Friday, January 28, 2011

Progress & Paint

It's been two weeks since we closed on the house, and wow, my husband has been hard at work. We've ripped out all of the carpet; torn out the hardwood floors on the first floor; and my brother in law, step-dad, and Blake installed the new hardwood floors. Blake has also torn out the ceiling tiles in two rooms, removed the popcorn finish on one ceiling, and is almost finished patching holes/cracks in the plaster on our walls so that we can paint. My contributions have been mainly limited to cleaning, providing meals (and doing all other household chores), slowly moving things to the house, and choosing paint. Choosing paint colors is hard. I'm glad Ace Hardware has free buttery popcorn; that makes it less painful.


We thought we'd narrowed it down to two colors yesterday (Benjamin Moore's berkshire beige or baja dunes), but once we applied them to our walls and looked at them in artificial light we realized they weren't for us. I think we're going to try chocolate mousse (the color) tonight. I like the idea of a darker chocolate color, but with our cherryish wood furniture and a brown leather sofa, we're thinking it'll be too dark. Looks like we'll be painting the foyer and small bedrooms white for now....



We've also had an electrician move our outlets since some were in the baseboard and some were on the wall. Oddly the smallest bedroom in the house has 12 outlets! It's crazy how many outlets this old house has...makes me wonder why.



Painting begins in the morning! Let's hope it goes quickly :) Happy (almost) weekend!



Before:


After:

p.s. I'm grateful that it's Friday!

7 comments:

Pam said...

the new floor looks great! I'm excited to see how the house projects come along. how exciting!

Anonymous said...

Wow - what a tremendous amount of work you two have done! It must feel good to be getting that place fixed up.

When I'm considering a paint color, I usually google it to see if I can find pictures of that paint color in other people's homes. Of course, the lighting can really vary, but sometimes that has helped me rule out a color before I go to the hassle of even buying/applying a sample.

Ally said...

Pam: Thanks! I'm looking forward to seeing the floors after they've been sanded and finished.

rachel: I just started googling for that last night, and it definitely helps. Great suggestion.

Lib said...

Ally--

All of that is so exciting! I love the before and afters of renovations...especially when I don't have to exert any elbow grease to make them happen. wow, it looks like a lot of work but i bet the reward, satisfaction, and sense of ownership will be fabulous when you're done!

I'm not familiar with the Ben Moore paint spectrum, but Sherwin Williams has a color called Blonde that is great--very neutral and warm, not too light, not too dark, goes with everything. It's got a vintage feel to it, IMO. Anyhow, that's our main neutral in our house here and we love it. Just thought I'd mention that in case you want to check it out.

Good luck with everything--love the updates.

HappyascanB said...

Wow, y'all done some serious work so far! I'm looking forward to hearing about how the paint turns out and seeing pictures of the finished product!

Tiff said...

I lost you and now have found you again :)

Ys said...

It's looking great :) Make sure you take lots of before and after photos. Mine always make me smile :)