Big Fat Project

My puppies decided to get me an early Mother's Day present. They knew how much I wanted a new front room, so they kindly shredded the carpet in there. Not only did I get new carpet, but also some wainscotting and new paint. Aren't they sweeties?

Here is where we started. This room was already on my list, but was somewhere around the #10 thing we needed to fix in our house. Sadly, this pushed everything else way back.

First we removed the furniture, and then started in on the chair rail and trim.

We bought supplies from Lowes. This power roller turned out to be an absolute dream, although it was a pain in the butt to clean, We finished painting a whole day earlier than we had anticipated.

After about 8 different paint choices, Dalan got fed up and just bought my most recent favorite before I had made up my mind. It worked out great though. At least we painted a sample section first.

We had to deal with a lot of problems from the previous owners, the paint in the corners was so poorly done that it was cracking, and we could just peel it off in sheets.
The door frames did not match the wainscoting we wanted to install, so they had to come down too. I forgot to take a picture of the 'before' frame, but here it is torn out. (you can also see my couches in the kitchen, we got to eat out for a week, my scale was thrilled).
Saturday morning Meg and Steve showed up to help. Probably the best thing that could have happened to us. They were troopers and didn't even have to use a step ladder to reach the ceiling. Dalan and I gladly let them take over the upper parts.

Phase 1 finished. It was so nice to not have to worry about dripping paint on the carpet!

The stair area was already painted white, but we decided to brighten it up a few shades, I think that it made a huge difference (but I'm not so sure that you can tell in the picture).
Scout tried to help. She even dipped her nubbin in paint, and wagged her tail against the wall.
This has actually been really nice to help tell them apart, we may keep this as a permanent Scout feature.
The windows framing our exterior door had a lovely yellow trim. We decided that we should probably paint it to match the rest of the room though.

We also had some hot lace window treatments. I 'accidentally' threw them away.

Installing the wainscot turned out to be slightly more difficult than we originally anticipated. Finding the angles in the bay window was easily the most time consuming part of the project.
One door frame installed, yea!

Installing the vertical wainscoting was a blast, it went so quickly!

All painted
Not only was my house a sad/pathetic mess during the whole thing...

So were my babies :(

Ready for carpet.
Yea! Pretty carpet, we got an awesome deal from Ogden's Flooring.
Tobey is pretty happy with it too.

Sob

I get that you weren't a main character, and therefore the most likely to go. But to be taken out by a door? I think that you deserve a more dramatic farewell.

a fruity whiff

To help me get all of my fruits and veggies in, I have bowls of snacks on my desk today. Thanks to the bowl of strawberries I keep getting a whiff of childhood. Somehow the combination of fresh strawberries and my office smells exactly like one of my plastic Strawberry Shortcake dolls. weirdy.

Hottie Body

I am hosting a 12 week get healthy challenge. If you would like to join let me know! It is based on a point system and calculated on a spreadsheet I will email to all participants. It includes daily challenges such as: drink 64oz water, eat 5 servings fruits/veggies (note, this is five total, not five of each), and 30 minutes of exercise. There is also a weekly challenge that changes, things such as: no soda, 8 hours sleep, etc. There is a $10 entry fee, and at the end the person with the most points will win the money. The more participants that enter, the more winners we can give prizes to. Since the tracking is all done on the computer, anyone who lives anywhere can join. So tell your friends/family. This should be a great chance to get healthy. You can join the event on Facebook for more updates.

And here is my motivation, I want to wear one of these swimsuits to Puerto Rico in November. Not only do I want one, I also want to look great in one. Which do you think?