Monday, September 15, 2008

Breaking our promise

I think we have a good excuse. We really had planned to get a ton of stuff done. We promised. We were committed. We were motivated.

And then we were hurt.

Actually, Adam was hurt. He threw his back out at work on Friday. And then we were wet. On that front we were very lucky. I think Ike hit Arkansas as a tropical storm and quickly became a tropical depression. The winds were 50 mph or so, but no trees or limbs lost and no other damage that we could see. Our outside kitties ducked out Saturday morning. Sneaky was in hiding by 10am, and our new recruit, little Bella, ran off after her early morning visit with the vet. (Clean bill of health, btw. She's about 3 and has some scars and broken teeth from life on the streets, but otherwise ok, it seems.) They both came out yesterday evening when the coast was clear.

At any rate, I dedicated Saturday morning to bathing the dog, filling in all the backyard holes and tying down anything that might fly away.

The rain didn't come until later in the afternoon, and it was gone by Sunday morning. I got all the supplies to paint the porch ceiling and install the crown, but we decided to wait until everything was totally dry. So I focused my efforts elsewhere.

Sunday's beautiful, breezy, fresh and clean air meant we could turn off the a/c and open the windows. I mopped and finally unpacked boxes of pictures and trinkets.

I was hesitant to put holes in the walls, but I got over it. Yes, we have lived here 6 months and only just now are we getting around to hanging things on the walls. I also bought a new runner for the kitchen.

Doesn't it look lived in now?
My mother just bought the same rug, so she let us give it a test run before I bought it. And my favorite poster-- a watercolor that my mother did when I was little-- finally got a frame. Oh yeah; the sad little laundry room also got a burst of, er, neutral with some curtains.
That little tragedy of a room is going to have to get painted very, very soon. One day, it will have slate floor tiles. At the moment, though, our washing machine dances out into the middle of the room whenever it has a slightly less than full load. I know part of this will be fixed with better leveling, but I'm pretty sure the washer is on its way out. I'm shopping the scratch and dent stores. Until then, the room will remain the tragic mutant of this house. No love.

5 comments:

Christine@Oliver's Bungalow said...

That rug looks great in your kitchen!

As for your laundry room walls, we had the same kind of paneling in the back of our kitchen cabinets, and they painted up beautifully. A professional painter told us we would have to lightly sand them first, and we did test spots- sanded and unsanded, and decided the unsanded would work just fine. We did a layer of kilz2, then because they are cabinets, we gave them two coats of oil paint.

-Christine

Amalie said...

Sweet-- that was the hope. If it was real wood, like knotty pine or something, I'd take it down and sell it or give it away. But this is that printed stuff. And, I've got a ton of sample quarts of paint from testing the living room, dining room and kitchen. Maybe I'll make a lovely custom green or yellow-- I even considered painting striped with the veery subtly different greens we tested. I dunno. Granted, I won't be able to buy more of a homeblend custom mix, but at least I won't be out any money!

Melinda said...

Don't feel bad - 6 months is nothing. We have lived in our house 2 years now and still very few frames are on the wall...the hubby won't let me do it and yet, for some reason, he never has time to do it. : (

The rug looks great by the way!

Karen Anne said...

The kitchen looks great! My fav colors, too :-)

I have "rec room" paneling in my living room/dining room. Does yours have the slightly rough surface where there's "grain," and a rough surface on the divisions between the boards? I have been stalling on doing anything to it for fear of it looking awful, well, more awful :-)

Amalie said...

Hmmm. I'm trying to remember-- I don't think the "grain" is rough, but I think maybe the space between the "panels" is...I'm hoping to tackle the painting end of this soon, as I'm not sure I can stand looking at it any longer.

And thanks, everyone, for the kitchen love-- you all know it's been the everlasting project for us. Someday, I will have new cabinet doors and I will be happy. And, hopefully, that day will come soon!