Kendall's Room

A couple of weeks ago, my sweet beautiful and overly talent friend Emily came to help me paint Kendall's room.  It was nice to have someone to talk to while working on the house ... especially since John was gone for 16 days on a trip of a lifetime with his parents and siblings.

Kendall's room has the Book of Mormon theme from the boys' room in our other house.  I love it!

Kendall shares a Jack-and-Jill(Jack) bathroom (toilet and shower) with Kerst.  You can see his separate sink to the right of the picture - Kerst has one in his room too.

Ceiling Project Finished!

I know color and light can effect a person.  It does me!  With the ceiling painted the same dark color of the walls, I felt closed in.  I need light!  I love color ... but in limited amounts - not to include ceilings.

While John was away, I painted the ceilings I could reach.  The Master Bedroom - before pictures - after pictures.  The hallways, kitchen and eating area - before pictures - after pictures.  When John came back he helped me finish up the 18' ceiling.  He painted the entire day on Labor Day ... a day of Labor, right?!   I helped too ... don't worry!

Julia hanging over the banister ...
Notice the "light fixture"?  This is where the Chandelier used to hang.  The previous owners must have sold it or taken it with them - and this was painted too!  Thankfully they didn't strip the entire house down like other foreclosed property owners have been known to do.

Thank goodness for scaffolding!  You can get an idea of how dark the ceilings were.  You couldn't tell where the walls ended and the ceilings started.

What a huge difference!  The house is so much brighter ... and seems bigger too!

Entry way looking down from upstairs landing

Looking into Kerst's room ... Kendall's room is down the short hallway right next to Kerst's door.

Master Bedroom ... boy what a difference less color makes!

Remember the dark maroon/red/plum color? I do ... here.

John has been gone for 16 days in Europe with his siblings and parents touring his ancestor's romping grounds ... and enjoying a cruise. While he was gone ... I was a little busy. Just a little. I didn't rush to post finished pictures until he was home (just in case he peeked in on our lazy life!)

I LOVE the room so much more! No more cave feeling. No more dark ceilings. Ahhhh....

I took mulitiple pictures and did a panoramic stitching on them (that is why the edges of the pictures are shaped a little odd)

(Sorry, blogger keeps flipping my pictures on the side.  I can't figure out why! ... so turn your head or your screen!)

I love the really fun detail in the ceiling.  You can see it better now that it isn't dark!

(sorry, on the side)  Painted walls and lighter ceilings!

(Sorry on the side) ... Painted ceilings in the bathroom!

Painted ceiling pictures of kitchen and eating area

You can go here to see the pictures BEFORE I painted the ceilings.

Much better with painted ceilings!

Stay tuned to see the transformation of the Master Bedroom that I did last week ...

Before the ceilings are painted ...

I've been painting and painting and painting.  I took pictures before I started the task of painting the ceilings I can reach.

Before:

Hallway leading to the "red bathroom".  Formal Dining Room/Music Room to the left.  Kitchen is to the right of the bathroom.

Eating area (with new light fixture - great find for $50!).  Large walk-in pantry (white door).  Gas cooktop is to the left of the pantry with a built-in oven/microwave combo (I will miss my double oven when our Soccer Boys come to visit).

Kitchen ... with dark painted ceilings.  You can barely see the piano through the doorway.

Kitchen looking into the Family Room (fireplace can be seen through peek through window in kitchen).  
What I would have done differently:  The sink is to the left of the fridge.  I would have put it in the peek through window area.  Prep sink in the island (I would have put it closer to the cooktop).  I also would have made the cabinets taller ... but then it would have made it difficult to paint the ceilings!

Looking from the kitchen towards the garage door hallway.  Coat closet with backpack rack.  Laundry room would be to the right of doorway entry.

After pictures to come soon ... I completed the ceilings on Tuesday ...

Easiest room so far

The formal dining room - aka our music room - must have been done professionally.  The paint job was well done (meaning, no drips or paint strokes on the base boards, window frames or blinds).  I even loved the color!

This has been the easiest room so far - move right in.  I love hearing the kids play the piano ... so close to the kitchen.

Kerst's room

I painted Kerst's room over a week ago. It was originally the builder's flat paint that was a peachy cream. (I am slow at posting - busy doing other stuff).

The silhouette on the door is of Kerst from his Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet.

The trunk near the window is John's grandfather's when he immigrated to the United States.  It has his name on it!

