All in the Name of Progress

Jeff and I have been working away on the house. I got a few questions about the tan square in the dining room and if Jeff's green paint find in the basement covered it up. Luckily for us, someone who doesn't paint behind the microwave on the kitchen counter (yes, it's true, I have the pictures to prove it and will share later in the post) only does one coat of paint on a wall when they can get away with it.

Before - the tan square where the previous owners had their china cabinet and didn't move it to paint

After - I apologize for the blurriness and the door, but you can tell the square has disappeared after one coat of the green Jeff found in the basement. Yay!

Jeff had a big project last night, painting the basement floor and stairs. A tricky business when you need to coordinate turning off lights and not being able to get back to things once they are painted in. We chose a blue (Deep Twilight Blue to be exact) to add a bit of color to the basement.

Rolling so fast he is a blur!

The painter at his post

It really cleans up the space. You wouldn't think a chipped, banged up floor would affect a space so much! I can't wait to see the dried product tonight! Here is a before and in progress of the utility side of the basement:

Before the white paint on the walls and the blue floor

In progress with white paint and blue floor. I will get a better picture once it's dry

Jeff also painted the stairs to the basement. Unfortunately, I do not have a before picture of just the stairs. You can kind of see the top step in this picture:

 Take my word on it they were gray and dingy. The kind of dingy that won't go away, no matter how many times you mop, and mop them we did. The best option: fresh paint!

 You can tell, we have not done the basement walls in the "finished" half of the basement yet. Trust me that is on the list! Jeff hopes to get the walls painted in the basement and I would like to get another coat of the ice blue on the walls of the side entry. You can also see in this stair picture where we need to put in a threshold at the edge of the tile. The previous owners tiled, but never put the thresholds in between the tile and the stairs to finish the project. 

My project last night was much less satisfying. I painted the first coat of white on the bathroom trim.

 It's hard to tell between my progress picture and my 1st coat picture, so I am comparing it to the before picture for the best effect. I can't wait to see how it looks with the new knobs and handles I bought!

I removed all of the doors and drawers from the kitchen cabinets yesterday. 

Here is the before from our first day in the house.**

** Notice under the right hand upper cabinet the beige square that is not yellow like the rest of the wall under the cabinet. This is because that was where their microwave was, and why would you paint behind the microwave?**

Exhibit A

Yep, that happened.

Here is the current state of the kitchen. I cut in with new kitchen color (the gray) while the bathroom wall paint was drying on Sunday, so there is still a ways to go! 

I know this was a long post, but it was mostly pictures. There are so many changes happening at the house with every work day or evening we put in and it is so exciting! The obnoxious insurance under writer who came to the house yesterday said "there is something to be said for professional painters.Your time is worth something." Other than the fact that professionals cost money, and money doesn't grow on trees, I am having too much fun doing the work to pay someone else to do it. In the end, the house will be so special to Jeff and I because we did the work ourselves.