The Magic of Paint - Bedrooms

Continuing to share the glories and magic of paint =)

The upstairs bedroom...before:

And after:

Whoa!!

Another angle...before:

Previous owners...what's up with the half painted doors?  They're weird...

After:

This is much much better =)

We're going to be using this room for Marc's office.  Originally, this room was going to stay empty for a while, but now it's so awesome, that we had to use it!

The color we chose is called Classic Silver by Behr.   Very classic, indeed!

And now...we venture to the downstairs guest bedroom.  Before:

After:

Um...we were very torn about whether we should get rid of the polka dots or just embrace them.

...joking.  We were SO happy to tear those suckers off the wall.  Every polka dot that was removed felt like we were taking a breath of fresh air =)

One more...before:

After:

So much more soothing and calming for guests =)  The color is Sliced Cucumber by Behr from Home Depot.

I might have one more of these up my sleeve, and then I will be silent for a while.  We had the movers come this weekend, so we are living in a minor state of chaos right now.  Excited chaos, but chaos none the less!

Hope everyone has had a great weekend!  If you hate a room in your house, I strongly encourage you give it a face lift with a fresh coat of paint =)

The Magic of Paint - Living/Dining Room

Holy cow.  Paint is an amazing thing.  I never realized how much paint can truly transform a space!

I wanted to document the facelift that our living and dining room underwent this week...just with a little paint!

Here is the before:

Yucky, putrid green on the walls and brown trim...

And after:

Light, airy and refreshing!

Wow!  Need to see more?  I don't get tired of sharing =)

Before: 

 After:

Let me just tell you - I am THRILLED with how this has turned out so far!  There is still only primer on the moulding, but the walls are totally done.

I'm mostly excited about how amazing the fireplace turned out.

Before:

After:

People gave us a lot of grief about painting over the wood, but I'm basically obsessed with it now =)

I have to say, these were the rooms I was most nervous about, as mentioned in a previous post, but I am just so so excited with the end result.  We had lots of options to pick from....

In case you can't count them all...there are 7 paint options on that back wall =)

...seriously...we bought, like, $40 worth of those tiny paint samples, but it was totally worth it.  The color that I was passionate about ended up looking terrible on the walls.  Marc actually picked out all of the colors we ended up using!

We ultimately landed on Charismatic for the living room:

 Caribbean Sunrise for the dining room:

And Heavy Cream for the trim and fireplace:

All colors by Behr, purchased at Home Depot.  Now I can't wait for the furniture to arrive!

Introducing...

...our new home!!

This will be a super quick post, but I have provided a link to the photo library down below, in case you're interested in seeing more pictures of our new starter home =)

We have already started moving over carloads of stuff, and the movers officially come at the end of September.

Until then, we will have lots of work to do to get the house move-in ready!  Here's the list of tasks we have lined up so far:

• Carpet cleaners
• I used ZeroRez and they did an amazing job!
• Painting - we have a LOT of painting that needs to be done!
• Our guy is not only incredibly nice, but he's also going to be our milkman, too!  He works the Royal Crest truck for our street, how funny =)
• Chimney inspection
• We love the fireplaces and need to see what our options are regarding wood burning or gas inserts
• Locksmith
• Got alllll the locks changed =)
• Tree service
• We have a TON of trees on the new property and they need quite a bit of work
• Cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning
• Need I say more?

And the list continues.  But, we have already made a ton of progress and we're just so excited to get in to our new home and get settled.

There will be many more updates as we make progress...I am so excited to see what the place looks like with a fresh coat of paint.  It will be a huge change!

If you're interested in seeing more pictures, click on the slideshow below  or check out this link to the photo library - Enjoy!

Ugh.

Just FYI, work is killing me.

A huge project I'm working on is coming to completion next week and I seriously can't wait for it to be over.

I have developed an insanely severe eye-twitch...on my UPPER eye-lid, which is weird.  Have you ever had that?  I've had my lower eye-lid twitch, but never my upper lid.  It's more annoying since whenever it twitches, my vision is impaired...and it twitches for about 5 seconds every 5-7 minutes.  NO JOKE!

Also, I have a grey hair.  I have never had a grey hair, and this one is right on the top of my head.  Sad.

Ugh - I can't wait for this to be over. 

Have I mentioned that we also just bought a new house and we're in the process of moving?  Oh, I have?  A million times?  Shut up about it already?  Alrighty =)

Pinot Grigio, I hear your call!

I made him laugh...

