It's electric... and about 5 other projects

(boogie woogie woogie...)

Earlier this week, Dustin, Ellie, and purple Wubba added an electrical outlet in the hallway. Now, we can get solid internet all through the house and don't have to frantically run around looking for the cordless.

Of course, the cordless isn't on the charger anyway..... We also bumped our Netflix package up $2 a month so we could watch unlimited Instants. We feel like we have cable now! We watched one episode of Hoarders; Dustin said he was getting hives from seeing it :). Adding this outlet helps the Xbox pick up a better signal so it doesn't get all pixelated.

We also finished organizing the kitchen, and pantry, and spice cabinet.

And threw things away that expired in 2005. Yes. 2005. We moved here in 2006. How that happened, I'm not sure, but I'm guessing it was me who did it!

We made some carrot and spinach pasta to ship to California to our nephew...

And we rearranged the entire living room.

The piano used to be here.

But, it is now across the room.

Dustin wants to get rid of the couch and love seat and buy some smaller chairs. The thought of buying new furniture gives me hives though! I hate spending money :)

And, I broke my phone. 

 Luckily, Megan had a spare hanging around so I'm the owner of a new used Palm that I can barely figure out!

I also finished a class and started a new one. I'm officially starting the research classes for my dissertation!

Up next: the bathroom that's been ripped apart for 2 years because of a foundation leak DISASTER that is, knock on wood, officially fixed. One year ago, we bought the things we needed to finish the project. It is finally making the cut!

Mythic Paint from The DIY Club

Choosing the paint color from The Diy Club winnings was the hardest selection. In the end, we are getting two gallons of Mythic Paint in the bottom color, Light Sage. (it's a bit lighter on the chip than it looks here)

While we do have a list of projects, we already have the paint (leftover from the living room) that we plan to use. This contest made us look through everything in our house to see where we needed to paint.

The stairwell and hallway both need an update and a fresh coat. But, that only need about half a gallon of paint total. We wanted to make sure that we were getting JUST enough paint so we decided to find another area that would need a little over a gallon. So, the room that we have currently set up as a bright yellow nursery is getting the same shade. We've learned the hard way (and then some) about planning ahead for a nursery, so this color is much more neutral and doesn't make us feel like we're putting a cart before a horse. That room takes just over a gallon of paint, perfect!

We've also been talking about doing something "plankish" in the hallway too, so now we can put the paint $ towards planks :) My dictionary wall is still cool and holding up well, but not in the place where I was trying to cover up a gap and uneven paneling.

I'm ready to start this project NOW, but I think the bathroom downstairs (the one that has been ripped apart for a year and a half is next on the list)

Of course, I do have serious Project ADD, so I might have to do them both at the same time and drive Dustin crazy. :)

Just another night @ Casa Voyles-- baring it all

I've been on an anti carpet kick now since.... well, we bought the house and realized there are hardwood floors underneath the carpet. It is nice carpet. That's why we've waited 4 years. And, we weren't sure what kind of condition the floors were in when they were covered.

Tuesday, I called Dustin at lunch and announced that we were ripping up the hall carpet when he got home. Usually decisions such as this are made by a panel discussion with the two of us. I didn't like the dragging of the feet of the panel, so I counted my vote twice. Since I wallpapered the bathroom walls with the dictionary, I have been wanting to do this so I could paint trim and update the hall some.

It really didn't take ALL that long. We started on the kick plate of the top step. There is hardwood under that carpet too, but we I wanted to see the steps too.

(Editorial Comment- Yes, this bushy haired man is Dustin. Yes, he wears overalls sometimes. Yes, I do say "Are you really going to wear those?" every time he puts them on. I told him when he got them that boys can only wear them from birth to 12 and then starting again in their 50s. He's getting a jump start at 29 apparently :))

Ellie is still stressed out over this. She loves carpet. In the kitchen, she will only sit or lay on the rugs. She tried to stage a sit/lay in, but we are bigger and have treaties. She caved easily. Sophie loved the process. She was, however, scared of the floors once we were done for a good hour. We get a lot of "help" with everything we do around here. Margot is used to this type of stuff and was off somewhere sleeping.

 

Carpet and padding came up easily. And the staples pulled out fairly well too. I think tack strip looks like some medieval torture device. And torture us that night it did. Getting it all pried up without hurting the floor took us longer than everything else combined.

A good sweeping and a scrub down with some Murphy's oil soap and they look great. I knew carpet held all kinds of grossness, but I am still SHOCKED at how much dirt was on the floor, UNDER the carpet. I can't wait to tackle the three bedrooms now.

