Time is flying, but all is well on the renovation front. I love that we are at the point of painting rooms. More instant gratification than, say, plumbing and electrical.
Paint and skim coating
In case you were wondering, the front bedroom color is growing on me. It looks better in daylight and I think adding white trim and our white furniture (from the
extra bedroom) will really brighten it up.
Refinishing the flooring could help, too.
Ryan's been furiously working on walls to finish the skim coating in the living room and dining room. This is a terrible job, in case you were considering taking it on. It's physically draining, time-consuming, mentally mind-numbing and also incredibly messy. He seems to always be covered in a layer of dust nowadays. He sweeps up so much dust every night - it's crazy. Then, he begins again the next day.
But the result seems to really be worth the effort. The walls are smooth like buttah. Like a baby's badonkadonk. So much better than the original plaster texture. It almost looks like brand new drywall. I'm wishing we would have thought to try it at our current house. But, we didn't. Moving on.
And seeing the white almost makes me want to paint everything white to brighten it up. Holy. Moly. Look at all that natural light. But I won't. Color is in my DNA.
Speaking of color... do you see the color peeking through from the entryway?
Below is what the entry looked like after skim coating and sanding a few times. (There's the husband, laughing while I'm saying, "If you don't smile, I'll put you on the blog looking grumpy." Nothing like a light-hearted threat to make someone do exactly what you want. Story of my life.)
Oh. And hello there, Martha Stewart Bedford Gray. I'm madly in love and borderline obsessed with you. (The color is truest at the bottom of the wall.)
Let's see another before and after, shall we? (See all that dust? From one sanding.)
Oh, dear God. I just died of happiness. Love.this.color. Paint every room in your house this color and then send me a cake to thank me. It's that good.
You may recall that
last week, I was debating the color. You all came through with lots of advice - some said paint it Bedford Gray. Some gave me other awesome choices for greiges. My awesome friend
Christi sent me a list of blog posts with greige options and I checked out every one. I ended up with an entire list of paint colors that you love, which I organized by brand and wrote in a notepad. Then, I Googled each one to see images and checked out my favorite 10 in person. I have an obsessive personality. This shouldn't be news.
After all of that. I went with Bedford Gray anyhow. Ryan predicted it. But I love you all for your help.
Since we're talking about paint... I also confirmed our dining room color. Martha Stewart Seal (color matched to Behr Ultra Premium Plus, of course).
It's the color below the chair rail. Which will eventually be re-done to its original board and batten glory. (Can you see where the boards used to be? Who in their right mind would take out original board and batten?) Since that will be white, I decided to go with something dark and moody. This dark charcoal-with-a-hint-of-brown fit the bill. (Speaking of a moody-in-a-good-way dining room, check out
this navy beauty at Ten June.)
ReStore finds
This week, we also scouted out Habitat ReStore on Saturday in search of a sink and instead found these awesome cabinet doors. Solid wood. Perfect size for our soon-to-be-built-in shelves. And the price? $15 for both sets. Sold.
I was planning to buy custom-sized wooden doors online, but $15 for 4 solid doors sounded better. And I really like them
We also scored a trim piece that is an identical match to the top trim on all the doors in the house. Which is perfect since the past owners ripped out the trim above the dining room - kitchen pass-through.
Other random scenes
I thought you may like to see some other snapshots of the house. There is stuff everywhere. The tub is still on the upstairs landing. A friend is taking it, but for now it's holding trim and other random junk.
The linen closet has turned into a very handy paint storage area. (Who needs towels when you have Rustoleum? And we don't have a working shower, sink or toilet, anyhow.)
Oh lookie... there's the new tub. In the master bedroom. Right where it belongs.
What do you think?
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