Now back to your regularly scheduled program

I know many of you have complained because I have been MIA in the blog world. Little did you know that I was completely reconstructing our house. BUT now I finally feel that things are under control and that I can return to my regular life. About two weeks ago, I felt like our house still had too much old lady left over from the last owners (pink or gray carpet, plain white walls, wood paneling--you name it, they had it!). I don't think anyone would come into our house thinking, "Wow, I bet an artist lives here." I was trying to think what I could do without spending a lot of money. I walked out to Ian's studio and asked, "Where are all the materials you bought to pull up the carpets?" (We had known that there were wood floors underneath all the ugly pink carpet that went down the hallway and in the bedrooms.) Ian's jaw dropped and asked me exactly what I was doing. I knew he needed to work all day because he had a deadline for a show in New York. Anyway, long story longer, I ripped up all the pink carpet, pulled out all the nail strips and nails and now we have some beautiful hardwood floors!
Before:


After:


Ian's sister and brother-in-law, Kelley and Brian, came to visit last week and we were talking about home fix-ups (they also bought a house about 9 months ago). We got onto the subject of paint color and Ian gave me "permission" to buy paint to paint the living room and all the wood paneling. Little did I know how much work and filth this would entail. First you have to prime the wood paneling, then you have to spackle the gaps, then you have to sand, then spackle, then sand, then spackle, then prime and finally after all of that you are ready to apply your two coats of paint. After the first round of sanding, our entire living room, dining room and kitchen were covered with dust. I am not talking about something that a swiffer duster can pick up...no, no, no. Heaps of dust. I had spackle dust boogers for two days if that gives you any idea of how much dust was in the air. We decided to not do a full sanding job the second time. You can see a slight hint of paneling if you are really looking for it, but overall I think it will work. I love the color we picked. It is between a forest green and a deep rich blue (like the sash on my wedding dress). Combine those two colors and you have the color of our wall. At different times in the day, it appears to be different colors, but I LOVE IT! Ian was the one that actually picked the color and he says that "the jury is still out". Above our fireplace and below the kitchen's bar was also wood paneling. That portion we painted a rich chocolate brown. Finally, I am feeling that our house is becoming more and more of our house! Not some old persons.

Before: Ignore the blue lines--they were for something else...

During:

After:



And of course during all of this, Niev was the perfect little one that she always is. We could not be happier. She just played and entertained herself during this chaotic time. She took her regular naps and was so content while Mom and Dad were busy. She is the best!