Home Improvements

A week or so before I left for school back in August, my Aunt Lisa came with her family. Aunt Lisa is really talented when it comes to painting and home improvements, and she's taught me a ton about it. She has been letting me paint with her since I was probably about ten. The house has been kind of mixed-matched for a while, so while Aunt Lisa was here we did a little in the house to make it all flow together. There's definitely still work to be done throughout the house, but we got a pretty good start.

Aunt Lisa and I: painting team!

This is what the dining room looked like before. Green on both the top, and on the bottom. Cream curtains with red floral patterns were hanging only above the windows (they weren't panels).

This is what the dining room looks like now. We kept the same rug to make it a more costly makeover. Actually, the rug works out really well because it has multiple neutral colors that Mom likes, and it helps flow the rooms together. The paint on the bottom is a Heavy Cream, and the top is some sort of blue. The ceiling had two fresh coats of ceiling paint as well. The curtains we bought at Target, but we wanted them a little longer than they were, so Aunt Lisa took out the hem and added a chocolate brown banner on the bottom that looks awesome!

We have had that "K" frame for a while now, but we finally had a good use for it! We put some of the most current pictures of the family (from Evan's blessing day) in there, and hung it up!

The next room to attack was the kitchen. Before, the top half was a very bright, cheery yellow.

This is after we had filled some of the holes and dents in the walls from the table, benches, and bar stools, and after we had tested a few swatches of colors. However, you can see the bright green on the bottom, and how it went with the yellow. The kitchen definitely didn't flow with the rest of the house!

After: much better. Suzanne doesn't like it, because she thinks it looks too masculine. However, I think the neutral colors look really nice. The fit Mom's personality really well too. The plaid curtains are reused from before, and the colors fit really well! We added a few little gizmos to the wall, including the star and the 9 Be Attitudes above the sink.

We added a little clock to one of the walls.

And a "K" ring for keys!

The last room we painted was the foyer/entryway. It was pretty dark because there is no natural light coming in, and also the paint was peeling off in the corner behind the door.

Paint peeling off behind the door. Also, the door was white and looked dirty.

After: the colors are actually pretty similar as before, and they are exactly opposite of what the dining room is now. The Heavy Cream color is on the top, and some blue color is on the bottom, but it is lighter than the blue originally.

There was a vase with fake flowers in it sitting on this table before, but now it has a picture of our really good friends, a friend plaque, and a little basket.

This basket is hanging right by the door. Mostly for decoration, but you can put keys/junk in there if you wish.

So that wraps up the household improvements my Aunt and I completed about a month ago. Mom wanted us to get to the big living room that houses computers and the piano right now, but there wasn't enough time and also we aren't quite sure what we want to do with that room yet. It's a work in progress still.

My Uncle Carl (Aunt Lisa's husband) is in the Navy, and right now he is working in DC, so he is pretty close. They are both super-handy, so they both came over Labor Day Weekend to help fix a leak in the bathroom and really redo it. It looks awesome now!!

The weekend before labor day weekend, my Uncle Came and started working with the little boys, ripping up the flooring and fixing the floor, and taking out the old vanity.

Labor Day Weekend my Aunt and I made our way in the bathroom to paint it! The color is the same dark green as is on the bottom in the kitchen. It looks really great with the plaid shower curtain we have in there right now.

The floor is now tile!! It looks AWESOME!! My Uncle and Dad laid the tile down. I need to put a picture of the bathroom all finished, but I don't have one. Just imagine a really awesome looking white vanity, the toilet back in place, the mirror, and a shower curtain haha. A lot is missing in this picture, but it shows some of the changes!

The house is being put together, one room at a time. Suzanne and I just painted our room and got new bedspreads. We are working on decorating the walls and tying the room together. The downstairs bathroom is the next big project!