You might need sunglasses

It's been ages since my last update, but that's because His Grace and I have been busy.  BUSY.  

• The kitchen ceiling is done.
  
• The dirty old oatmeal glop is off the ceiling in the two bedrooms.  We bit the bullet and hired someone to do that for us.  Remember it took me two days to scrape the spackle off the tiny kitchen ceiling?  Chris got it off the two bedrooms in a couple of hours each.

• The ceilings are painted.  His Grace is my hero.  Really, he did all the ceiling painting.

• The kitchen morning glories are gone.  Paint is so neat... you'd never know they'd ever been there.  I painted the walls a pale mossy green, and it looks wonderfully clean.
  
• The vanity and linen cupboard are out of the bedroom.  His Grace and I managed to remove the vanity and to get the cupboard partly away from the wall, but we needed Chris to actually get it out of the room.  We thought of putting the cupboard in the kitchen which is why I moved the kitchen paint job up on the schedule - 'cause those morning glories had to be gone before the cupboard got moved in.  But then we decided it was too difficult to install it there and moved it out to the garage for additional storage there.

And the big news... drum roll please... the master bedroom has been painted and the bedspread has been dyed lime green using the 'recipe' I found on the Rit Dye website  - which is why you may need sunglasses.  'Cause that is one shockingly bright lime, let me tell you.  It doesn't show up that way on my monitor, but wowza!

Now for the lesson(s) learned (the hard way).

1. It's going to take longer than you thought.  No matter how conservatively we tried to estimate the time required, it always took longer.  It actually took us at least a week to paint the two rooms.  If we hadn't been renters for the past 21 years, we probably would have it figured out by now... but where's the adventure in that?
   
2. You're probably supposed to prime the gyprock on the ceiling before you paint it.  We didn't, and unfortunately the paint came off in a couple of places, especially when I taped the ceiling prior to painting the walls in the kitchen.  When it came time to paint the bedroom walls, I used a brush I used for my paintings; it was much smaller and I had much more control over where the bristles went - no need to tape. 

There's also been stuff going on out in the garage/paint shop.  I did some frames and the filing baskets for my desk a hot pink for pops of colour in the bedroom.  This was before the bright, bright, bright bedspread episode.

 

And I've got one night stand 2/3 of the way to silver.  His Grace was really not sure about this plan, but even he said that the night stand looks good.  I need to put one more coat of Krylon Bright Metallic Finish, and then I think I'll use paste wax to give some depth.  

As I said, I was doing this in the garage with the door open.  A neighbour was driving by and saw the headboard propped up against the wall and wondered if I was getting rid of it.  So I told her about my favourite thrift store mall.  Nice way to get to meet neighbours.

We're miles and miles from being finished, but it feels like we're actually making some progress.  There's office work to do for the rest of this week, but then it's finish the night stand and do the other one, paint the headboard, and strip and paint the bookshelf that sits on my desk.  On with the adventure!

Progress! Or... I married a handiman.

Good news on the decorating front.  Their Graces have actually made some progress.  Himself, the duke, took pity on my poor crippled hands (de Quervain's tenosynovitis - a surprisingly real name) and painted the kitchen ceiling.  We only had enough paint for one coat, but it doesn't look half bad.

Then, after a short week and a half rest, we decided to tackle something else and rip out the vanity desk and linen cupboard in the master bedroom.  Now that I have a desk of my own, I need some place to put it other than the main hallway, and the space taken up by the ridiculously small vanity and the equally small cupboard is it.

We managed to get the vanity out with no trouble, and got the cupboard away from the wall (with only one small hole).

But then we ran into a problem.  The cupboard was built in place and there's less than a 1/4" gap between it and the ceiling.  

And the carpet is more than 1/4" high - we're stuck.  

So today I called a handiman, and he's going to get it out in one piece for us.  We'll move the cupboard to the kitchen where it will become kitchen storage.  He's also going to raise the shelf in the bottom cupboards in the garage, so that we can get the suitcases stored out there instead of taking up space in the closets.

While he was here, we got him to give us a quote on removing the popcorn glop of the ceilings in both bedrooms and the living room dining room.  More than we want to pay, but worth it.  The kitchen is noticeably lighter with the glop gone.  We may also get him to put in a ceiling fan in the master bedroom while he's here.  That would help with the cooling bills.

So the ducal estate is slowly coming together.

At home during the month of ennui

... or something like that.

Anyway, I still haven't painted the ceiling in the kitchen.  And all I have to show you is that our furniture is here and our walls are pretty well full.

There's a Middle Eastern wall

and a Yukon wall

There's also a short term missions trips wall, which you can't really see because I had to move the hall table because I GOT A DESK!  I mean, an actual desk.  I have been using a tiny vanity table in the bedroom, but that was only okay as long as all I needed to do was follow my favourite blogs and facebook.  As soon as I needed some reference material, I was in trouble.  But I found a desk today for $40.  Yet another refinishing project... sigh.

