Photo Friday: Wyoming, Pt 2

At this rate, we'll be at San Francisco in time for New Year's. Oh well. I took over 3,000 pictures during our road trip, so if I post only 30-40 pictures per city, then I'm doing pretty well.

House Update

Hey, remember that room in my previous house update?  The one that was nothing but a sea of chaos and boxes?   Can you believe that this is the same room?

There is no such thing as free time right now, as our housewarming party is this Saturday and, while this room is ready, the rest of the house definitely is not.   And of course this is the week that I start my new job as a tai chi instructor.  I had my first demo class with the studio I work under yesterday and I absolutely loved it.  It's a huge difference from teaching preschool, but the change of pace is welcomed.

Hard to believe that we finally did it.  We have our house.  We moved in.  And it is becoming a functional home, not a collection of boxes and power tools.  More updates are soon to follow!

Total House Re-Do

The last two months have been a blur of home renovation projects. While the previous owners had taken such wonderful care of their house, there were certain things we needed to do before we moved in. We ran cables, created extra electrical outlets… and we had almost every single room repainted.


And by "every single room" I mean "every single room". These are the rooms that did not get repainted: the first floor bathroom, three walls of the library/future playroom, the upstairs and master bathrooms, the master bedroom. We painted closets for crying out loud (well, just one, but still…).


We loved the house, but the colors really were not us. Not to mention the previous family let their children pick their room colors, leaving us with the Lemon-Lime Sprite Room and Room of Distinct Neon Yellow. So we (read: I) went over the colors time and time again. I agonized over "light mint" versus "frosted mint". We researched painters like mad and hired a team to do the first floor (as there was no way I was going to try painting the two-floor foyer). Our painters gave us a headache to end all headaches, but at least the end result is nice.


FOYER


The foyer is the first thing your guests see when they come to your house. It can be inviting and entertaining…or it can be drab. The peanut butter walls were drab. My husband could not stomach the brown walls, and I hated how dark it made everything feel.


Even though our painters decided to paint this blue originally (I mean honestly, who does that? I'm shocked that no one was confused by such a color choice and looked back on the original paperwork to double-check), I love this cream color. It's open, it's light, it reflects natural light (and I'm all about natural light). When your foyer is two stories tall, any color is going to make a statement. And I like the statement this color makes.


KITCHEN:


The light yellow walls made the kitchen feel old-fashioned. It accented all the wrong parts of the cabinets and counters and made everything feel like it had an orange tint to it. It didn't help that it was paired with a very nondescript green in the den, which I'll get to in a moment.




It really is crazy what a lighter shade can do. Going from yellow to cream opened up the room and made it more inviting. It complements the cabinets and counters nicely.


DEN


The original owners used the den the way most people use a living room or a parlor: no TV, no entertainment items, but a lot of antique furniture. It was clear that this was a room you went in with adult supervision only. And while we plan on doing that with our kids as well (if only because that is where our "nice" TV is, as well as our coffee table with sharp edges) this drab green has no place in a room you actually plan on using.


I took a chance and went with a bolder blue for the den. I picked something with a soft gray undertone so, when we watch movies at night, the walls could absorb more light. It goes perfect with the cream of the kitchen. Plus, this means that we have a blue room on one side of the house, and a red room on the other (and we already know how I am about blue/red sentimentality).


DINING ROOM


The dining room was originally the same color as the library/future playroom. And while I love that color in the library, I do not like it in the dining room. The dark colors made the room small and closed off. Not what you want if you are having Thanksgiving dinner. Not to mention that the wallpaper trim was gaudy.


I already mentioned how we were able to get off all the wallpaper trim (and prime the entire room) ourselves. We then took the color pallet that we used with the foyer and went down a color or two. This tan/ginger color (paired with the richer cream color of the foyer on one of the walls) really invites you in and opens up the room. It also pairs nicely with the built-in chandelier. Always a plus.


GUEST ROOM


Neon yellow…purple trim…honestly who signs off on this? Lesson learned: my kids will never get the choose the colors for their rooms. Maybe they can choose from the color family, but I have the executive power.


I went with a light (but rich) pink for the guest room (and ultra pure white for the trim). This is the first room I had ever painted trim on and, to be honest, I hope it's the last. Painting trim is a headache, and trying to paint purple trim white is even more of a headache. But the colors are a lot softer. All I need is some white furniture and this room will be perfect.


