Renovation Station - The Exterior

Awhile ago I gave a little synopsis of the nice long home improvement list we acquired after one hail of a storm roughed up our little abode.

And here we are now, shockingly almost finished just a month after the renovations started! It certainly didn't take as long as I thought -- once everything got started they knocked it out very quickly, with the exception of refinishing our first floor hardwoods. (Which will probably require a hotel stay, so I purposely delayed it because they wanted to do that the week of my surgery and the kids starting school - no thanks!).

Here's a rundown of all the fun...

BEFORE

The Roof... The Roof...

I had no idea how many roof color choices existed until I had to choose. It actually brought me back to the agony of wedding planning and all the decisions that I didn't know were decisions I'd have to make until I was confronted with the option. (And it was all on me because Peter had no preference - not sure if that made it easier or harder!). We ended up going from a brown-gray variegated shingle to straight black which I'm ultimately very happy with. In general, it was really not that exciting except for the cool conveyor belt truck that arrived to deliver the materials and all the fun of cleaning up after poor Samson who was literally scared, shall we say--well, you get the idea--by all the noise. Fun times.

New Paint

Oh, paint colors...so many more choices, so little time. I actually didn't mind the colors of the house when we bought it, but we get some mean southern exposure on the side and back of the house. Because the current color was such a purple/brown-toned gray, it faded terribly quickly and looked much more beige on those sides. So I knew I wanted to go more gray and also get rid of the red. After much (much much much) deliberation, I finally narrowed it down to Sherwin Williams Dovetail, Gauntlet Gray, and Classic French Gray with white trim, black accents, and a mint-colored door. Classic French Gray ultimately won out because it was the least brown/most true-gray of all the grays. For the trim I decided on Eider White, for the shutters/accents Tricorn Black, and for the door, Drizzle.

We left for our annual camping trip and came home three days later to find the base color mostly finished. I'll admit, I was a little skeptical at first, what with the coloring outside the lines and the red still hanging around... 

A good look at the contrast between the old color
and the new before the back door was painted all white.

But after they returned to finish the trim and the door, there was no question whatsoever.

We also had the fence re-stained; I didn't love the extra worn, orange-y look of our current fencing, but our HOA is a stickler for specified colors and there are only a few stain options. Being on a corner lot with southern exposure also means a lot of wear and tear from sun and foot traffic. Thankfully, our contractors were really knowledgeable and suggested we go with a solid stain that wouldn't fade as much or wear as quickly. So I chose the most neutral stain option we had, and it made a huge difference. I was afraid it would look too painted but was pleasantly surprised with the outcome - it looks perfectly natural and I'm thrilled. 

And then there was the door. The door was (is) by far my favorite part of the whole update. I kind of have a thing for the color and have for a long time - all my electronics and accessories are some form of mint/teal, and I just can't seem to get away from using gray with mint-colored accents throughout the inside of the house as well. But they make the door that much more fitting. It's funny how such a small thing can make such a big difference, but it does. We've gotten so many compliments on it and all I can say in return is "thanks - it's my favorite!"

Happy sigh.

The most expeditious way to paralyze a serially indecisive brain-fried mom. 

We also updated our hardware to match the black accents, and because our current light fixtures were getting a little old and tired. Thankfully I had looked online ahead of time and decided what I wanted, because I was alone with all three kids the day I finally made it to the Depot of Homes to pick them out. [I didn't even look at the wall, I just grabbed the boxes and shooed them toward the check-out]. Once again, I was delighted with my decision...

And even more delighted by final product. It all came together so well, and my concerns about choosing the right gray evaporated as soon as I saw the whole color scheme that I had agonized over and so painstakingly picked out side by side -- where they very clearly belong. It's a perfectly fabulous update, with just enough of a change to keep me happy until we have to do it again. Which hopefully won't be for a long, long time!

AFTER!

#Shiplap Fan Club

One Wednesday not too long ago, the kids were begging for some TV after school. I told them in no uncertain terms that we all had some chores to do first--including me--so while they got their stuff done, I was going to fold clothes and catch up on my boring grownup shows like Fixer Upper, thankyouverymuch.

Two minutes in, Marie abandoned her post at the dishwasher and sweetly requested to fold all the clothes instead (have at it, kid!) so she could watch, too.

The boys were sucked in as soon as demo started, and by the end of the episode, they were all asking if there was another episode on the DVR so they could 'do more chores and keep watching...pleeeease?!'

I told them no, but that it would air again the next Tuesday. Judging by the duration and volume of groans and moans, you would've thought I said five years, not six days.

And thus, a Fixer Upper fan club was born.

