Just Because I Should Be Packing...

I needed to take photos of a couple giant tins to sell and then I was going to pack up the storage room, but decided to re-take photos of things already listed, sure I will curse myself later when I am up until the wee hours doing what I should have been doing right now...

One Room ALMOST Done

Do you remember the grass cloth parlor, all brown and sad and depressing?

It only took 18 days of non stop hard labor work, but it is now the blue music room--Ta-da!

There is still about a week's left of work to do, lots of little details that just take forever, but oh, is this pretty so far! I'll be back with the completely finished product by next week if all goes according to plan, which of course it never does...

A Little Red White and Blue

I wish I could say I was done moving and the new house is a dream with new paint and curtains and all good things, but truth is we are still moving, not one drop of new paint has been put on the walls and massive amounts of caulking, spackling and sanding still need to be done. This doesn't even include the new bathroom fixtures that need to be installed, gutting and redoing the kitchen, oh, the list goes on. I know some people complain about the movers being slow or the contractors not showing up--in this house, it is me, my husband and two teenage girls moving every stick of furniture and pile of dough bowls and we are the only contractors in sight. We are also exhausted. I may or may not find time to list these, we shall have to see...

We are Supergirls

The grasscloth is GONE! We just finished the last wall and it is SOOOOOO much better. We are down to old cracked plaster, so the weekend will be spent spackling and maybe even painting, dare I hope? Here is the before and after.

Out of Africa

Once I saw the parlor in person again, I knew I could not embrace the Tiki, and just started in on scraping off that Africa inspired grasscloth--a truly filthy job, very time consuming, but it is working. We've got one wall done, know I have to go finish the other 3--exhausting.

The good rooms just need a bit of plaster repair and paint, the living room is in the best shape.

I think Grant Wood is going to win the paint battle in the dining room, I am going to leave the crown molding with his green paint and repaint the walls cream. I am going to use my blue paint in the kitchen instead, but the kitchen is a whole other problem.

The kitchen is awful. It really looks better in a photo than in person. The cupboards are homemade, not in a good way, and faced with linoleum. The picture window is the rooms only saving grace. I've picked out new white cabinets, just waiting to find out if I can afford them.

Well, I finally have my home. I must admit, my first reaction to walking through the empty house was "Oh, God, what have we done?", as the enormity of the work ahead hit me hard. We spent all Friday night just moving the yard stuff over, which helped with the dressing up. These are little concrete fairies that I got at Walmart of all places, only $12.98!

Here are the other yard ornaments:

This is the yard, it is freaking huge!

I really like the back porch, it is so country cute

Tomorrow, I'll show you some of the inside. The girls and I are stripping the grasscloth--goodbye Tiki room!

Packing is Too Hard, So I Get Out The Blue Paint Instead

Almost Time to Really Move

I get my new old house next week, have some painting and freshening up to do, but the house is really gorgeous already. Here is where I am going to get into big trouble. This is the dining room as the former owners live there:



Now, I am going to paint the crown molding cream and the walls blue. Pretty, right? Well, here is the problem--you know I'll paint an antique without a pang of regret, no matter that the experts tell me to cut it out. This, however is a little trickier--guess who picked the current colors in this dining room? GRANT FREAKING WOOD! Yes, the American Gothic artist, son of Iowa, one of my favorite artists, oversaw the painting of the crown molding in 1938, and he would pick a color I don't like. Silly, huh? If they had never told me, I would have been painting without a thought except to get rid of that green and peach. Now, I have to feel guilty, but I'm still going to do it.

Here is the next house problem--the entry parlor. Grasscloth is what is on the walls, also from the 1938 remodel of this 1870 home, and I all I can think of is the Tiki Room at Disney. I see this room papered in blue damask, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the grasscloth is going to be a horror to remove, so I may embrace the Tiki and go for a British Colonial study look instead of my gorgeous blue paper, we'll have to see.



House is mine on Friday! (Well, it's the bank's house, but I get to live there)

BLOCKS!

I couldn't find many good blocks at all for a while there, now it seems I have only to walk into a shop and there they are! I got these yesterday and arranged them very sweetly. The sets will be listed for about $4.50 a block, the box will be $28--it really wants a Christmas tree, but I'll wait to do that if it doesn't sell this way.