My two favorite parts? The floors, of course.. and their cost: FREE!!!!!!

 I found a product online that I am going to try. It is a finish reviver. We aren't ready to sand, stain, and finish quite yet. We still have a nail biting puppy with sharp claws. So, even if we had them all uncovered, I'm not ready to have NICE floors quite yet! :) The reviver is supposed to last 3-6 months, so I think that's the best bet for us for now.

If walls could talk

what would they say?

Today, mine are saying things like fiasco, beautiful, barracks, exquisite.... and have pictures of a basilica, a beagle, a brig, a buffalo, and gothic architecture just to name a few.

'Why?', you ask.

I have a bit of a slow day today, so I finally decided to transform this hallway...

If you look to the left of the pocket door, you see the "temporary" fix we did a year and a half ago. We had to move the door over a little so the pocket door would have enough room to open. And... my arch nemesis, paneling, is all through this hallway. Painting it wasn't going to get the job done.

So, I stole an idea off my sister in law and wallpapered this hallway with the dictionary from above. I had originally purchased the paste in that pic on sale for around $3. I was pumped. At 8 this morning, I realized that paste on a foam roller/dispenser wasn't the best bet. So... Ellie and I trekked out in the 10 degree cold and bought this for less than $20 instead...

Note the "goes on pink" and the neon pink coming off the roller.

I think they were a bit excited about this when they packaged it. I was excited too. I thought "PERFECT, I'll be able to see where I have glue". I was tickled almost pink when I got home and started. It is tinted pink, I'll give them that. But, I am putting it on an off white wall and can't see any pink at all. But, so far, it seems to be great stuff! Good thing... I have at least a gallon of the 1.3 gallons left! It is also pretty thick stuff... another good thing. When I dumped the paint pan off the ladder, it landed face down. Luckily, the stuff was too think and I was too fast-- nothing got on the carpet!

I should add that this is my ONLY experience with "wallpaper". Before today, the only time I had dealt with it was watching my mom remove a border for us because I was 5 months pregnant and we needed to get the nursery together. So, my experience is a teensy bit nonexistent.

I used a paint roller and rolled glue on as I went. Then, if the edges looked rough, I put glue on my finger and rubbed it over the edge. It seemed like I was wallpapering, but also decoupaging at the same time. I didn't cut any pieces, I left the edges that came out of the book a bit rough. I like the character it added. The book lover, English major, English teacher in me cringed a little as I was ripping the cover off this book and ripped out the first 200+ pages. But, as a lover of words, I LOVE the direction the hallway is headed...

I LOVE the final product. I'm not sure how much more I'll do. I can't decide. Is the whole hall too much? Do I do parts of it? Which parts? I am disappointed in the pictures though. It looks SOOOO much cooler and better in person.

This pic makes the white space stand out more and makes it look more like a "grid" than it does in person.

Check out the place I was wanting to cover.....

Now, we just need to rip up the carpet (hardwood floors underneath!!), figure out how much more to 'wallpaper', and paint the rest. I know, I did this in the exact wrong order, but ah well. And, no, my bathroom rug isn't that gross. It is the lighting. ((I went and checked after I saw these pics, haha))

I also have a REALLY cool idea that will tie the dictionary in across the steps too. It will go on one of these two walls....

This was taken before the wallpaper/book was done. You can still barely see the place I covered up on the right :)

PS~Regarding the words that my walls are saying now.... I realized too late that b@stard also made the cut.... oops.. I'm sure our future children will enjoy that. Once I saw it, I felt like a jr. high kid looking through the dictionary for bad words. I THINK this one is the only one that made it so far. :)

AN UPDATE from January 7, 2010---
In case you are wondering... this is not kitten proof :) I'll fix it by wiping it down with the paste, no big deal... yet. When I showed it to Sophie and asked her if she did it, she smacked it and wanted to bite it. I took that as an admission of guilt....

She's lucky she's so stinkin' cute!

I linked this post with Thrifty Home's Penny Pinching Party. 
And with Shabby Chic Cottage's Transformation Thursday.
And.... Thrifty Thursday @ Bloggeritaville.
And....at Fireflies and Jellybeans.
and.... Decor Mamma's Frugalicious Friday.
And..... Show and Tell Friday
And..... I made it without my hubby.
And....Poppies at Play 
And.... Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special.... check out the button on the right to get there
And.... Room A Month
What can I say, my mom taught me to share :)