While Kevin was away...

...our job was to paint, paint and paint. Nothing spruces up a place like a fresh coat of paint. The living room was originally a light yellow colour which R didn't care for (I didn't mind it as much but I'm still happy to have it gone) and the dining room was a dark green colour which we both wanted gone. Before K left for another job, he removed the French doors that separated the living and dining rooms. It really made a difference and opened up the space.

Here's the before photo. I think this was our second official visit to the house and the day we decided to put in an offer. That's our wonderful realtor, Amanda, sitting at the dining table. She was extremely patient and helpful, even when we were driving her crazy with endless questions and concerns. We can't say enough good things about her.

Here are the in-progress photos. The French doors are gone and the dining room is primed. We decided to paint both rooms and the hallway with the same gray mist that we used in the kitchen. The warm, neutral gray will be a great back drop for hanging artwork, mostly Randy's cool abstract photos.

 

After the living and dining rooms, we moved on to my office/den. The rest of the house gets to neutral but for my office, I wanted a punch of colour. My thought was something green. I had a sickly green bedroom as a kid. My parents weren't much into decorating and we lived in a housing project in one of the roughest neighbourhoods. So basically, when the city decided it was time to paint the units, we had limited choice in colour. I ended up with green (my parents' choice). For a long time, green was not my favourite colour but lately, I've been thinking green is good, especially a nice, fresh green. I did my research and picked Benjamin Moore Pear Green. At first, I thought, wow, that's really bright but after it dried, it was wonderful. I love it! It's bright, fresh, colourful and will look absolutely fabulous with the dark bookcases and white desk. We'll be posting more photos of the finished room soon but here's a sneak peak at the colour for now.

Next came the bedroom and hallway. The hallway continues with the gray mist and the bedroom will be cloud white. We patched, sanded and the day we were set to paint, R had a pile of work to do. That left me painting solo for most of the day which was fine. I haven't been getting to the gym lately so I welcomed the workout. I also planned the have Marianne over on the same day to help me get rid of the poison ivy in the front yard (did I mention we have our very own patch of poison ivy?). That didn't happen. The weather, which started out a little overcast, worsened over the course of the morning. At one point, when I was painting the ceiling in the bedroom, there was a flash of light outside the window, followed seconds later by a loud, and I mean LOUD, crack of thunder. I froze in place. Hmmm, probably not a good idea to be holding a long aluminum pole in front of a window during a thunderstorm. Probably not a good idea to be clearing poison ivy while standing under a big tree during a thunderstorm either. I dropped the painting pole and called Marianne to cancel. I didn't have the good sense to stop painting the ceiling, however. I figured there were more attractive things in the neighbourhood for the lightning to hit.

After R was done with work, he came up to finish the ceiling while I put a second coat on the bedroom. Painting done, R washed up the rollers and brushes (my least favourite part of painting) and we admired the newly painted rooms. It's feeling more and more like our home every day. We love our house!

The master bedroom

Taking a banana break