I've been feeling home improvements lately. Painting, landscaping, etc. We still have so much to do to our house but like most, we have a budget that we need to stick to and it's so hard to decide on what we should do next. If only I had a million dollars right?
A few Thursdays ago, I had an itch, an itch to paint something. So I did. At 4:30 pm, I packed up the girls, grabbed my kitchen inspiration clock (that I had bought before we had even gotten an offer accepted on a house) here I'll show you what it looks like really quick:
it was a Tai Pan find.
run on sentence continued: ran to Home Depot, picked out a color and grabbed a roller and some brushes. Riley was my color helper. She helped me pick out the perfect color for our kitchen. Or half of our kitchen I should say. When we first moved into this house, I wanted to paint the back wall of our kitchen a rusty red. I've decorated the whole kitchen/dining/family room in rusty reds, browns, creams, and yellows/golds. But, it's not enough. It's not enough color. I knew it wasn't when we moved in but I shut my mouth. Tim and I had help, help that wanted to stick to two colors throughout the house just to get it done. I was lucky enough to get them to rinse out their brushes to paint Riley's room blue. I asked if we could just do one wall red, and my Dad said no, not if you want my help. Boo Hoo. I'm sure I probably blogged about it when I posted all of the painting that we did a little over a year ago. I'd try to find that post myself and link to it, but I don't feel like it, feel free to peruse my archives and let me know if you find it. Then I'll link. Anywho, for a few weeks I had been asking Tim what he thought about painting the back wall a rusty red, and he just said, yeah that could be cool.
It's taken me a while to actually paint that wall b/c personally, I really want granite and a tile backsplash. When you see pics of it in a minute, you'll see how small of a space I'm talking. I want a tile backsplash that goes all the way up to the cabinets. But, back to the budget, I was not really sure if we'd be able to do it any time soon. So, I said to my self, "Self, let's just do it. We don't need the hubby's approval and maybe he'll help when he gets home from work."
So, that's what I did. Luckily for me, my friend from college was in town and she stayed with us and helped me paint. I tempted her with a bottle of wine, she was a cheap date. She was in. So, here'ssssssss, wally.
If you are wondering if we painted the cabinets black ourselves, the answer is no. No we didn't. When we bought the house, they were already black, and the entire house was gray. You know I think I am going to post back to those so that you can see what it looked like and our improvements along the way, I'll do a few here
I originally painted the back wall and then realized that i needed to wrap around to behind the fridge. I did this one Thursday later. Oh yeah, and I did it in the dark, it still needs a second coat.
I didn't stop there, I did behind the china hutch...
Views from the family room...
I love it.
So you know how I'm always saying that I'm tired because of my daily load? Well, I'd be less tired if I didn't throw painting a few walls in the mix. I did this on Thursday night when I had 3 orders due for the weekend. Yeah, I told you I am sick in the head.
So now that I've painted and feel like my itch isn't completely scratched, Tim and I have been discussing what we should do next. It's either the backyard or the bonus room or granite in the kitchen. My vote was for granite because I spend A LOT of time in there. Plus, it would be great for rolling fondant.
I hate tile, no let me rephrase that I hate grout...
We've decided to price granite and see how much it would be to do our whole kitchen. If it's way too expensive, then I want to do just the island. The plan for the island? You want to know? Okay I'll tell you, granite in a warm gold tone, and I want to bead board the base:
and paint it red. The same red that's on the walls. And I don't want to stop there, I need some hardware on the cabinets, and a new window treatment. And, and, and....I need...I need...I need...
Okay, should we move away from the kitchen for a sec? I'll show you the other improvements I'd like to make. See this banister?
We're gonna paint the top railing an espresso and leave the rungs (sp?) white, I've had the paint for about a year now. I think it's time I cracked that can open and went to town on the banister.
Okay, next, see this back wall? The back, back wall that leads down the hall upstairs?
Yeah, I want to paint this the darker color that is in our kitchen/fam room. I think it'll add a nice contrast.
Check out the painting i found for that wall too...
I still need to find something else to hang next to it, either a shelving unit, mirror thingy...
And, one more painting project, this wall behind my desk...
Guess what color?
No, not red.
Blue!! A darker blue, like I think my Mom said, a colonial blue.
Are you sick of hearing about the painting yet? I'll take you outside...
See this nasty tree? I hate it. A lot of people like it. If you want it, you can have it. I want it out. And I want a walk way here.
Please use Riley as a marker. She is standing where the walkway would be going straight down to the sidewalk, I see not just a walkway too, a pretty planter, some brickwork, etc. etc.
And I want to tear this out...
Please use Riley again as a marker, I'm talking about the concrete right there.
See these....
Hate these too. They will be moved to the backyard hill and will be replaced with pretty flowers.
So I guess this brings me to the backyard...
Yuck right?
Plans: Patio cover, exposed beams, cutting into the hill, leveling, jacuzzi (IMD - in my dreams, I just made that up.), pizza oven, etc. That's why I want to do granite first. Probably less expensive, don't ya think?
Well, thanks for sticking it out and seeing all the improvements I want to do. Hopefully we will get a lot done this summer.
Do you have any home improvements you are dying to get done??