So there you have it... another entry in my TADIM (think about doing it myself) blog.

Yeah, well... I can explain...

So by now you probably expect that I've finished de-spackling the kitchen and at least the two bedrooms, right?  Well... no.

I did get the kitchen ready to paint... eventually.  And now I know you're supposed to read the instruction BEFORE you start.  I didn't think to seal off the area until after I started sanding.  And actually, I didn't realize I'd have to sand until after I tried painting.  Sigh.  But this is where I got to.

You can just see the amazing morning glory stencil at the bottom of the picture.  Here it is in all it's (morning) glory.

C'est magnifique, non?  There's a story about that.  When I was cleaning up the popcorn glop, which required some wall washing, I actually wondered if they had done the stencil with water colours, because there was this brown/green stuff running down the wall.  Then I realized that the brown/green stuff was dirt... nay... filth.  When they painted the house prior to putting it up for sale, they didn't paint over the art feature, but neither did they wash the wall.  Then I realized that the same amount of filth is actually under the last coat of paint all through the house.  Which is disgusting. But that which cannot be changed shall be ignored.  Anyway, ceiling paint next week, and wall paint eventually.

But I said I could explain why I stopped working on the kitchen, and I can.  But it's as gross as the dirty wall.  His Grace discovered that we had carpet beetles!!!!  As in BUGS!!!!!!!  So we rented a carpet shampooer from Ace and did almost the whole house.  I say "almost" because I forgot the walk-in closet and the two hall closets before we returned the shampooer.  So I got some borax and sprinkled it liberally in the closets and on the mattress in the guest room ('cause I got it 2nd hand).  It seems to have worked; we're not finding any more little black beetles.  But that was hard work, and that is why, dear reader, Her Grace hasn't finished the kitchen ceiling.

Well, that and a real life project that had to be done.  

Finally, Her Grace Does Something

(other than shop, of course.)

So today I determined to begin the actual decorating work.  At first I was going to sweep out the garage so that I could paint the bedside tables, but I thought no... it would be better to actually start on the house painting part first.  You know, bake the cake and then put on the icing.

So I decided to tackle the spackle.  His Grace convinced me to start small, so I began on the ceiling of the kitchen over the table.

This is me beginning the work

and this is me at the end of the day

Which doesn't show all the glop on my t-shirt or the stuff I'd already washed off my face.  This is a messy job!  Nor does it show the 1/2" popped blister on my hand.  Sniff.  But the spackle is half gone in the tiny (about 6x4) dining area of the kitchen.  Monday - assuming that I can move my arms and shoulders - I'll finish the kitchen.  And then on to the bedroom.

Random Blitherings by way of an Excuse

It's not that I've forgotten about this blog or that I'm no longer interested in decorating, it's just that His Grace and I went on a road trip back to Canada.  We left on May 21st and got back July 3rd - 6 weeks and 6,000 miles.  And 6 pounds, but that's an entirely different whine.

Anyway, we got back too tuckered to tweet, or blog as the case may be.  But not too tired to shop.  I mean... get real... it's me I'm talking about.

So, remember the purple couch and the teal recliner?  They have been replaced.

The love seat was a whopping $35 at the Lutheran Thrift Store and the recliner was marked $89, but it was 1/2 price day on some furniture items, so I got it for $44.50.  

One of the best things about this thrift store is that they deliver for $25 per load.  It doesn't matter how many items you have, it's $25 per load.  (And they hauled the teal monstrosity away for nothing!!!)  So I scouted around to see if there was anything else I wanted, and found this headboard.

I'm still thinking it may end up hot pink or fuchsia, although I'm a little concerned that His Grace might go into palpitations if I do that.  

So other than perhaps finding a book shelf or 12, I think we have all the furniture we can handle because...while we were in Canada we arranged for all our stuff that has been stored for the past 12 years to be shipped to AZ.  WE HAVE STUFF!!!!!

And the winner is...

Haven't lifted a paint brush yet, but I have picked the living room colour.  It's Mushroom Risotto (and no, I didn't pick it on an empty stomach!)  

Here's the colour chip from the Valspar site.  On my screen it looks very gray, but the paint chip I picked up at Ace Hardware is very cafe au lait.  I'll try scanning the paint chip later.  

I also tried cutting out the Navajo stencil pattern I found, and it works.  His Grace tells me that he's tried stenciling before and the paint always got under the stencil and gummed up the works.  Any advice from experienced decorators appreciated.

We're leaving on Wednesday for three or four weeks ministry trip to Canada, so it will be quiet on the decorating front.  But as soon (yeah, right) as we get back, the decorating will commence!  One thing we'll be doing on this trip is arranging for the things we've had stored with family and friends in Canada to be shipped to their new home.  Yay!  Us and our stuff in the same place.  What a concept.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you, the purple couch is gone.  His Grace hated it so much - like, as much as I hated the brass and glass - that we craigslisted it out of here.  I'll look for a replacement when we get back in June.