30

It seems I have successfully survived my 20s and have now reached my 30s. My 20s were great.  A lot of awesome things happened (like a lot), although I can't help but think it was all leading up to my 30s.  This is when my older and wiser self (HA!) gets to stop waiting for things to happen and makes them happen!  30's, here I come!

*note to self: find a reason for a photoshoot with balloons.  Seriously, typing "balloons" into pinterest leads to some amazingly chic and artistic images like this one from Design Love Fest.  Who knew a post about painting on balloons could be so elegant?

Unlike some people, 30 doesn't scare me.  It does, however mean that I failed neglected to complete my 30 before 30 list.  Grumble.  I should have checked off more items last summer/fall before the polar vortex (and the subsequent hibernation) set in.  I overestimated my winter motivation and underestimated how long winter would last.  Still waiting for warmth!  Yesterday didn't even hit 50!!!  But enough excuses!  Now the list is "30 things to do as close to turning 30 as possible."  I will not admit defeat!

Musical Chairs (again)

Remember when I said that the dining room was done?

I lied.  Well, not lied, just reevaluated.

Turns out that Hubby wasn't the biggest fan of the wide array of chair styles I had collected for this look.  He liked the more traditional one on the left, but that was about it.  I can convince him into a lot of things design-wise (like a 2-tone kitchen), but apparently my powers were weak with the chairs.

Good thing that I had replacement chairs just hanging around the house... right?  Now that I'm attempting to purge my basement furniture hoard collection, I brought up the entire old chair collection and started to play around.  I made a valiant last attempt to plead my case for keeping the above 4, but Hubby strongly voted for 4 more traditional styles.

Since it's his house too, and I don't hate these chairs by any means (I did buy them after all.... AND they may have actually been the original 4 chosen chairs way back), it looks like I have some more chairs to refinish! (AND maybe one of these days I'll figure out how to photograph the dining room without it looking dark and washed out at the same time.  maybe.)

Only one chair remains from the refinished 4 above, one was refinished for our previous dining room iteration, one is primed but was never painted, and one hasn't been touched at all yet.  They look like kind of a mess today, but once I unify them with paint and fabric like I've done before, they'll all be one big happy family.

There hasn't been a day nice enough to finish them yet (paint spraying is reserved for outside only), so until then, the chairs in my dining room may or may not be actually sittable.

Now all that's left to decide is color.  Do I stick with the yellow/green that actually grew on me?  Do I go for a mid-tone gray?  Or should I be crazy and go for a different green?  I know which way I'm leaning today, but that could change by the time I get to painting.  What do you think?

Grover: Week6

I hope you enjoy these weekly updates as I learn to navigate through the business of flipping houses.  Check out  more about this flip, Grover, or check out posts about our last flip HERE. I keep being surprised how fast this flip is passing.  I'm pleased to say this week, it is finally starting to look and feel a bit different!

Remember how there used to be a wall in between the kitchen/dining room and living room?  Well, no more!

I'm so happy I decided to open up the wall- it's going to completely make this space!  The above is a view from the front door.  Just look at all the light coming from the back of the house!  It's going to be even brighter too, when I nix the dark drab colors.

Here's a before and after comparison from the same angle:

What a difference, amIright??  Don't worry, the beam isn't bowed, that's just my camera lens.  In fact, the beam is as straight as an arrow.  The contractor was even able to jack up an old bow in the ceiling and really square up the house- go him!  And since I'm so in love with the open concept here, this will be the view from the middle of the kitchen:

I originally wanted to open it up another 3', but that extra 3 feet would require a new  beam and concrete footing in the basement and all the work that went along with it.  I'll keep the 3' and the $600 on my pocket, thank you very much.

Still staying in the kitchen, the contractors are moving a wall that no one will see, but it will make such a difference.

I'm stealing almost a foot from the smallest bedroom's closet to create a proper recess for the fridge.  The previous recess caused the fridge to stick out a good 6 inches into the room.  It looked like a mistake.  The bedroom closet will still be plenty large for the room, and now, the fridge will look like it was meant to be there.

Moving down the hallway... the clean, wallpaper free, white, primed hallway... It's never looked better!

Before we head to the bedrooms, let's take a peek in the bathroom where the contractor has been prepping the walls for the new shower tile.

I know right now it looks like the contractor's having all the fun, but I am eagerly awaiting my turn on projects.  Once the contractor tiles the shower walls and preps the floor for tile, I'll be tiling the floor myself and adding board and batten to the walls.  Those are the biggies, but of course I have 10 million small projects throughout the house to make him pretty again.

While the contractor has been working away, I've done my best to stay out of the way in the bedrooms and have successfully prepped and primed all 3 bedrooms trim, walls, and closets.

The master even already has a coat of semi-gloss on the trim and I've started debating room colors.  I'm thinking a soft green in the master and a light gray in the 'kids rooms.'

I'm trying to get the bedrooms painted first on this flip, unlike the last 2 where the painting was one of the last things to happen.  Since I'll be getting the floors sanded down and refinished, it makes sense to paint first when I'm not as worried about spilling a few drops.  PLUS, painting them now means that once the floors to get refinished, the bedrooms will pretty much be DONE!

I feel like I'm dragging my feet a bit on this flip, but we're admittedly holding off on a few big-ticket items for as long as we can.  Until Frankie sells (booo) a lot of our money is still tied up.  We just dropped the price again- come and get him!!