By the next Tuesday I had forgotten, but Marie certainly had not; she bolted out of the car after school exclaiming, "can we do chores and watch Fixer Upper now?!" Unfortunately I'd realized my fatal error a little too late and let her down as gently as possible; it wouldn't air till bedtime, so she'd have to wait for the recording the next day.

Rest assured, she and the boys would have traded their left arm before they let me forget again the next day. Laundry bins were retrieved, the new episode filled the room, bets were placed on which house would be chosen, and piles of laundry were folded. It was a magical evening.

One afternoon soon after, Marie asked, "Mommy, can we move to Texas?" Taken aback, I stifled a full body shudder of revulsion and responded, "I hope we never ever ever have to...but why?" 

"So we can by a house where Chip and Joanna can come over and make it so amazing!" 

I laughed and agreed that part would mayyyybe almost make it worth it, but only convinced her that it wouldn't be worth it after laying out how far we would have to travel from Texas to go skiing. That, she decided, she could never give up--even for one of Johanna's sliding barn doors.

HGTV: Not just for SAHMs anymore...

But the Colorado kids remain obsessed with the show, and I can't say I'm an exception. I super love Joanna for being able to convince my kids alllllll the way from Waco to clean up our house and do their chores in return for some demo and decorating (even if it's just once a week). Also, aside from her impeccable design talent, she used to be a gymnast AND they have a Great Pyrenees mix so basically we're kindred spirits. Minus my lack of interior design prowess, that is. Regardless, I have (quite a number) of plans for our house, so I'm all about the kids getting bitten by the DIY/reno bug. 

Of course I'd rather have Joanna throw some shiplap on it, but at least I know that with her as their role model, by the time we tackle our next project, my design-team-in-training will be more than ready!

Some Fixer Upper quotes:

Ethan: my guy is Chip! My guy breaks houses so he can fix them!

Marie: Aww look at the cat! I want as many animals as that to live at our house!

Erik: "Number three! Choose number three!!!"

           "SMASH! Ahhahahahahaa!"

P.S. Chip and Joanna if you read this and need a break from Texas, Colorado has a LOT of beetle kill pine begging to be reclaimed...we'll kindly volunteer as your guinea pigs...

A Grand Fauxwell - Adventures in Updating

When we moved into our house last year, we knew that it was the perfect space for us, while still leaving lots of potential for future, er, customization. Especially when it came to the previous owner's affinity for faux finishes (our room, the kids' rooms, and even some countertops were fauxed out to the max).

Before...

I knew that the first finish I wanted to wave fauxwell to was that of the master bedroom; I had a vision of a nice warm gray from the moment the house was ours. The ball really started rolling in November when we got the bedding I'd long desired for our anniversary. I then made some trips to gather paint swatches, and consulted my fabulous should-be-interior-designer neighbor and friend. She helped me learn the art of undertones--deciding which neutrals blended with each other, whether a shade would read red or purple or green, and if a color could help pull together my victorian-shabby-chic collection of patterns or cause them to compete. Armed with her wisdom and her Sherwin-Williams paint deck, I then visited paint stores and grabbed more swatches, finally narrowing it down to four samples:

• Sherwin Williams Worldly Gray [too light and it read a little green]
• Behr Toasty Gray [too light and read slightly blue next to a few items]
• Behr Rustic Taupe [a little dark and read purple/red in some lights]
• Behr Perfect Taupe [and the fourth one was jusssst right!]

Home Depot easily convinced me to buy paintable contact paper that I could put directly on the wall, and immediately the Perfect Taupe jumped out at me as, well...perfect (and it kinda does look perfect in every image I've seen). My interior design consultant lent her critical eye and also confirmed that Perfect Taupe was the perfect unifer for the space.

(Seen bottom left and bottom right, respectively).

It highlighted the champagne and silver tones in our bedding, brought out the beauty of our master bedroom set without making the wood look so orange (like that darn orange wall did), and it blended nicely with the carpet. And so, with just a few days to go before Christmas, I dubbed that perfect little square on the wall the winner and dreamed of the day I wouldn't have to squint to block out any of the orangy-brown awfulness surrounding it. The only question remaining was when. And who. I wasn't convinced I could do it alone, or that it would actually happen anytime soon, knowing how long I can take to both start and finish a project.

My incredibe family, however (as I mentioned previously), thought differently - they decided the perfect time would be during their hard-earned vacation...and the perfect paint crew would be us. From the moment I opened my Christmas gift from my parents loaded with gift cards and paint supplies, I was a believer in their combined experience and confidence. [Not to mention unheard-of generosity. Just in case that part didn't come across enough earlier]. So we set out the day after Christmas with paint cards, gift cards, and plenty of excitement on my part.

Bro and Sis are not impressed.
Faux real. It had to go.