I LOVE Craig's List. I found all of Kerst's furniture on there.

Mattress: $40 (pillow top, rarely used ... problem - drove home with it on the top of my van and the pillow top became fluffed up.)

Box Spring: Free. I covered the queen sized box spring with a full size flat sheet. It matches his fitted sheets perfectly. I dislike the box spring showing - and then not matching the sheets.

Dresser: $100

Sleigh Bed: $100 (I LOVE the lattice look!)

Total: $240 ... You can't beat that!!!

Now what to hang on the walls ... I love suggestions and ideas!

Before ... Master Bedroom

The master bedroom is painted a dark red/purple. Even the ceilings!

The color made the room small and dark. It also clashed with the Cherry Wood bedroom set John made when we were first married (yes, I married an amazing and talented guy!).

I love all of the windows ... and I LOVE white! I did these same curtains in the other house.

You will need to tilt your screen ... or your head ... you pick. I couldn't get these photos to load properly.

You can see the tall, painted ceilings. One of the master bedroom closets is located off of the bedroom - the other is in the bathroom. These closets are larger than Jaley's bedroom she had when we lived in Ohio (it only fit a rocking chair, her crib and a large doll house - the dresser went in her closet).

I still can't figure out why there are no doors that go to the Master Bathrooms. Once again, a curtain fixes that problem (a longer pole is waiting to be traded out so it fits better).

Once again, tilt your head or your screen. You choose. Here is the master bathroom. At least this color is more of my liking ... yet the ceilings are painted.

And what I am working on now ... stay tuned.

Hunter Green to Evergreen

The Study/Library in the new house is very spacious. I have the desk facing the window so that it looks out to the "front yard/driveway" ... I love sitting and looking out at the beautiful landscaping (which needs a little tlc).

This is the view from the desk:

This room is painted green. I love green. White and Green are my two favorite colors. This room was painted the wrong green. I learned from a friend (one of my visiting teachers) years ago about the importance of having rooms flow - paint colors. The main house color is a dark brown. The hunter green with the hint of blue clashed with the adjoining walls. Thankfully the ceiling colors worked in this room.

I worked on this room for several days. The ceilings are quite high so I took it in strides. I also cleaned the windows inside and out (I don't think they have been cleaned in years).

I LOVE the new color! It is amazing what a little hint of blue in the green does to the flow of the rooms in the house.

Now onto the next room ....

Ambitious Jaley

When we moved here Jaley and I were looking at decorating ideas for her room.

She wanted blues yellow and greens. My resourceful and creative sister-in-law Julianne shared this color scheme she wanted to do for her son. We loved the stripes and brightened the colors for Jaley's room. While looking around we found a yo-yo quilt. We fell in love with it .... only it was over $1,000.


I told Jaley she could start saving her money or she could make one.

Soooo....

she decided to make one as one of her Young Women Personal Progress Projects.

She calculated we need just under 1,700 yo-yos.

We started this project 2 years ago, but she wasn't quite ready for the undertaking.

This past April, she decided to start it up again. With 40 yo-yos done ... we were well on our way ;o).

Here is our progress:

Cut out 1,700 circles out of fabric to compliment her room. We traced around a blank cd/dvd. Jaley cut and cut and cut and cut.



And then we began sewing. By hand. Where ever we went, we brought a ziplock bag filled with circles, needles, thread and scissors. We plugged along! It takes us just 2-3 minutes to sew one yo-yo.



Last week we finished sewing all of the yo-yos!

My dear quilting friend, Linda D. from IL helped me figure out how to assemble this quilt. We put the yo-yo's on the dining room table according to fabrics. We had 25 different fabrics (but not all the same number of yo-yos in each).

We put 25 yo-yos in each baggie.

Now we are sewing them into rows of 5.

And then into blocks of 25.

And still, where ever we go, we have a baggie filled with needles, thread, scissors and yo-yos.

Each square is taking under 1 hour (depending on the interruptions). This project is keeping
us out of trouble!

We have 72 blocks to sew together.

and then we need to attach it to the black think quilt we picked up at Target that you can see at the foot of her bed.
At the last General Conference, Elder Eyring gave a talk that encouraged Moms to participate in the Personal Progress program with their daughter. It has been a lot of fun to do this project with Jaley. We have listened to books on tape, sat and talked, or just enjoyed each other's company. The YW value projects are to take at least 10 hours. We have passed that a LONG TIME AGO!