1. Finish setting up our library/office.
(This was our library/office soon after we moved in. No newer pictures, those will come after we've really set it up. We did add some other furniture and a wood stove.)
We took two armchairs from my Grandpa's house which were old, but in very good condition. I bought slipcovers for them, so they'll have a new look, but they need something else. Throws? Pillows? I've got stuff around the house from other places I've lived and engagement/shower/wedding gifts that we still haven't used, so I can dig through those to find something.
Also need to clean up the JUNK that has migrated into here, and hang pictures on the walls! Make it more homey. This room is the house's formal living room, but we are not formal living room types. This room houses our desk, computer, books, papers, so why not use it more like a library? With two comfy chairs and a great big table we bought at a used furniture place for super cheap (a 4'x4' Lane coffee table for $150--score!) and the wood stove, it's going to be our new home for the winter. Because I don't know what the wood stove will do to the walls in terms of smoke and soot, I don't plan on painting this room for awhile. The previous owners painted it white and didn't do much damage to the walls, so everything looks fine to us. Plus, the biggest wall is covered with bookcases. Ahh, IKEA Billy. How I love thee.
2. Finish setting up the TV room.
(This was taken the day of the closing. It was gross, that's why no close up pictures. I think they lived in here... More pics to come, promise!)
This was the first room I painted. Ha, funny, that's the ONLY room I've painted! It's sage green. (By the way, Turtle is not a painter. Very much dislikes, so I do that job, but I actually like it.) This room doesn't need much more. I bought new blinds yesterday, since the ones which were left behind are dirty, gross and probably covered with nicotine. YUCK! Just need to put them up.
Also need to get new lampshades at the ones on the lamps in there have survived a few moves and are almost 10 years old. They've gotten a little...beaten up? Finding lampshades is harder than one might imagine, and they are also pretty expensive. But I'll keep on it.
One of my bridesmaids made us a lap quilt in our "wedding colors" and with our names and wedding date. It's absolutely gorgeous but I'd much rather use it as a wall hanging...so I must look for some kind of quilt rack/hanger. I'm also trying to figure out what else to hang on the wall. The biggest wall in the room is the one opposite the three windows. The quilt might go there, but I'm not sure.
We recently made our biggest furniture expense since we've moved in here--a new TV stand. We'd had one that belonged to my aunt from when SHE was single, so it's over 20 years old. My parents had it for a bit, then I took it when I got my first place after college. It's for a tube TV, not a flat screen, so when our tube TV died, we had to put the flat screen ON TOP of the stand, which was one of those 4' tall deals. It looked so funny but we waited to find the "right" new TV stand. It was delivered 2 days after my grandfather died, so moving things around got put on hold for a bit, but as of last night, all of the electronics have been moved, rewired, set up, etc. Just need to push it back to the wall and figure out how to hide the cords. Oh, and we have to rearrange the furniture since things got moved around before the stand was delivered. Lovely!
3. Paint the half bath.
I already have a color picked out, which took awhile. It's a tan color with a bit of peach thrown in. Glidden's Dapper Tan, but I don't know if I want to use Glidden specifically. I just grabbed a bunch of sample jars at Home Depot. I might have it color-matched in another brand.
The tile is white with gray and peach/tan vein things going through it, and all of the accessories are brass, so I think that color will look good. I'm not good at making decisions when I have 1000s of options. I also did not grow up in a house with wallpaper and paint (all wood, almost like a log cabin), so I am not seasoned in the way a typical 30 year old might be.
We need to take down the oh-so attractive border that the previous owner put up.
Then comes priming/Kilz/whatever the ceiling since we had a small leak due to a clogged gutter, then painting everything. The previous owners had sponge painted it with a dusty pink, which I couldn't tell until AFTER we'd moved in, since every time we'd been in the house it was either cloudy or near dusk. Whoops. You might be able to see it in this picture:
After that, painting the walls and the trim (white). I also need to paint the back of the door, because that is also pink. The previous owners were a couple (divorcing, or already divorced, yeeesh*) and their two teenage sons. I think this was the one room where the wife felt she could be girly. The lights are flower-ish, the mirror has flowers on it, so does the border. The curtains did too. It's just VERY pink and not me at all. I love pink (the sweater I'm wearing right now is almost hot pink!), but not like this. I want to make it more back to nature, more earthy. Which is why I'm going with tan and white, with wicker baskets. Just to "ground" things. I scored a valance for $6 yesterday--the material almost looks like burlap, both in color and texture, and there are faint shells printed on it in white. I also got a few hand towels in chocolate brown for $1.50 each.
4. Clear junk out of the dining room. I don't have any good pictures of the dining room--because the room is either completely empty or filled with the junk that went there after we moved in.
We did acquire an oak dining set (table, 6 chairs, and a hutch) at an estate sale for only $500. It was in very good condition and to buy it brand new probably would have been 5x as much, if not more. In all reality, I only paid $100 since my parents generously gave us the rest of the money--they had wanted to buy us something when we moved into the house, but I didn't find it until April.
We need to find homes for all of the miscellaneous things that have found their way into the room. We don't use it very often, but it's nice to have a place to put more people, as our kitchen table is only for 2 or 3!
It needs to be painted, and I'm pretty sure I can handle that myself, but I'm not sure when I'll get around to doing it. Definitely not before December 31st, as we will most likely be hosting Christmas dinner here.
I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but the house is entirely white on white, save the TV room and two out of three bathrooms, so I'm lucky in that I don't have to look at too much hideous paint while I wait for the right time and save enough money to repaint things.
The kitchen and the entryway/hallway also need to be painted. I can do the entryway myself, but NOT the kitchen. There are some weird issues with the ceiling, which need to be fixed (and we don't know how to even begin to tackle that!) and I'd never be able to reach the areas above the cabinets because of my build and my low level of grace. Best leave a job like this to the professionals. I also plan on having pros paint our bedroom because I sometimes take longer than planned to do things, and I'd rather have it over and done with. Probably the stairway too, only because it'll be one clear shot--kitchen to hallway to stairway to master bedroom. But the rest of the upstairs I can handle. Just might take a week...or month per room. :-D
I'll talk more about the upstairs in another post. I think I've posted enough about my plans for today!
* I'm not against divorced people! But it sorta creeped me out that the reason that this house was for sale was because a family split up. We did have the house blessed.
seriously, there is always something to do at our house. it's never ending.
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