Finished Painting!!!!

Hallway before:

Hallway after!



Bathroom before:

Bathroom after!

Kitchen before (OK, pretend we hadn't begun scraping yet):

Kitchen after!

Isn't it bee-yew-tee-ful? With the counters, it kind of reminds me of our wedding colors! Now all we have to do is change the floor....

Man room, all set up:

And there it is! We feel like we bought another house. Everyone come visit (after we've cleaned up, of course)!!!!

whoops

I realize via Scarlet Lily that I may have caused confusion: The dog will not be home until May. We're just really, really excited. We're getting a soft-coated Wheaten terrier, which won't trigger my allergies.

Here's what they look like:



We're not sure exactly what ours will look like; clearly we have a few choices because they don't all look the same. It will also depend on how short we keep the coat, of course.

Pseudo-update

Nothing new to report this morning because Cousin T's father has become quite ill (he's elderly and now probably going into hospice), so, funny enough, painting our house hasn't ranked high on his list of priorities. I can't imagine why. I'll just post after everything's finished. I will mention that DH has put his den back together and it looks like an entirely different room. All we need to do now is hang some art. We have so many paintings that I suggested we keep a few up at all times and then rotate the rest, like a museum.

In other news, as of Monday I will have made it through half a year at my job. Teachers announce their retirements at the end of this week (technically) and I know of at least one who probably will, though she's keeping quite mum about the whole thing. It will just give me a little more perspective on my prospects for next year...keeping in mind that the other three new people will also vie for any openings. I never knew the world of teaching could get so political! Wish me luck.

Oh and one more thought: We're considering Hurley or Hugo for dog names (LOST, anyone?) We had settled on Barney (also from a favorite show, How I Met Your Mother), but feared too many others would think of the big purple one. No thanks. We're not TV freaks; we just like the sound of these names for a dog. I welcome your thoughts.

I recently added a reader in CA (my dad), so hello, CA! One more red dot on my reader map!

Super fast post

Back hallway looks good (sandy-color), kitchen's done today, and I have to proctor an AP US History exam. Since my office at school is so friggin' cold that I had to put on gloves yesterday, I may not work there again today. However, we ran into the maintenance guy who fixed it, I think. Always, ALWAYS make friends with maintenance and custodial staff at your workplace, people. They do more for us than we ever imagine, and they truly keep the place going. I also find this true for secretarial staff. In my opinion, over history, the king's advisor always had just as much, if not more power than the king/head. The advisor keeps his ear to the ground and can get info a higher profile person can't.

I've gotta hit the shower, and our shower head spits out water so it feels as if you're showering under a handheld gardening can in terms of pressure. We view dealing with this as our next, less expensive project.

Happy Thursday!

Painting: Day 4

Front hallway, Before:



















After (below)


















I have to say I consider this a vast improvement. And P.S., the entire banister side of the hallway had that flowery wallpaper on it before I peeled it off. The other side had the dried out avocado color. I find this new color quite cheerful!

The back hallway does have one coat of paint on it, but it's not worth posting until it's finished. Oh, and I also made surprisingly good soup in the crock pot:

- 2 chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
- 1 yellow, 1 orange pepper, coarsely chopped
- 1 medium yellow onion, sliced in strips and cut once
- 1 large can petite diced tomatoes, with juice
- 1 1/2 cans chicken broth
- 1 can each navy and kidney beans, drained
- ~1 1/2 tsp each rosemary and tarragon
- salt for seasoning

I browned the chicken in butter first, not quite all the way through, and sauteed the veggies in butter as well to keep them crisp. Then I literally poured everything in the crock pot and set it on high for about 3 1/2 hours. In short, I used what we had in our house because we haven't gone grocery shopping, put in a quick call to Savory and Sweet for advice, and hoped for the best. Clearly it came out well, since I'm posting it. :-) The tarragon really added good flavor, and it was so full of ingredients that I didn't need to add pasta or rice or anything. Next time I'll add garlic, if I make it again.

Enjoy the day and stay warmer than I will in my frosty little office at school. They seem to want to save on the heating bill.

Painting: Day 3

While these shots are not a thrill a minute, it does show you the process (and how tedious it can get...) and how great the results look.

My gorgeous painting gear

The back "foyer", fully primed

Back hallway, also fully primed and ready to go

Kitchen, almost ready to go!

T's room: Finished!

Remember, here's what the walls looked like before (sans primer):

The whitish color is the actual paint color for the
back hallway, off T's room

Gratuitous winter shot of our pretty backyard:
It snowed a lot yesterday.

Day 2 Painting

No truly exciting pictures to post; we did a lot of plastering (OK, Cousin T did most of that) and priming, scraping walls smooth, generally getting the rooms ready for today. I hope we'll have the red room ("Red room! Red room!"...Simpsons reference...anyway...) and the kitchen done by the end of the day today. We barely watched any football--that's how busy we were. What does that tell you?? I just hope we don't have to open too many windows today to get rid of fumes, since we'll hit a whopping high of 20 degrees without wind chill. Clearly global warming has not affected my area lately.