Call it nesting, call it growing up, or even call it plain crazy; Matt and I bought a new house in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
We purchased this house at quite a discount, for a few very good reasons.....
1. The carpet is destroyed, as in; we can clean it for now, but it needs to come up, and soon!
2. Every wall requires paint. Every. Wall.
3. Can you say vinyl words and lettering galore? Don't believe me, there are no less than 40 different fatheads, works, sayings, prayers stuck to every available wall.
None of this is a deal breaker to us because of the following:
1. I hate carpet and would want to eliminate it anyway. Now I don't have to feel guilty for pulling up perfectly good carpet.... I am pulling up busted carpet.
2. I hate the color brown on my walls. This house has 5 variations on the color brown, to include Burnt Sienna in the dining room. The plan was to paint, now I have a good reason, mainly that I want it to be much lighter, and brown sucks up light.
3. Fatheads and vinyl lettering are easy to remove.
Just like every new homeowner, we have a list of things that need to get done to make this house our own.
A preview of what I am talking about.....
The Dining room:
1. Paint walls "Smoky Blue" (Sherwin Williams)
2. Paint ceiling and tray "March Wind" (Sherwin Williams)
3. Get a rug in blue and yellow or blue and lime
4. Build apothecary table banquette from plans found on Ana White's website
5. Find a funky mirror for one wall
6. Artwork for adjacent wall, maybe a framed photo of a cow or the beach..... pooh, the Pismo dunes!
7. Strip, and re-wax my dining room table (there are scratches and dings galore.... 7 moves, ouch!)
8. Re-upholster my dining room chairs. Maybe in a fun funky fabric that matches the art and rug, ties them together....
Y'all, that is just one room.... And it is an easy room.
Poor Matt has things like wainscoting, hardwood flooring, and cabinet installation on his list; not to mention the built-ins in the living room to house the TV, which I am reluctant to put above the mantel at this house. This house is going to be a long labor of love, tackled room-by-room over many years.
However, my priorities are:
1. Stain and seal the garage floor (because it is easier to do when it is empty)
Matt has chosen a Valspar semi-transparent stain in "onyx" from Lowes (boom, confetti) for the floor. I will be prepping this for stain today, in hopes that the weather holds out for us to stain this bad boy tomorrow!
2. Completing the nursery walls.....
The room needs wainscoting and crown molding added and painted. I will most likely paint this room "March Wind" (Sherwin Williams) in preparation for baby-girl Burke's arrival. This room also needs a ceiling fan, because I am not trying to have a SIDS incident.
3. The Master Bedroom overhaul.....
This room... oh this room.....
Where to begin:
1. Rip-out carpet, replace with hardwood to match the rest of the main floor (including the master closet)
2. Remove horrible curtains because that window moulding is beautiful and hidden under layers of icky brown
3. Install floating crown to break up the wall and add interest....
4. Paint the walls "March Wind" (Sherwin Williams) and maybe a nice bluey-teal above the crown for definition
5. Art for the walls, maybe a few of my California beach pics framed
6. Purchase a chaise or a chair and footstool, as this room is HUGE and will have a ton of negative space, even with our king-size bed, dresser, and armoire.
7. Pipe dream: recessed lighting (the center light is not ideal)
Those are the priorities. After that, we will address the burnt sienna dining room, the brown (almost black) superman toilet, quasi-functioning (as in lost space due to an unnecessary door and hidden gem of a back wall) laundry room, and desperately in need of love living room....
I promise you I will get a list together of all the things that I would like to do soon.
Until then, just imagine me hunched over the scrub brush prepping concrete for stain in the 90 degree central Tennessee summer heat.