Painting

Does anyone else love to paint?  I have never really tried painting on a canvas so I guess the interior walls of my house are my canvas!  I love to play around with colors and think I get better and better at as the years go by.  I get an idea of what is too crazy, what I can pull off & what is crazy but can be pulled off with the right accents. Lowe's is great to get test paint because they sell sample jars for around $3 a jar and this is GREAT if you are doing multiple colors in your kids rooms because you don't have to buy gallons of paint if you only need a little.  You never realize how cheap and easy it can be to transform a room until you have lived in a fixer-upper!  I met my husband 5 1/2 years ago and a year after we were dating my 2 year old and I moved in to his house and I am NOT kidding, every piece of furniture, painting, candle, etc. looked (and I am willing to bet was a hand-me-down!!!)  The house looked like he went to every garage sale at closing time and took the stuff people couldn't sell and put by their curbs for free!  Needless to say, over the past few years I have been slowly taking his "crap" out and putting mine in.

I will post some pictures of what we started out with and how far the rooms have come since then (thank God my husband is a crazy awesome Mr. fix it!).  He has saved us so much money in repairs along, he actually took out the old boiler head, installed a complete heating & cooling system by himself including installing the ductwork, etc.  He changed out our hot water heater, tore out pieces the floors & walls down to the studs and put new flooring and drywall up to update damage from an old water leak.  He took out the old 1960's white countertop (complete with it's little gray starburst print & fancy trimwork) and updated it with one that looks like stone from Menards.  Let me be clear by saying that all of these projects that have been done were done by us, I lifted, painted, hammered, measured, tore apart, loaded/unloaded, etc. right along with him.  I'm his repair buddy and I honestly believe that even though it is silly, hanging around and helping my husband when he's working actually has built a stronger bond between us.  He actually prefers my help rather than a friend or even by himself, we talk, joke, paint on each other (I even have an old t-shirt I wore while painting when I was pregnant that he painted a smiley face across my stomach on), I'll have that memory forever.

I love a good challenge and I have to say I think my kitchen is to date the most rewarding accomplishment since it's where we spend a good deal of time (it was hideous).  We're now working on our living room which is coming along great, will work our way to two little hallways, a bathroom that is covered from wall to ceiling in robin's egg blue and white tiles (from the 60's as well), a white countertop with color coordinating robins' egg blue starbursts, yellow peel-and-stick tiles with faded pink flowers.  After the last of the inter is finished being updated we're going to put a new roof on and this baby is going up for sale!!!  Then (hopefully) it's off to a nice piece of land with privacy and no neighbors nearby.

 House/property hunting is exhausting and stressful because you really have to do your research to make sure you are purchasing/building exactly what you want!  Websites such as: www.pinterest.com, www.houzz.com & www.bhg.com have all been great places to start in getting ideas!  My husband was reading a book that suggested when planning on building a home you should get a shoebox and anytime you drive by a house you like take a picture & print, if you read a magazine and see a room that you like the layout cut it out, if you see furniture ideas cut them out and put them all in the box.  If I am on websites that have photos I email them to myself so I can print the ones I would really consider adding into my building plans and put them in the box!  There are so many great ideas once you get started!  I would love to hear (read) ideas/suggestions from others so please feel free to share any tips or advice you may have and take any that I may post.  If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Marina