Home improvement

A few nights ago, just for fun, Adam and I looked at pictures of a fancy house we knew of that was for sale.  For sale for more than we would ever pay.  It was just for fun.

I looked at it and it was beautiful.  There were soaring ceilings and Carrara marble countertops.  I told Adam it wasn't us though.  Us is our quirky and imperfect little house.  For example, I could not see either my sewn together rug or my curtains with fabric glued on in that house.

Embracing who you are in your house is kind of like realizing you have curly hair and you just need to live with it.

I am a person with simmering ideas and have to be creative to be happy.  Also, my attention span and patience are not the top of the list of my personality traits.  Marianne's the same way.  When I told her that I was painting my master bathroom but was holding off on buying the paint until the trim was done or I would paint the walls before the trim dried, she totally got it.

She recently decided to paint a table for her front porch.  She dipped into her creative daughter Desi's vast collection of spray paint not because she necessarily wanted one of those colors, but because they were there.  I totally get that.  So did Desi.

We get it from my dad.  My dad built my parents' house with plans he created.  He changed them along the way.  Every bedroom has a different pattern of wood on the walls. (Which are fabulous if you ask me.)  My dad built tools when he couldn't afford them.  He can make or repair anything with whatever is on hand.  I'm glad my dad is the way he is.

My mom is from the "Any job worth doing is worth doing well" school of thought.  She would caution me not to "half do" things when I was growing up.  I'm glad my mom is the way she is too.  People like me need people like her.  When I was 2/3 of the way through taping my bathroom to paint it, I ran out of painter's tape.  Janet had some.  She wouldn't start a paint project without looking to see if she had enough tape and I love that about her.  (Especially since she let me borrow it.)

The color ended up being different than I wanted.  I was wanting something the green blue silvery gray of sagebrush and I didn't really achieve it.

This is before, with everything cleared out:

And this is after with everything put back in:

I am not sure how I feel about the rugs now...

The top picture looks lighter than it really is and the bottom picture looks bluer than it really is but what can you do?

I got a new clock and a new mirror (which is not shown, it's opposite the big mirror).  When I was taking the old mirror down, I realized, this mirror is really ugly. 

One of my favorite parts of the room, and it has nothing to do with anything, is the door stop which I recruited from a top shelf in my boys' room.  Mark used to send marbles down it and watch them swirl but he's moved on to other interests and it makes a perfect little door stop.

With my other two bathrooms, the color is intensified because it's a small space so I purposefully chose a color that was too light, thinking it would intensify.  I didn't count on the window and all the white and the big mirror lightening the color.

It would have to bug me a LOT more than it does for me to redo it though.

Braeden wandered in to visit me a few times when I was painting.  He watched for awhile and said, "You seem like you're in your element when you do things like this."  He's right.  I love the deciding and the wielding tools and the changing things.

Then he said, "I told you it would be too light."

At times like that I tell Braeden that nobody likes him.  He always just gives me a big grin.  Because he knows that is not true.  I like him.  A lot.