Renovations

Late April last year we received a letter from the HOA telling us that we need to paint our house because we were in "violation" of some code they gave.  Anyway, I was really excited and not happy at the same time: excited because I HATED the color of our house especially since our next door neighbors house was the EXACT same color, not happy because we really couldn't afford it.  They gave us until the middle of July to get it done.  Well, the months came and gone and before we knew it it was the middle of June and we hadn't looked into painters yet.  I called around and we chose this really nice company and we picked our colors.  Now, mind you we have an HOA, so we had to get the scheme approved before we could paint.  We FINALLY got approved and we were able to get it done before our deadline.  I LOVE IT!!!

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After:

It is so pretty.  I absolutely love it.  We have gotten a lot of compliments on it.  In fact, around the corner there is a house that also had to get painted and their colors are almost identical.  It was pretty funny when I saw it.

Well then, the months came and gone again and Reed was starting to outgrow the cradle in our room.  We knew that we were going to convert the TV/play room upstairs into the nursery when we found out we were pregnant.  I had an idea of how I wanted to paint it since I had never had a nursery before and then we had the idea to also paint the girls room while we were at it.  We had to start that process by getting the TV out of the room and putting it downstairs.  We had to get a new TV stand and totally rearrange our family room.


I don't have a before picture, but we put the TV where the couch was and the couch where the chase lounge and chair were.  Then we got rid of the 3 little end tables that were in the middle.  It worked out nice.  I'm glad, I was a little worried at first.

After we got the TV moved we could start painting the girls room so that they could sleep in the nursery before we moved Reed in.  It took longer than anticipated because we had strep running ramp-id through the house and Spencer had to work a lot, not to mention our high maintenance baby.  Anyway, we had the Young Women come over for a service activity and they did an AWESOME job.  They had the walls completely painted and the molding almost all done by the time they left that night.  It didn't take Spencer and I too much longer to get the rest of the room done.

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After:

 


Their new dresser is actually one that I used when I was little.  I painted it and put new handles on it so that it would go well in their room.  I LOVE how it turned out.  They were way excited about it too.  We sponged butterflies, dragon flies, flowers, and leaves all around their walls in the colors of their dresser.

Well, then it was Reed's turn.  I had changed my mind from the first idea that I had to paint his room.  I was actually inspired by Village Inn.  They had renovated a few of the restaurants around us and I got the idea of the colors that we ended up with from their colors.  It took Spencer and I for-EVER to get Reed's room done.  We thought that it was about done, but I didn't like a detail, or lack of one, but we finally got it done.   It was well worth it.

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After:





I LOVE this room!!!  I love how it turned out, WAY better than in my head (I love how that happens).  I had originally thought of the orange stripe, but I didn't like how the orange looked against the green on the walls, seemed to not "pop".  So then I had Spencer add the small brown stripe along the bottom and it REALLY made a difference.  The monkey's are all too fitting for Reed, he loves to jump and climb all over.  He even makes a monkey sound.  The monkeys, writing, and trees are all decals.  Spencer painted the leaves in the corners and on the ceiling.  Better Homes and Gardens here we come!  My mom made a quilt for his crib that is all jungle animals in the same colors as his room and for Christmas I made him a fleece blanket that also is a jungle theme.  The kid is so dang wild it fits him perfect!!

Well, those are the improvements that we made to our house last year.  Our next big thing is to redo the kitchen floor, it is driving us CRAZY!  But I think we will hire someone to do it instead of doing it ourselves.