OFFICE


I honestly hope they were getting royalties from Sprite, because this is nothing short of a soda advertisement. The worst is that, as we learned from inspecting every corner while painting, this room was once a rich blue color. And the previous room was a nice beige. Why try to fix what isn't broken, honestly.


While light green does not work in a den, it works wonderfully in a bedroom. My childhood bedroom was actually a light green just like this one. It's just so much easier on the eyes.


Slowly but surely, this house is truly becoming our own. From picking out the right colors to organizing our stuff into its rightful places, this house is becoming a home faster than I could've imagined.

Photo Friday: En Route Through Wyoming

Let's be honest here: unless you live by Wyoming, you don't think about Wyoming. When you think about places to visit, you think about Hawaii, Florida, California, New York… When you think about visiting great natural phenomena, you think about Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls… Maybe you get Yellowstone National Park and Old Faithful in there, but even then, it's Old Faithful independent on Wyoming. As if Wyoming is a great nothing with an incredible state park in its northern parts.


It's safe to say I'm in love with Wyoming. These pictures truly do not do the area justice. But I want you to try to get a scope of what you see just by driving down 80: look at those green splotches. Realize they are trees. Look at those power lines. Remember how big power lines are. Now look at those huge sod-off mountains in the distance. Wyoming is a magnificent place.













I'll take "What Is?" for 100 Alex.

Try it Tuesday: The Beauty of Vinegar

Once upon a time, one of my education professors talked about replacing her "teacher bleach" (aka a water-and-bleach mixture used to disinfect toys at the end of the day) with "teacher vinegar".  She also went on rants about how annoying it was that her employees didn't appreciate her micromanaging and proceeded to base the final exam on absolutely nothing that was in the textbook or discussed in class, so I didn't take her advice to heart.

Cut to when we are meeting with painters to discuss the first floor color changes.  Our dining room had this garish wallpaper trim on the top of the walls (the type that was considered regal in the 80s).  We had been picking and scraping at it with little luck.  One of the painters looked at it and said that it would most likely come off with some warm water and vinegar.

Since it would've cost us an additional $100 just to have a painter scrape off the trim, we took an empty Windex bottle and filled it 50/50 with warm water and vinegar.

The wallpaper trim downright fell off.  We still had to get a spackling knife under the edges, but, for the most part, it peeled off like dried glue on skin.

Since we had filled the bottle up all the way (and still needed more Windex), I began using it on all the other areas that needed cleaning.

Yes, the smell is pungent at first.  But this lasts maybe 10 seconds.  And a few seconds of smellong vinegar is worrh streak-free windows, dirt-and-grime-free window sills, and mildew-free patio fencing.

I should've known that I would eventually get on the "eco-cleaning" bandwagon, but I am surprised that I tried it out purely because I didn't want to pay the painters more.

House Update: Finally!

It is hard to believe it, but we finally moved into the house.

A lot of things were intentionally delayed: we had a later closing date because we were going road tripping.  We didn't move in for practically two months so we could do our micro-renovations.  We dealt with rental people with draconian lease policies, mortgage people who delighted in making us jump through hoops (only to change their mind halfway throufh each jump), painters who truly screwed us over (while the finished product is gorgeous, it took 2 full weeks instead of 3 days, with the polyurethane scrapped off in a few spots on our hardwood floors.  The level of headache-inducing BS is enough to keep Bayer in business), and movers whose estimate lady screwed them over, bringing out two guys for a three man job (we bought the guys pizza and gatorade after because they showed some Herculean strength).

But it's all okay.  Every misstep was worth it.  Because now we are home.

We are currently without internet, and probably will be for the next few days.  I'll hopefully be posting some lovely before-and-after shoots of the interior, since a little color change goes a long way.

It really is hard to believe it.  I'm over the moon that all the pre-move prep work is done, but the job is definitely far from over.  We have only two weeks to get everything settled before we have our housewarming party.  Ideally we would get more time, but a temporary change in my husband's work schedule and the declining summer air is forcing our hand a bit, especially if we want to have a barbecue and use our fire pit.

But hey, I have done more with less time.  Challenge accepted!

Photo Friday: Estes Park, Pt 3

The final part in my Estes Park trip is finally here. We got to the highest point accessible by a continuously paved road in the US (gotta love all those variables). Capping off at 12,100 ft, it was the perfect way to finish up a wonderful day in such a beautiful place.


We had spent all our planning thinking about what we would do in Denver. Little did we know that our most memorable day in Colorado would be an hour out from Denver.