On February 19 Eric and I closed on our house. I have never
closed on a house before and I’m not sure what you’re supposed to do after you
close (champagne? Fireworks? Crying?), but I know that Eric and I went straight
to work!
If you’re like me, or any person over the age of 24, you
love HGTV. We watched so much HGTV before we even looked at houses. So going into
any house we had this idea in our head that we were the Chip and Joanna Gaines
or the Property Brothers and that any
“problem” the house had we could fix. Not only we would be able to fix all of
the cosmetic problems of a house, but we could do it in 30 mins to an hour. Well I’d
like to tell HGTV that they gave me false hopes. First of all, everything
having to do with a house is expensive! We should buy Lowes stalk because we
are keeping our local one in business. No joke, we are there at least once a
week. Some of the staff recognize us. Second of all, we are not Chip and Joanna
so when I go to an antique market I feel really discouraged when I can’t find
super cute things that aren’t going to break our bank. Third of all, it takes
forever! I guess when it’s only 2 of you doing the work and not a whole team,
it takes a lot longer. I felt pretty duped by HGTV and was even a little angry
at Chip and Joanna for giving me misconceptions about my redecorating ability.
Before we became jaded with HGTV, we took on our first home
project. We had decided to paint our living room and the kitchen along with the
kitchen cabinets. We closed on a Friday and we wanted to get our living room
painted before the movers came with all of our stuff on Tuesday. The pressure
was on! We decided that the best way to get as much done as we could before the
movers came would be to divide and conquer. Eric was given the task of working on
the kitchen cabinets and I was going to paint the living room. We will get back
to the kitchen cabinets in a different post (AKA they aren’t quite done yet)!
So let’s talk about our living room. It’s an older, northern
home so we don’t have an open concept house. Our living room is a separate space
with a French door that goes to the covered porch. The room is already a little
dark and it was painted a very ugly brown color, as you can see in the below
before picture. The brown made it darker and a little depressing, which wasn’t
quite the vibe we were going for in our living space. We decided to use the
color to lighten up the room and make it more relaxing. We went with a light
green.
After making sure the color was exactly what we wanted, I
set about the chore of painting the room. I have to give my mom some credit
here. I wanted to paint my room as a child and I begged her to do it. I didn’t understand why she hesitated, now I
know. Painting is a pain! All the cutting in and up and down the ladder. It was
exhausting! I really wanted one of those butt scooters you used in Elementary
school PE to scoot around the room. This room also has wood paneling so for the
first coat I had to use a brush to get in the cracks because the roller wasn’t
doing it.
The trim in this house hasn’t been repainted since it was
built in 1979 so it was more yellow than white. Add that to the list of things
we needed to do! It’s amazing how much painting trim will brighten up a room
though and I’m glad I decided to do the extra work. Also, taking the tape off
after (in almost one piece) was one of the most satisfying things I have ever
done!
I know you all are wondering if we beat the clock and got
the room done on time for the movers and the answer is… yes! I managed to get
the room and trim painted in time for the movers. We love the color of the
room. We think it has a beachy feel that we weren't really going for, but really like and adds to the relaxation. I enjoy watching TV or hanging out in our living room with Eric and can’t wait to
put a Christmas tree and decorate our mantel for all of the seasons! It was
well worth the work and push for us to get this room painted!
Confession: Chip and Joanna duped me into thinking I was a
home makeover superhero!
