Progress. Finally!

I have been a real slacker in posting lately, haven’t I?   

Between celebrating Christmas…yours was good, I hope…and working at the house in Hooterville, I haven’t had time to be on the computer much.

The weather has also continued to be most uncooperative for good picture taking inside the house so it has been difficult to get updated photos of the progress that were worth sharing.

No new photos = no new blog posts.

Significant progress has been made though!  People are already saying, “It doesn’t even look like the same house.”

Thank goodness it doesn’t!  That was my goal.  :)

Today I’ll give you a tiny sneak peak and hope the sun comes out long enough for me to get a lot of  decent pictures later this week.

The carpet and wood laminate floors are IN! 

I am very, very happy  with the laminate.  I agonized over picking a color.  I didn’t want anything that was too orange, too yellow, too red, too dark, too light or too busy.  It turned out to be just perfect.  Pretty much exactly how I hoped it would look.

Remember the foyer BEFORE?

Here’s the foyer AFTER!  I am doing the “Happy Dance” here people!   A pretty new door that lets in some natural light is on my wish list.

Although it is not showing up well in the photo, the wall color in the foyer is sort of a dark French vanilla (Valspar “Shoreline Haze”).  Even though I’m not usually fond of beige tones, I ended up really liking this color and used it in several places throughout the house.

Do you remember the “Hallway to Hell”?  How could you forget, right? It probably gave you nightmares after I showed it to you before.   It certainly gave me a few sleepless nights.

After…

We all know what a difference paint (and carpet) can make but when I compare the pictures of the hallway, it still amazes me.  WOWSERS!    Pay no attention to the hanging light fixture and doorbell chime, and missing electric outlet, and switch plate covers.  We’ve still got a few little details to finish up.  :)

Here’s the breakfast room BEFORE.  Ugh.

And “AFTER.”  I’m having an intense  love/hate relationship with this shade of green (Valspar “Panacea”).   Most of the time it comes off looking  just a little too “minty” for me.  But then  there are certain times of the day when it looks more “limey” and I like it better.   I’m waiting to see how it looks when I get furniture and artwork in here.  However,  don’t be surprised if I end up deciding to repaint at a later date but, for now, this color  will have to do because I still have 3 bathrooms, the laundry room and eventually the kitchen that need painting first!

I’d like to achieve a casual French country cottage look in the breakfast room using greens and blues.  The photo below (from the Better Homes & Gardens website) is my inspiration photo.  

Wait until you see the French country dining table and chairs I bought off of  Craigslist to use in the breakfast room.

And I’m anxious to show you the freshly painted and carpeted formal living and dining rooms, as well as my inspiration photo for the dining room but I’ll save those pictures  for another day.

OH!  I almost forgot.  We’ve also completely changed gears on our plans for the 2 old barns that needed significant rehab.  You might be just a wee bit surprised at what we decided to do.  Hint:  Gotta love Craigslist!  ;)