Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Alive.

Well, we made it through yet another holiday season. However, I must say, this time around? Much more tired. Much, much more tired.

The break gave me a chance to unplug for a bit and really put my nose to the grindstone on some interior home projects I've been working on. Here's a sampling of what I was able to accompish this past two weeks (pictures to follow in the next post):

-Painted bedroom in a shade that everyone said would look awful, but I knew better
-Completely redecorated said bedroom, including several teary-eyed attempts at crown molding (Lee saved me there)
-Painted two accent walls in the living room --- one being a brick wall around the fireplace. Painting brick = pain in the ass. Painting brick with cheap paint = stab yourself in the eye.
-Decided the new accent walls in the living room required that the entire room be rearranged and redecorated
-Hung new curtains and fixtures in master bathroom
-Hung new lighting fixture in the kitchen
-Lee laid new flooring in part of the basement
-Hung room-darkening blinds in my office so that I can actually get design work done during the hours of 8:00a-5:00p
-Bought a fish for Jack (thought it would be considered home improvement until I saw how gross the fish-bowl gets every day....blech)

I still have to frame a couple giant mirrors, completely renovate the Florida room (do Florida rooms even exist in Canada?) paint my office and add some trim to it, repaint the hallway and doors and possibly change the light fixtures in the dining room and basement. But, I think I'm a little too pooped to party this go around. Maybe during spring break?

Hope everyone had a great holiday season!

4 comments:

five dot design said...

wow... i'm completely impressed. all i did over the holidays is watch the box set of My So-Called Life.

Kate said...

I'm in the same boat. Home improvement projects in every room and my husband keeps cursing me out...until the work is done.

Any pointers on brick painting? I'm about to paint my fireplace.

mandinka said...

How is it that this post made me feel very inspired and completely exhausted all at once?

Carol said...

Kate-

How much brick do you have to paint? Does it already have some sort of paint on it? Or will you be painting for the first time? I didn't use a primer on the fireplace wall because it had already been painted a hideous yellow-y beige. However, the seat/hearth hadn't ever been painted and since I was in a hurry, I just painted it straight up (no primer) with my nasty-ass cheap paint. I'm already paying for my haste --- It's got nicks and scratches all over the place. I'll definitely have to repaint at some point in the future.

My only real advise is to buy quality paint and a cheap paintbrush. The brick seemed to really eat up my dollar-store paintbrush with all of the jamming that needs to be done in the crevices between the bricks - so I was happy that I didn't pay an arm and a leg for a high-quality paintbrush.

Make sure you do some before and afters and send them to me! :)

Carol