The Steps

TSP Wash

We washed the walls with TSP, an extremely strong detergent/solvent, to help dissolve the high-gloss finish the previous owners used over the faux finish. This involved soaking towels in the TSP solution and wiping down every inch of the wall (while wearing gloves!!), then thoroughly rinsing every inch of the walls again with clean water and letting it dry. Thankfully there wasn't any texture to the faux paint (beyond the original texture of the wall), so we were spared the pain of sanding, too!

Primer

After the walls dried, we used a white Zinsser Stain Blocking Primer to go over the extremely dark walls. We were worried about covering both the chocolate brown accent walls and the variation in colors on the faux-painted walls, so we opted for the stain blocking version. Ironically, right before we applied the primer, someone read the fine print on the can which said, "DO NOT USE WITH TSP." A frantic bout of Googling ensued, but the most we could find from paint forums and the company was that if the walls weren't rinsed adequately, the primer might not adhere as well. We took a gamble that we had rinsed everything well enough, and thankfully had no issues at all with the primer adhering. 

        

Indoctrinating the next generation of DIY designers. (Don't try this at home, folks!)

Paint

We went with Behr's Premium Ultra paint in an eggshell finish, which had great reviews (we briefly considered the Marquee Paint and Primer but when I started researching, the reviews for that one were not so positive). After priming with the bright white, the rest of the trim/ceiling paint in the room looked pretty dingy, and the Perfect Taupe was looking extremely tan and dark going on. It had me doubting for a bit...

But as soon as we started rolling and got the first coat, covering that stark blue-white primer, the optical illusion disappeared. The taupe dried a little lighter, and the gray undertones came back to life. The second coat sealed the deal, and the next day the natural morning light revealed exactly what I'd been imagining all these months--a perfect warm gray that immediately pulled everything together and made the room feel like the retreat I knew it was under all that faux craziness.

The Result!

A huge resounding never-ending thank-you goes to my family for this priceless gift! Special mention also goes to Auntie Chica for the childcare she provided while the rest of us were painting. Also the 15+ loads of laundry she did for us. (Come back, Sis?). The room is so much lighter, brighter, and it really does look and feel bigger. Since the room is longer than it is wide, so before we painted, the darker accent walls on either end made it feel even longer and more tunnelish than it really is. Thank goodness that's rectified now, in addition to the color. Every morning waking up in our new retreat has been a breath of fresh air (especially after the paint smell faded!) and I'm still beyond thrilled with the results.

Ahhh. That's better. 

I got new lamps for the nightstands and cleared a few surfaces, but aside from these very small changes, nothing has changed and the paint makes ALL the difference! There's still some work I want to do on the decor - like hang the mirrors that I bought to go above our night stands, hunt for the perfect window treatments to go with the updated blinds that we (the Victorian we, i.e. my dad) installed, and work on a focal piece (or pieces) for above the bed. I also need to hang some wedding prints! But now that the perfect (taupe!) canvas is in place and 90% of the work is done, I feel free to really let the inspiration carry me. 

And make no mistake, with my newfound confidence and experience, that inspiration is going to carry me right through the door to tackle the bathroom next with a little muted blue:

Salmon and chocolate walls, your days are numbered!

Stay tuned!

Chapperoni!

A few weeks ago, I had the full-circle experience of a lifetime: playing chaperone for a field trip to the Denver Aquarium!

...which immediately inspired in me need to profuesly thank any and every parent, grandparent, nanny, or teacher who ever guarded me while outside the confines of my school from ages four to 17.

But really, aside from the fact that we had a 45 minute drive with a bunch of highly excitable kindergartners who had never been on a school bus before (cue squeals at every turn and quick stop) and the fact that it's really hard to keep track of a bunch of short people who keep disappearing behind some really tall aquarium displays, they were a great, well-behaved group--and it was a ton of fun!

Marie was content to ditch me and squeeze into a seat to chatter with her two friends the whole bus ride (sniff...it begins!)...

And she was the first to scout out the seahorses and starfish when we got into the aquarium--she'd been waiting all week!

We got to see a "real" thunderstorm with thunder and lighting and lots of splashing in the flash flood exhibit (sadly they all know what that means due to the recent flooding in Boulder), then we walked through tunnels under the water with sea creatures swimming all around us, and pretended to be a scuba diver like the ones in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

There was also a chance to pet the stingrays, a mermaid show with "real" mermaids (one of whom happened to be another kindergarten teacher's daughter), and--rather randomly--a tiger exhibit (???) with three hungry tigers who we got to watch during their lunch time. Yum.

The two other boys under my charge were sweet as could be, and we had fun exploring together, although I would have liked to take a lot more time to look at the animals and read all of the info for each display. I'm realizing that all the stuff that used to bore me on field trips--and certainly didn't catch their attention as they were running full speed from one display to another--actually interests me now that I'm old(er). Once again with the full-circle...sorry, former chaperones, for all the cool stuff you missed when I was busy darting around strange buildings! Guess that means we'll just have to go back as a family soon and spend some time having fun and really learning together.

