done in my house?

Well, Friday night and Saturday, I tackled our Master bathroom, and I am pretty pleased with the results. I decided to spend the whole weekend working on the house, and figured I could easily take on TWO bathrooms in one weekend. So Saturday night when the master bath was completed, I went downstairs to another bathroom– the TEENAGER BATHROOM– and got to work scraping off the “old people” wallpaper border.

BEFORE:

It was an OK color scheme, for um, OLD PEOPLE. Certainly not a bathroom suitable for a 14-year old.

(

So after I got the wallpaper off, I decided I had had enough for one day, and went to bed. I was determined that Sunday (after church, of course) I would start taping everything off and begin painting.

IN LIME GREEN. LIME FREAKIN’ GREEN, PEOPLE!

Never before have I experienced such a difficult color to work with. Well, at least not since the “Navy Blue Bedroom Extravaganza of 2005” or the “Great Burgundy Living Room Debacle of 2003″. Oh yes, try spending a weekend with your husband painting a 22′ by 13′ living room with vaulted ceilings in BURGUNDY paint, and you will want to stab something. For realz. Dark paint takes several coats when covering white walls. We went through a bazillion gallons of paint, and I ended up hating it after a couple years anyway.

Anyways, back to lime green. It looked cute on the paint swatch. It was quirky and fun looking at the little dab of green paint on the lid of the paint can.

But holy hell, that bathroom– SHE IS GREEN!

I offset the obnoxious migraine-inducing green with some bright blue rugs, and a coordinating shower curtain. It really doesn’t even need the shower curtain, because the shower has a bi-fold door. I just thought it would add some color.

Now we’re going to be on the hunt for coordinating artwork for both bathrooms.   Those bright walls need SOMETHING.  But at least its more suited to a teenage girl, and not an 80-year old grandma.

(Paint from Lowe’s, and bathroom accessories from Kohls.)

Cross this one off the list: Master Bathroom

BEFORE:

Black, black, and black.   Wallpaper border from previous homeowner.   When we moved in, we simply bought a shower curtain and rugs to match… mostly because the thought of scraping all that border off gave me the heebie-jeebies.

I liked it when we first  moved in, but now after almost two years… I’ve gotten bored with it.  And my husband was thinking it was a bit too “girly” for a master bathroom.  He wanted something more neutral, and I wanted something with some softer colors.

So I finally bit the bullet and started scraping.   And scraping, and scraping, and scraping. 

I think it’s possible the previous homeowners used Super Glue to attach this wallpaper border to the wall.  Just this little bit of border took me hours last night to get off.   I tried wallpaper remover, I used scrapers of all shapes and sizes.  I finally finished it this morning.

Time to clean up and get ready to start painting!  It took me all day today, but I think the finished product is SO WORTH IT.   All I have left to get is a couple pieces of artwork and maybe a basket or something for the floor.  

AFTER:

This time, we went with a chocolate brown, with shades of blue, sage green and khaki.  The walls are called “Seascape” and are a shade of blue from the shower curtain.  

Next project:   my daughter’s bathroom and my first experience with LIME GREEN PAINT.  Wish me luck!

(All accessories are from KOHL’S. Paint is from LOWE’S.)

To-Do, To-Do, To-do-do-doodly-doo

The house we live in now was built in 1973, the same year I was born. So, it’s about 37 years old. It is the first house I have lived in as an adult that was not brand new when I moved in. Everything was used, pre-owned, broken-in, comfortable, and I’m OK with that.

When we moved in, I settled for the color schemes the previous owners had chosen for each room of the house, because it was easier to buy new bathroom rugs to match the bathroom wallpaper border than it was to rip down the border and repaint.

Now that we’ve lived in the house almost 2 years, I’m tired of someone else’s choices. While we debated back and forth about how long we planned on living in this house, I think its a pretty safe bet we’re going to be here for a while.

In my planner, I have a tab marked “HOUSE.” I keep a few blank sheets of paper in there, because I write things down when I think of them. There are scribbles and scraps of things I am thinking about doing to our house, things I know I want to do to the house, and things that we’ll do if we ever win the lottery and maybe decide to still stay in this house.

I keep putting them off, mostly because I don’t have the time to accomplish them, and because when I see the words “Paint” and “Room” in the same sentence, I get hives and start hyperventilating thinking about trying to accomplish anything with two dogs and two kids at home with me.

Since we’re going full steam ahead with this adoption process, I seem to have all of a sudden morphed into a full-boar nesting mode. I feel the need to rearrange, repaint, redecorate, remodel… to many RE’s going on. I just have such a long list of things I want to do, that I simply get worn out from thinking about where to start.

