Post 8: The Gardening Mystery

Happy Thanksgiving!  What a wonderful reminder to be thankful and what wonderful things we have to be thankful for!

We came home to quite a pleasant surprise recently.  At first glance, you may be thinking, what was it?  I don't see anything out of the ordinary, just a house that needs some work.

Before you keep looking for a surprise package or a new visitor in that picture, let me let you in on a secret:

We have been known for many things.  We have been known for country-western dancing.

We have been known for awesome costume-making skills.

 

We have been known for baseball playing and piano playing, crafting arts and crafting tools.

But gardening... We are not known for gardening.  The plants we have had in the last year have either left this world we live in to be in a better place where they are watered consistently and in proper volumes or are probably weeds because even we haven't destroyed them.

My windowsill plants that are still hanging on!!

So we knew when we came home the other day that we had been blessed... big time!  It didn't take much to identify these mystery gardeners -- there is only one place to look for that!

Kylie's Grandparents

Let us show you a few before and after pictures so you can see the transformation:

Before

 

Before   After

Before (no grass)

After (grass!)

Before

After

Before

After

What a happy housewarming gift!  Thank you Grandma and Papaw for brightening up our home!!

With the weather getting colder, I'm really getting into the Christmas spirit.  For me, that means craft time!  Read about the tree skirt I made for our first Christmas in our home.

Post 7: Houswarming

Today's post is all about a party -- housewarming, that is.  We were so excited to finish our living room just in time to have our Houston friends and family over!  Check out our crowd!  (Can you tell that our family and friends don't like getting their pictures taken?  Feel free to blame me for unflattering pictures; I didn't warn anyone -- but I, personally, think everyone looks great!!)

We had lots of visiting going on!  I'd say the party was a hit! Here's a better look at the finished living room and entry-way!

Remember that green wallpaper?

Whew!  Much better!  What do you think?

Click here to read about the beginnings of our front yard transformation.

Post 6: 16 Feet

So, I'm not the best with before and after pictures, but here are some pictures I snapped of our living room just before we worked up the courage to paint.

"Courage?" you ask.  Yes, courage.  I was preparing myself to take a chance on a pretty bold color (or bold for me) in our main living area and Alan was preparing himself to paint 16-foot walls.

Yes, 16 feet.  This didn't seem like such a big deal to us when we first looked at the house.  But when we started to plan the project, we realized that we would have to get up all the way to the top of the wall to cut in the corner -- that was daunting.

The living and entry-way were several different shades of beige, though, so we knew we would have to paint eventually.

Here are some more pictures of the room to give you some perspective of our high ceilings!

When we first came into the house to clean, I grabbed some paint samples from Sherwin Williams to decide which shade of blue we wanted for our living room.  The choices were Rainwashed, Tradewind, and Sleepy Blue.

I put a sample of each on EVERY wall to see how the lighting would affect the color.  

Here is a picture where we found two boards nailed to the wall.  When we pulled the boards off, there was a hole in the wall!  Alan patched the hole and used his new texturing skill to take care of that!

While we lived with these paint samples for about a month before painting, it really only took me a few minutes to choose...

Rainwashed (far left).

So finally, on to painting.  We started by prepping the room -- taking down outlet plates and blinds, taping, and putting down tarps.

And then on to the paint.  

(I told you we had a lot of funky colors going on, but the blue was covering well!)

Once we had painted about as high as we could reach, we knew we couldn't avoid it any longer -- those 16-foot walls were beckoning.  (Thanks to Alan's stepdad, we were able to borrow his extension ladder and a-frame so we didn't have to go buy our own!)

The ladder was a little wobbly, so we started slowly.  

(I promise I stood at the bottom and held it for Alan, but he let me snap a few pictures while he was being still!)

When he got to the top of the ladder, he carefully cut in the corner where the wall met the ceiling.

Don't look down!

As he moved across the wall, it got a little easier to make the trek up the ladder.

Smile!

Alan made it across the wall in about an hour.  Then, he cut in the rest of the walls and windows where I couldn't reach.

The next day he rolled the large parts of the wall to finish out the project.

Click here for the big reveal!!!