Weekend projects

I got the fireplace cover painted finally. I was so tired of that flashy brass shining in my eyes!  The black really toned it down and makes it looks like it belongs in the room now.  A $5. can of spray paint saved me from going out and spending $200 or more on a new fireplace cover.

Here are the before and afters.

BEFORE

AFTER

I am still waiting to get the mantle put on it, then I will hang my Christmas stockings!

I also spent the weekend priming and painting these shelves my dad made me.  He got the wood from his farm.  I got the little brackets to hold it up from Lowes.

I also finished painting the wood half of the wall this weekend, too!  The yellow and white look so nice together.  Yellow color is Valspar Sugar Cookie.  White is Olympic VOC free Delicate White.

I got a picture from from a yard sale about 10 years ago and it was painted gold. I never did anything with it and it's just been sitting around all this time.  So I got the idea to make a chalkboard out of it.  I stripped all the paint off of it yesterday and now I am going to stain it dark walnut.  I have a piece of board I got from Lowes that I need to cut to the size of the frame and paint it with chalkboard  paint.  I'm going to put it in the kitchen over the hutch.

Bedroom before & after

I must say, I am in love with my walnut floors.  They really transformed this house.  This is the before and after shot of my bedroom.  I still have a lot I want to do to it.

Here is my little list of things I still want.

• White round bed side table for other side of bed.
• 2 bed side lamps
• Throw rug
• Picture or something on the wall over the bed

The walls are a light sage green.  The color is so calming and relaxing for a bedroom.  It turned out just like I imagined.  They compliment the dark walnut floors, too.  If you have any decorating ideas or anything,  just let me know!

Floors are being installed

They are putting the flooring in today! Yay!  It is going to take them 2 days instead of 1 like they had thought. I was going to wait until they were finished and take before and after pics, but I can't wait, so I just ran in there and snapped a couple of pics while they are out at lunch.

Flooring arrived

Here it is, the flooring is now sitting in my living room.  We removed the carpet and baseboards this weekend.   I also did a lot of painting, but still have so much left to do.  I was told today they are pretty sure it will only take one day to install the wood.  Woohooo!  I will probably move in Friday or Saturday.  It will be so nice to finally live in my new home.  I'll take lots of pics once the flooring is in!

Final flooring decision

Ok, I just called the store and told them I am definitely going with the walnut!  This is it, I made up my mind, there is no turning back now.  Here are the samples they gave me.  I think the cherry sort of clashes with the red brick fireplace. The brown is more neutral and works with the fireplace and wall color better.

Thursday is the big day, I will have hardwood floors! Yay!

Still floor shopping..

Ok, so I am having second thoughts right before it is time to put these floors in.  I went back to the store today and they showed me some Walnut samples and I really like them. So I told them to give me one more day to decide. I'm taking the floor samples to my house tomorrow to see how they look.

This is what I was originally looking for is something similar to this.
These are walnut hardwood floors, 5 inches wide.

Cherry or Walnut?

Flooring

I don't have pics of my actual flooring I'm buying yet, they won't be doing the floors until next week.  I thought I would post some pics of how they will sort of look.  When I first get them, they will be light.  Over time the American Cherry will darken from the sunlight.  I was told within just 3 mths I will be able to tell a change in the color.  Two years and there will be a significant darkening.  There is no stain or anything on them, just the natural cherry.

They will be pretty light like this at first with a reddish tint...

These are also American Cherry and look quite light when first put in..

Here is how it looks as it darkens..

And over the years...

I will take pics as soon as the hardwood is installed!

Garden Shed Inspiration

I have these 2 little garden sheds in my backyard that came with the house.  The larger one has air conditioning,  lights and electrical outlets in it.  I will use that one for my little projects.  The smaller one doesn't have lights or anything, but it's really nice inside.

I thought I would get some ideas for what all I can do with them, since I've never had a garden shed before.  I found some really neat pictures of other peoples garden sheds and how they fixed them up.

I would love to plant some little flowers all around them and I am planning on putting a little garden right between them. I don't like the metal door on the big one, it's sort of hard to open, so I may just replace it with regular doors like the one on the smaller shed.

I could paint them different colors since I'm not real fond of the hunter green trim on them.

Here are the inspiration pics I found.

Adorable, eh?

And if you really want to cozy them up, you could do something really neat like this.

Quite amazing :)

I will not tackle this project until next year when the weather warms up, but it's fun to get different ideas.

I can't wait to plant my garden and use my yard!

Right now it's filled with leaves from the gazillion trees around the house.

_____

I did get over to my house this weekend and paint some.  I got my living room painted. It's an off white sort of  cream color. It's called Crumb Cookie (Olympic No VOC).

My floors will not get put down until November 12th, so I am hoping to have all the painting done in the hallway and bedrooms by then.  It seems like I will never get to move in, but I know this time will fly and I will finally be in my own home sweet home.