I love dorky jokes.  Seriously.  The dorky-er, the better.

The other day, Marc was in the kitchen and asked if I wanted any grapes.  He was grabbing himself a snack, and because he's super polite, he was checking to see if I wanted some.

So I said "Yes...I'll take some gwapes". 

...to which his response was "Huh??"

...to which my response was "Have you ever heard the gwapes joke?"

Well, he hadn't, and I told it to him =)  I'm sure there are multiple variations of this joke, but this is version I told:

• A duck walks into a bar and asks "Hey, you got any gwapes?"  The bartender responds "No...Sorry, I don't have grapes here."  So the duck leaves.
•  
• The next day, the duck walks back in and asks "Hey there...you got any gwapes?"  The bartender responds "No!  I don't sell grapes!  Stop asking me that."  And the duck leaves.
•  
• The next day, the duck walks back into the bar and asks "Hey...got any gwapes?"  The bartender, seriously annoyed, responds "No!  For the last time, I don't have grapes.  I don't sell grapes.  If you ask again, I'll staple your beak shut.  Stop asking!" So the duck leaves.
•  
• The next day, the duck walks back into the bar and asks "Hey there...you got any staples?"  The bartender responds "No...I don't have any staples"
•  
• So the duck asks "You got any gwapes?"

Dorky.  Yes.  But it made him laugh out loud and that made me super happy =)

Polly the Pannus Pup

Our pup is sick.  Well...not exactly sick, but we discovered last week that she has an auto-immune disease called Pannus, which causes inflammation of her eyes. 

Sad day!

A few weeks ago, I noticed that she had some "eye-gunk" that seemed stuck on her eye...like it hadn't yet moved over to the corner of her eye so I could wipe it away.  No biggie, I thought.

Well, after about a week, Marc and I noticed that the eye-gunk was still there, and, shockingly, it was starting to turn red!  Off to the vet we go, where she was diagnosed with Pannus after a few rounds of tests.

Waiting for tests to be completed at the vet...

It turns out that this disease is not a huge huge deal since we caught it so early, but we will need to give her eye-drops every day...for the rest of her life.  Only a slight inconvenience, but it's worth it to have a pup with healthy eyes =)

The reason I share this is because I had never heard of Pannus before, and after doing some research, we realized that Polly is definitely German Shepherd!  Unfortunately, she also had all the odds working against her - the vet said this is an extremely common disease in Shepherds (it's almost ONLY found in them!) AND it's made worse by being at high elevations. 

Patiently waiting...she jumped up on the table all by herself!!

Well, Polly...at least we know what you are and I'm very sorry that you were adopted into a family that lived at high altitude.  I'm sure going to the mountains every weekend in the summer didn't help the situation =)

Ramblings from the Hubs

...I told you.  There have been a lot of these =)

While I am sitting on the couch, staring at my laptop, on the verge of a nervous breakdown and fighting back tears...
  

• Marc:  ...what the...what are you doing?
• Nicole:  ...*sniff*...I'm on Pinterest looking at color schemes.
• M:  ...are you...are you actually crying over this?!
• N:  No!  I mean...maybe...okay...Yes!
• M:  ...
• N:  Well, what if we paint the new house and it looks terrible and ugly and it will be all my fault?!?  (crying continues)
• M:  Sheesh...okay we're painting all the rooms white.  Cut it out.

I never realized how stressful it can be to design a room from the ground up.  I'm sure there are artsy people out there who think this is fun, and it has been fun, but I just got hit with a wave of "Oh crap, my husband trusts me to make good decisions and what if I fail miserably" and it kind of freaked me out...

Thankfully, I found what I was looking for and we have settled on colors for all the rooms...and they are NOT white =)

Now I just can't wait for the painter to paint, and all our new furniture to arrive. 

Ahhh!  Hurry up and build my couch, Macy's!

Ramblings from the Hubs

Warning.  There will be a lot of these over the next few weeks, I'm sure =)

While we're packing up oodles of boxes and making car-trips to the new house...

• Nicole:  Ugh...my hands are TORE-UP from all this packing!  Look how dry my cuticles are...(sad face).
• Marc:  Well...make sure you get your mani-pedi before your big conference next week.  Just  make sure you do it right before you leave, so you don't chip your nails.

Seriously.  I love him =)

And I know that "tore-up" is totally not appropriate English...but I was feeling illiterate that day.

...and can I just say again...I was packing up for the NEW HOUSE!!!  Ahhh!  (smiles!)