For example, our house is a split level. This basically means that the walls in the living room are the same walls that go up the hallway stairs and down the hall. They are the same walls that go down the stairs to the family room. There’s no easy stopping point for paint colors. This makes me want to get stabby and throw any ideas of painting out the window.

In the utter hopes of ever accomplishing making this house the way we want it to be, I need to stop and BREATHE.

So, in the spirit of the “RE’s” (rearrange, repaint, redecorate, remodel, etc) and based on the well-known fact that I am big on checking things off a list, I am going to RE-write my list. I will start with one room at a time, and write down everything in that room I want to change. I won’t worry about any other room except ONE AT A TIME.

Starting today, I will officially be on a new mission. One room at a time. On a budget. Finding inexpensive ways to re-do the house.

First up: Master Bathroom
Plan:
* Decide on new color scheme
* REMOVE WALLPAPER BORDER
* New paint
* New Shower curtain, hooks, and rod
* New Rugs
* New Artwork

Before and After pictures to come.

Wish me luck.

The Treat Cupboard

Reasons for my dog trying to jump up onto the kitchen counters can be found on the bottom shelf of this cupboard. Let the puppy spoiling begin:

Hella Bella

I can’t believe we’ve had our puppy Bella for 7 weeks now, and I have yet to post all of the incredible milestones she has achieved. As she recently turned 14 weeks old, there’s quite a bit thats been going on.

Please allow me to share some of our observations and experiences.

Ahem.

* Bella is a monster. At 8 weeks old, she weighed in at 11.5 pounds. At 12 weeks, she weighed in at 23.3 pounds. So, she’s doubled in weight. (I KNOW, man. I KNOW.)

* Bella is a canine garbage disposal. She will eat anything and everything she can fit into her mouth (shoes, blankets, underwear, socks, coats, mittens, stuffed animals, anything PLASTIC, rugs, towels… you get the point) and sometimes try to even eat the things she can’t get into her mouth (such as my coffee table).

* Bella’s stomach and intestines are finicky bitches. While they do not object to the enormous amount of STUFF that she decides to ingest, they decide to revolt and stage a coup when we switch to a different dog food. They protest by having Bella shart and vomit at any given time.

* We have created a spoiled puppy. Bella sleeps in our bed, sprawled out as much as possible, right smack dab in the middle of our king-sized bed.

* Bella’s greatest achievement at the Petco puppy class we’ve enrolled her in was that she became the first dog in her class to whiz on the floor while the trainer was talking. (And my husband would like all of you to know that Petco does NOT have very absorbent paper towels.)

* Bella has got the stinkiest farts I have ever witnessed in my life. Mostly silent, but always deadly. Like wake me up from a dead sleep deadly. Like clear the room deadly.

* Bella has decided that the best place to poop when she goes outside is now in the neighbors landscaping mulch. And the worst part? She KNOWS I get mad at her so she runs as fast as she can to poop in that spot before I can catch her.

* Bella is a complete and total Mama’s girl. Like I can’t leave a room without her following me. I WUV HER.

* Bella has actually been deemed a “very calm lab” by the vet because they don’t have to get three people to hold her down while they give her shots.

* Bella has not figured out she is big enough to jump on the furniture, but she has learned that she is big enough to reach anything sitting close to the edge of the kitchen counter or the kitchen table. Lord help me.

* Bella has learned to stand by the back door when she needs to go outside. However, if you make her wait too long, she retaliates by pooping in your shoe.

* When our Jack Russell Terrier, Izzie, (a SPAYED FEMALE by the way) decides to perform her daily humping ritual,   Bella thankfully has learned to take off running in the other direction.

* Bella has not had any accidents in the house in WEEKS. Unless we count the whole pooping in the shoe thing. That was a few weeks ago.

* Bella has not only learned where the doggie treat jar is kept, but now knows to sit down and wait patiently by the kitchen cupboard until someone is smart enough to get her one. 

* Last but not least, Bella was paying very close attention when we watched the movie “Marley & Me” a couple weeks ago. I may have even seen her with a notebook and pen, taking notes.  (Or she could have possibly been eating them as her afternoon snack.) 

Bella at 8 weeks:

Bella at 14 weeks:

And caught in the act:

And finally, proof of the shoe-pooping. If you don’t want to see dog poop, don’t look at this next picture:

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My Bella, Bella Boo, My little Boobala… I love ya.