Home Improvement

When we bought this house six years ago there were a few things we wanted to change, mainly the siding.

Before. A lovely two tone.

During. Nate (that's him on the orange ladder) took on the project himself.

After. Didn't he do a wonderful job?

The outside of the house was his to take care of, the inside was mine. Some of the challenges I faced were a headache-inducing floral wallpaper in the kitchen, a Packers theme in one of the kids' bedrooms complete with green striped mini blinds, and a hunter green dungeon of a master bedroom. One of my tricks of the trade is to wait until Nate goes out of town on business before I make big changes in the house. Kind of a "While You Were Out" type thing. It got to the point that he would call from his hotel room and ask what room I was painting this time.

One of my favorite rooms is the boys' bedroom. You saw it earlier when I revealed the triple decker bunk. Here is a close up of the ants that climb the walls of their room.

I have pretty much repainted every single room in the house. The kitchen is yellow, the living room is a pale green. I painted some blues over deep maroon wallpaper in the family room, THAT was interesting. The girls' room is on it's second theme from a blinding yellow to a more- comfortable-to-look-at pink. And as a reminder that girls are made of "Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice" I painted those words across their wall. The bathroom is a turquoise with some more little reminders to "Wipe", "Flush", and "Wash". Lastly, our room which I brushed from a horrific cave to a very lovely pale purple.

And it is that room that I tackled today. It has been purple since, hmmmmm, let me think. I believe I was pregnant with Caedmon when I did that room. Or maybe it was Jack, I don't remember. Slowly, over time that room had become the place that we just dumped all of our junk on the way to the storage room. Too lazy to open one more door, we just dropped it there. Today I took it on with my Swiffer a-swing'n. There weren't just plain old dust bunnies in there, those things were mutants. I did a bit of rearranging too, and while I was at it, I tackled something a little more advanced. I hung a curtain rod.

Suddenly While You Were Out turned into Surprised By Design. Except it was more of like "Surprised By Holes in the Wall". Yes, I'll admit it. I'm a measure once cut twice kind of girl. I have been known to hang pictures on the wall by just "eyeballin it", and sometimes it takes me a few tries to get it just right. I seem to have pulled off the curtain rod ok though, no one was injured. I did have to use a power tool and there were excessive amounts measuring involved, but I did it and boy am I proud. I think Nate was a little bit impressed too.