Marie did incredibly well with her first field trip experience, as did the other kids, and I was proud to graduate to the role of Chapperoni and help get everyone home in one piece...I will definitely be volunteering again for future trips if I get the chance!

Also, because this is as good a post as any for a tack-on...

Look! I made a Poodle Skirt! (Just don't look too closely).

Marie's class has been focusing on one number each day since the beginning of school, and last Friday--as in the very day after Halloween-- it just happened to be their 50th day of school. So, in celebration, they had another party. The day after their Halloween Party. In which they dressed in 50s era clothing and drank root beer floats and counted to fifty lots (I presume).

Anyway, since we didn't have a whole lot of notice, but also because I'm just really good at procrastinating, it appeared that an online order of 50s garb simply would not arrive in time. The two local stores I searched had no poodle skirts despite the Halloween sales, and I didn't feel like driving to who knows how many other stores outside of my three-mile radius--with kids in tow--to hunt for a skirt with a dog on it. So I found an easy-looking tutorial (famous last words) on Pinterest and tried to refine my sewing skillz some more. Let's just say that circular hems are evil, especially if that's all the pattern is...one.giant.circle. So here is my beginner sewing wisdom to pass on to you: if it says to use felt so you don't have to finish the edges, drive yourself outside the stinking three-mile radius already to a store that will have enough yardage of felt instead of buying cotton from the closest store. For your own sanity. Otherwise you will find yourself up till midnight on Halloween Eve fighting with what is supposed to look like a circle with a nice even hem which now unfortunately looks like it belongs on a 50s scarecrow.

But hey, I'm proud of what I was able to whip up in under two hours, she was happy with it, and now we have one more item for the dress up bin! Hopefully better luck next time as I tackle (mostly) straight seams for the Christmas stockings I'm attempting...

Of Domestic Flare-ups and Falloween {Foto Dump!}

So I've never been that big on Halloween--at least when it comes to the creepy stuff, and I'm not one to go all out when it comes to holiday decorations because I'm inherently lazy, and decorating = work. But somehow this year I actually noticed the multitude of Fall/Halloween decorations accumulating in the basement, probably because I kept tripping over them, and somehow they made it upstairs, and suddenly I found myself in the middle of a full-blown Fall-oween domestic flareup:

Both inside...

Favorite find: the pumpkinhead.

...and out.

...and out.

Funny story: the kids apperntly think that our Halloween spider dubbed "Webster" who hangs from the ceiling has the same attributes as Santa; although we said nothing about it, they decided he watches them to see if they're good or bad and determines their trick-or-treating fate. So, like any good parents would, we totally ran with it. One day, when Erik was trying to convince me to let him have something he wanted (probably junk food) and I said no, he came up to me with a very serious look on his face and leaned in close to my ear to whisper, "Mommy, the SPIDER might hear you saying 'no' and know you're not being nice to me. Do you want to go trick-or-treating or not?" Let's just say that he got a little lesson in who's the mom-boss and who's still the kid, Magical Spider or not. 

Back to the domestic flareup: it started getting real when my non-baking self not only decided to randomly bake something pumpkin-y, but actually cook a real live pumpkin instead of whipping out the can opener in order to do so. I'd bought the pumpkin on my last grocery run--mostly for the seeds, because I do love roasted pumpkin seeds so--but at the height of the flareup I somehow decided that attempting some gluten-and-dairy-free pumpkin oatmeal cookies would be "fun." Thankfully, YouTube helped me cook the pumpkin without butchering it, resulting in a nice batch of cookies and leftover mashed pumpkin for some pumpkin stew. Which, of course, the kids hated with a passion (more for me!).

Falloween also brought plenty of leaf jumping:

And school Halloween parades, where an astronaut and

Spiderman proudly showed off their costumes 

(thankfully not on the same day, so we could be present for both!)

And of course, there was pumpkin carving 

at the last possible minute. 

Mine wasn't quite finished yet...but it did finally make it
to the porch with the rest of its pumpkin family long after bedtime!

 And then it was Halloween for real!!!!

These three kept asking all day why Halloween was taking so long and if it was time to go trick-or-treating yet.

And as exhausting as it all is, their fun and excitement is the perfect excuse to join in on the fun, and the perfect reminder that we're never too old to be total goofballs.

Peter played it safe, while I was going for friendly jack o' lantern
and accidentally landed on creepy joker face. Whoops.

Separating and trading loot--many thanks to Pinterest for this list of gf/df candy for Ethan!

  Cheers to a fun night and a perfectly-timed sugar crash just in time for bed! 

Happy Halloween!!!