Well, we closed on our house and I started to clean. And clean. And clean. The house was so disgustingly dirty. Months later, our neighbors informed us that the house had sat empty for months, a window was broken in the back, and there was animals living inside. There was a layer of black grime on everything. It was so dingy and gross. The more I cleaned, the more I realized how truly filthy the house was. I cried. A lot. Plus, I think that crash in Nebraska shook me up a bit too. Anyway, my family was incredibly kind, a couple people (I don't know who), chipped in and flew Lindsay out to help me move in. She helped me clean and even painted a wall. We cleaned like mad. She helped keep me sane and so I wasn't crying like a baby. Also, we ate gelato. I literally used one magic eraser per one cupboard in our kitchen--that's how thick the layer of grime was. In the end, I couldn't handle how grimy the ceiling was and how dark the walls were and Leo let me start painting. I painted all the ceilings (except for in the kids' bedrooms I think, I don't remember now). And then I painted almost all the walls. Sebastian and Nicolas's room was the only one where one wall was painted. It looked so much brighter and cleaner with the new ceiling paint and wall paint. It was so worth all the work.
Lindsay took this picture of us that first Sunday.
Painting, my life for a month.
Lindsay helping paint the girls' room.
Divine White was the winner to go with the oak trim. I like the warm undertones, it is weird though, it definitely has a red undertone, and looks slightly pink in some light but almost yellowy at times though too. Peachy I guess. At night, I don't really like the tone it takes. Anyway, it looks fabulous with the 90's oak trim.
You can see how the ceiling paint was so much brighter.
Painting for weeks....
I missed my house in Evanston like crazy. Kind of an unexpected sucker punch, I think a lot in part because I was so disgusted at how filthy our house was. Anyway, stickers in my bathroom seemed necessary d/t missing my old house.
Fun stickers in the boys' bathroom too. And is it just me or did they photoshop the top shot a bit? Not really the same color of tub or countertop. Errr.... A year later those stickers in my room are still going strong. The ones in the boys bathroom are not, just FYI.
This was the little half bath by the garage. I used wallpaper to do a faux bead board and painted it teal. The chair rail was left in the garage so I put it to use. I loved the wallpaper so much!! I wanted to do that in the dining room but thought leaving the dining room more toned down would be good for when we sold the house, and this wallpaper was more expensive so I didn't want to pay more too.
I wanted to try painting the door and trim as an experiment for any later houses. It's something you can't just undo or repaint so is something I'd normally not do. But yep, I would totally do this again in a longterm home. I love the mirror I found at Target and the light and towel rack etc. This room is one of my favorite things I did to this house.
I don't really have a good picture for the girls' bathroom, but I really like the calm color of this bathroom too. I covered the countertop with a faux marble contact paper. That's a fail. It's peeling already and not worth the effort I think.
Yep, covere in paint again.
Painting in the girls' room. I think the walls had been painted Kilim Beige before. I know it looks decent in photos, but in real life it's undertones were too greenish and clashed with the yellow undertones in the oak trim. And you can see how much darker it is than the Divine White.
A month of more later, I hung the wallpaper in the girls' room. They wanted the same wallpaper again so bad. And I have to say, I've gotten really good at putting it up. 😉
Again the living room was in shambles for almost a month before I had everything painted and unpacked. And yes, more stickers for around the fireplace. I LOVE these ones.
Before and after. I'm still not in love with the color of the curtains I bought, but they were inexpensive and okay. I'm just going to leave them here anyway.
So I didn't even start putting away the kitchen till December. We ate premade meals from Sam's Club a lot. I didn't cook for that whole month besides warming stuff up. It was a really long month.
Yep, more sticker tiles. I love these ones a lot too.
All tired out.
The green wall in Sebastian's room. I don't remember if I used SW Derbyshire, but I think that's what it is.
And the blue wall in Jubal's room. It's Behr Mammoth Mountain. I like it. We actually just painted this last month (2023). Jubal punched a hole in his wall and so after fixing it, we decided to paint it blue. And it was a random grab at the store, no pre-planning the color besides I didn't want navy or a light blue.
We drove up to Kansas City to go to Ikea, we planned on buying billy bookcases for all our books, some bookshelves for Elena and Isabel's room, and desks for their room. We did get a desk but not the one we were planning on. The store was cleaned out. Covid had totally wrecked the supply change and there was nothing on the shelves and nothing at their other stores. So wild. And kind of a wasted trip. But yummy food.
Smaug kept me company while I painted.
As did Efraim before I finally got him enrolled back in Head Start for speech therapy. I think it was finally February before he started back.
In the process of painting.
And after.
I fell twice that November and had nasty bruises. I felt old and klutzy. Sigh.
Painting the ceilings with the air compressor we rented.
I painted the bottom of the walls Benjamin Moore Hale Navy. It goes beautifully with the 90s oak. I did a lot of research on that one actually. And the research was right.
The light I bought in Park City was PERFECT. I thought I was going to use it in the living room but it was too big. Over the table it worked great though.
And yes more Anthropologie wallpaper. I didn't purposely choose to just buy Anthropologie wallpaper, btw. The girls' wallpaper I had bought on Houzz the first time, but I found it for the same price at Anthropologie this time and since I was already ordering from them, I bought it from there. The other wallpaper, I looked and looked and looked, mostly on Etsy, but I just absolutely loved the bathroom and dining room ones. It was the perfect amount of whimsy + exotic while still managing to look somewhat classic in an over-the-top Victorian way. And they're both from a Canadian designer, Christiane Lemieux, so that's cool. I know, I'm silly. This wallpaper went up in February (I think) of 2022. It took a long time to ship.
Leo and I slept on camping mats for 3 weeks. I was so happy to be back in our bed.
Yep, summed up my life. We had just paid off all our credit card debt in 2021 and promptly went back into it buying stuff for this house (paint, shelves, wallpaper, etc). Moving is deadly.
https://youtube.com/shorts/o8rf5Zdk9No?feature=shareFollow the links for Jubal's awesome dancing while we were painting the garage--just with primer since the previous owner had written several inappropriate words in permanent marker on the walls.
