Looks Great!

Tile is all done and it looks great.

Winter projects will include paint and window treatments and then we can say we are all done with the kitchen, thank goodness!

Desperately Seeking.

Lonely tile floor desperately seeking matching grout companion.

Must be sealed and stain resistant.
Also, tile floor requests that home owners repaint adjacent kitchen walls, because oh my goodness, I make the walls look like gross pea soup.

Cut, Sand, Mud, Squish...Repeat.

That is what I've been listening to over the past 2 days and happy to be doing so!

The floor is coming along nicely, don't you think? Another day to finish tiling and grouting and we will be back to normal by Thursday evening!

The kids think eating in the dining room on our kitchen table is fun. You mean the dining room is a place where you eat, not play trains or Wii??

Scott is seriously contemplating leaving the fridge in the den. Apparently it reduces the walk from couch to cold beer by about 10 steps.

Again With the Hammers & the Nails

We began our little kitchen renovation back in June with new counter tops and sink.

In September we had a new tile back splash installed.

Now the last of the updates is happening: A New Tile Floor! (it sounds best if you say it like the announcer from the Price is Right).

Goodbye dinged, cut and dirty vinyl.
Goodbye shrunken areas with glue stains and staples that showed.
Well, what do we have here?
I told Scott that something felt funny in the area by the back door.

Goodbye water damaged, warped sub floor.Nice, pretty tile is on its way!

And then of course we have to clean every surface and repaint the whole kitchen.

Eegads! I believe I'll pull a Scarlett O'Hara and say, "I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow!"

The Beginning of the End.

It has begun.This weekend we will finish putting up wainscot and chair rail in the bathroom and hopefully will finish the final painting as well.
So excited to see this project nearing the end.

Now, who wants to make me some sheer window treatments to swag over the two windows? Anyone? Hello?

Ok, fine. I will work on the window treatments but I will hold off on final pictures until that last piece is complete.

Seeing the Light

Now that the jungle is gone and blue skies abound in our master bath, it is time to turn to details.

About a month before we started the project, I removed the shiny gold knobs and pulls and replaced them with brushed nickle ones. It is amazing what a difference that simple change made.

Now, as Scott and I wait for a clear weekend to tackle the wainscoting and chair rail, we are making other accessory changes that look great.

Off with the old:
If you click on the picture above, you can really see the sort of outdated gold rope detail for which I did not care.

On with the new:
I LOVE the curved, feminine feel to the new light fixture.

It is coming together, slowly but surely!

Her Turn: Under the Sea

Eliza Grace has been patiently waiting to make her video about her new room decor.

After watching this, I think I need to remove the phrase "I see" from my vocabulary because I said it about 8 times in 6 minutes! Very annoying to listen to, if I do say so myself.

I am trying out YouTube for my video upload so I hope it works!

And now, Under the Sea with Eliza Grace:

If you have trouble viewing the video go here.

Whew, They Got It Done

And I love it!

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin'

Keep them rollers rollin'
Scott is tired of rollin'Who's gonna put up the wainscoting'? Oh my!

(Note in the above that Scott already has the TV back up on the wall. Whew, I was so worried we would not be able to sit in the tub without a television! [Read with dripping sarcasm, please.] )

Could it be, could it be?

Is that primer, tape and paint I see?

Victory in the Jungle

The combat phase of Operation Leave the Jungle is complete.

The vines fought the good fight but in the end our sheer determination and a $25 steamer brought them to their knees.

Let's just take a look at what we accomplished in 9 days, shall we?

Before:
After: Before: After (with some test paint colors reflected in the closet mirror,
we are going with the darker one!):
Before:

After:

The other day Scott asked, "What has gotten into you with all the redecorating projects all the sudden?!"

Me thinks he is getting tired of being conscripted as height-advantaged slave labor to support my schemes. However, the next logical step is to paint the upper portion of the walls, an activity in which he will be heavily involved!

Making Progress

At the encouragement of a friend (thanks Mary S!), I bought a steamer and with it we have made lots of progress in a short amount of time.

Ever the bargain shopper - Scott has rubbed off on me after all these years - I did not purchase an actual wallpaper steamer ($50 at Home Depot) but instead bought a little canister clothing steamer for $25 at Big Lots.

The steamer is definitely the way to go and hopefully Scott and I will team up this weekend to kick out the high places.

Slowly but surely it is coming along. I am seeing a tiny, pin-point light at the end of the tunnel so let's hope our backs hang in there long enough to get the job done!

Last week

Today!

Welcome to the Jungle

Let me just start by saying that I absolutely love my master bathroom.

It is huge. It has really high ceilings.

It has his and her sinks - his is higher and mine is lower - perfect for the Mutt and Jefferina that we are.
It has a big tub and big shower.It has a TV mounted to one wall - installed by Scott, of course! And most importantly, it has its own little water closet with door. Very important feature. Very. Ah, hem.

However, there is one glaring issue with my bathroom.

As you have undoubtedly noticed, it is covered with miles of black and green jungle-like leaf wallpaper.

Will calls it our rain forest.

Why, oh why, for the love of God, why all this wallpaper?

It is a pain.

It is a pain to put up.

It is a quadruple pain to take down.

Unfortunately, the previous owners of our home embraced wallpaper, especially in the master bathroom. Oh, how they embraced it!

Now, after seven years of bathing and dressing in the jungle, we are doing a little ecologically approved deforestation of our own!

Bring on the Dif and that little rolling, wallpaper scoring thingy. Bring on the dry wall knife thingy to scrape the wallpaper off.

It will likely take about a month for us to actually get all the wallpaper down, sand the wall behind it, apply and sand the skim coat (that we will have to do because of all this flippin' wallpaper) before we can even think about painting.

Regardless of all the work ahead of us, I am so happy that we are finally ready to score, spray, scrape and sand our way out of the jungle for good!