Monday, September 26, 2011

Bedroom Painting Project

The spare bedroom was in need of some color after I took the wallpaper down. I think I looked in every store in town at least twice before I finally found the shade of purple/lavender/grey comforter that I wanted. Then it was time to pick out the paint. I decided on Olympic Timeless Lilac.
 It's always such a shock (but exciting) when the first strokes of a darker paint go on, but I loved it right away.
 I knew the white furniture and curtains would really lighten up the room.
It was the blue carpet that was the problem. So while I still had some ambition, I ripped it out the same day I painted. It was held down by double stick tape. In the other bedroom that I took carpet out of, the tape was so dried out it wasn't even stuck to the floor. 
I wasn't so lucky with this room. Only about half of it came off, and the rest is very, very sticky. I haven't come up with a way to get it off yet, but I'm sure it will be time-consuming whatever it is. Ugh!

I really wish the bed would fit with the head on the wall without the window, but there's no other place for the long dresser because of the floor vent.
I still need to find an area rug and accessorize, but that's a project for another day.

Friday, September 9, 2011

There Is No More

All of the wallpaper in my house is finally gone...and it only took me three years. I think I lived with it that long because it was a fairly neutral color and not pink metallic fish. One day last winter I decided to work on the last two rooms - the spare bedroom and the basement bathroom. I knew that if I didn't do them both at the same time, I'd get one done, and it would be several months before I got to the other.


This was the room on the weekend I moved into the house. That great looking light was left behind by the previous owners and later sold at a garage sale.

The teeny, tiny basement bathroom.

I peeled the main layer of paper off and then started to work on the backing. I only had to spray it down with water and then scrape it off. Both rooms only had wallpaper on one wall so it didn't take me long. It only took me a fraction of the time that the main bathroom did. I hate even thinking about that...it was ugly.
 

I got such a crick in my neck working behind the toilet. Someone told me I should have taken the tank off, but, wow, that was more than I knew how to do or wanted to mess with. 

 Such a great feeling to have it all down and gone. The work is done. Now the fun part of painting and decorating.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Meals From the Heartland

Last week I had an opportunity thru work to volunteer at Meals From the Heartland. This is an organization that packages meals (soy, dried vegetables, vitamin tablet, and rice) to feed starving people around the world. They package meals year-round, but once a year they have a large event to package millions of meals. 
Friday morning a group of us headed downtown to help out. Above is a picture overlooking the packaging floor. Reminder: take sticker off shirt before putting in the wash. I speak from experience. 
Here is half of our team during the event. It was easy to do and is great for kids and adults. Aren't the hair nets lovely! We had a great time and hope to do it again next year. 

Sunday, September 4, 2011

New-to-me Headboards

I have two twin beds that didn't have headboards. My mom found a couple for me very cheap. They needed a little work, but I knew it wouldn't be too hard to make them just like I wanted.
First I sanded them down so the paint would adhere. The darker one took a little bit more elbow grease than the other. I wanted to do more than just scuff them so it wouldn't take as much paint to cover. And let me just say spindles are great to look at but a pain to sand.
I used spray primer and it took more than I thought. I finally ended up using a brush and some primer that I had on hand for the flat surfaces. I like the results of the brush better and would have done it all that way if it weren't for those silly spindles.
It took me way longer to finish these up than I originally thought, but after several coats of gloss spray paint they are finished. Since I was doing them outside, I was at the mercy of Mother Nature and the hot, humid Iowa weather. Today we finally had a cool 70-degree day...perfect for the last coat of paint.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Time For Some New Flowers

The summer flowers always start looking a bit peaked this time of year. This pot has a few holes from the ones that have died out and others I have are just not blooming anymore and look really bare.
I bought some smaller mums to fill in, but it's been raining most of the day (yay, we need it) so I'll wait until the dirt dries out a bit before planting them. I also picked up a couple gallon-sized ones and some better looking pots to put them in.

 After sprinkling them with some ground squirrel repellent (have I mentioned how I hate those critters), they were ready for display.
There's a pot of impatiens on the front steps that is still looking great even after all the hot weather we've had.