Putting dad to work

It made a nice place for this year's photo Christmas cards, but....

...we decided the wooden slats gave the living room and kitchen a dated look. And they took up room we badly needed for our table.

So we took it all out! We'll finish off the area with a wood trim after we get the kitchen remodel done.


Also got the new floor down in the hallway. My parents leave tomorrow; my dad is probably anxious to get on the road before we put him to work on something else!

My Bday Present: New floor!

Before painting the walls. I went with a cheery yellow, which I'm hoping will mute a bit after I apply a faux effect. Not sure what yet but I'm excited to learn a new trick!


We pulled up the (fairly new but awful smelling) carpet and then everyone helped pull up staples and tack.

After getting the subfloor cleaned up, we painted down a coat of kilz primer to take care of the stink.

Two of my favorite guys, and my favorite dog, putting down our new floor!

Looks BEAUTIFUL! We made a good team, the three of us, and moved right along. Thanks guys!

A & A's Room

The girlie girl room. Right before we moved, I had started on a castle theme in their room. I just got the mural up and had to paint over it. The new room gave me another opportunity to try the castle theme, as Amelia opted for it again.


The pink tulle swags make a reappearance here; one over the closet and one over the dresser nook. The shelves above the dresser hold all the stuffed animals, and their closet floor is sufficient for their doll stuff (the other half of the closet floor is the ceiling of the stair well below). I combined the two ribbon valances from the previous house into one longer one here. Yes, I did have to untie and retie each ribbon; totally worth it for a free, eye catching valance.

Here is the new castle mural. I opted for a shadow effect with just two colors; the wall color and the accent pink. The pink goes about 1/3 up the walls of the entire room with random vertical stripes of the wall color. I left a larger horizontal stretch of the wall color above the pink, and then added some scallops for a ribbon/lace effect. The square and circle mirrors are from the dollar store, painted pink to match. The quote is the same one from our other house, one of my favorites: I know I am a Princess because my Father is King of Kings.

Knockin' holes in the walls

Our living room area has a vaulted ceiling, but the kitchen does not and the rooms are more closed off from each other than we like (think: keeping an eye on the kiddos while making supper). Anyway, one expanse of wall was just screaming to be made a pass through.


So we obliged.

It's a load bearing wall, so for now the studs will stay in place. Hopefully sooner rather than later (Christmas break?) we'll get the header put in and finish it off.

In addition to being able to view the girls from the kitchen, it makes the kitchen space feel larger and lets in more natural light. Love it!

MB Floor

While the two smaller bedrooms had original oak floors under their hideous carpet, the master just had hideous carpet. One of the first things we did when we moved in 3 months ago was rip up the carpet and kilz the subfloor. We finally put in the new laminate floor; middle-of-the-road tarkett with 25 yr warranty, foam underlay.

The girls love it! Before we moved our bed back in, they had a dance party. :)

Tada!

It's a Beaut!

Unexpected, expensive, but a beaut!