Renovate

I meant to post this yesterday but ran out of time. Plus AK came over, we ate underwhelming sushi, and watched my new DVD - Xanadu - in it's entirety. (OK, I got the DVD using a Free coupon at Columbia House so I didn't actually have to pay for it). Let me tell you, I LOVE that soundtrack (one of my many guilty pleasures) and loved the movie when it came out. I don't think I've watched the whole thing since the first time in 1980. Watching it now, and with AK providing her unique brand of color commentary - it was a whole different experience. Hilarious. I plan to get M hooked on it as early as possible.

So anyway, yes, I have started the renovation process. Currently, I am gathering quotes on paints and flooring. This is easier said than done because contractors are all SUPER BUSY these days and don't have time to return my calls right away. This irritates me to no end, I must say.

I took some wood floor samples home to peruse (and I'm glad I did because they looked COMPLETELY DIFFERENT in my house versus the show rooms). I'm probably going with this Ash hardwood (similar in durability to Oak) in the chocolate stain.


I had originally planned to go with a beautiful dark walnut or maple, but from speaking to those with more experience in wood floors - the darker the floor, the faster the dirt/dust shows up - so I thought eh, I'll do a body swerve around that.

And here are my favorite paint chips:


The yellow is the main color, the green is for the kitchen, and the blue is for my bedroom and the main bath.

They represent my second batch of samples painted on the walls - another good idea. With the first batch, the yellows and the green just weren't working - too yellow, too green... As much as I want color, I don't want to feel like I'm in a daycare all day long. Surprisingly, I'm LOVING the red I chose. This second batch is the one I'm probably going with. They have more of a grey undertone - more elegant & understated (like me....ahem) . For the record, I found it really hard to get a good wall sample picture depicting the true colors. The paint chips were easier.

This is going to be a red feature wall in the kitchen (my favorite yellow & green are on the bottom row) ...


... to match my new, fire engine red, Isaac Mizrahi dishes:



(told you I was going to play with color).

It must be the fiery Aries in me. (oh, and I just ordered a new laptop - in red!)

I was happy to hear the red wall is good feng shui (this area of my house represents my relationship with my daughter). I brought a beautiful red clock to hang up . And now I'm looking for a nice black mother and daughter piece of art to hang there.

I was thinking of just having the main floor professionally painted and doing the bedrooms/bathroom myself. But you know what? I couldn't be arsed to do it. I just don't have the time or skill to do it and to do it well. I think it's really worth it to have it done professionally, if you are so inclined. Let them figure out how much paint to buy, buy it, tape the walls, patch the walls, paint the walls ("write the feme toon, sing the feme toon"). One of the things I don't like about my house right now is the bad paint job - obviously DIY by a previous owner. Little things like paint overlapping onto trim or ceilings, and a really bad paint job on the exterior doors, etc (at least the colors are not offensive) - that sort of stuff drives me mad in my own house (I don't notice things like that elsewhere - honest) and I hated seeing it when I was house shopping - I mentally knocked $$ off the price (cliche but true) because I knew it would have to be redone. You know, I paid enough for the house that things like paint and floors are a worthwhile investment. It's not like the olden days in Calgary when you could buy a nice, single family house for a reasonable price. Plus, I plan to be in this house for 5 years (fingers crossed).

There, I'm done justifying the expenses.

So, if I can decide on a main wall color for the baby's room (I'm leaning towards green....or pink), I'll probably get that room painted as well and then add personalized accent colors/borders/decals myself when I've made up my mind on the direction to take the room. Plenty of time for that. Looks like I've got the accent colors already sorted with my NFG sample cans, so that's nice.

I think I'll post Before and After pictures of the whole process to this blog. I know that I love seeing other people's house pictures (I'm nosy that way plus always looking for good ideas).

selam

p.s. My Harry Potter has STILL not arrived - WTFIGO?? Any longer and I'm going to have to evoke the Wingardium Leviosa charm to get that book into my mailbox. Or get one of you to loan me your (read) copy....

p.p.s. Another excuse - er - reason to not paint my house myself - I have a lovely rotator cuff injury - if you've ever had one, you know what a major pain in the arm it is...

p.p.p.s I had my locks changed on Thursday. The fellow that did them, I'll call him Jeff because that's his name, was HOT as in "PHWOAR! He was GOORRGEOUS!!" He somehow managed to talk me into a higher end 'Mul-T-Lock' system - I don't know how he was able to twist my rubber arm ...I blame my sore rotator cuff.