how to paint a room in a brand new house. part 1.

the before. and yes, that is a cabinet door on the counter. no we don't have a trap door in the island. chris ripped that off for us about 12 o clock one night, because it swings the wrong way. thanks cabinet guy.

step 1: suggest to your painter that you don't really know what color you want this room, so just leave it white.
step 2: realize after you moved in that white = this room ain't finished. then realize you paid a painter not to finish a room.
step 3: quit caring that the room isn't done because you have too many other projects to finish in your brand new house.
step 4: finish 37 other projects and realize you still don't like the white.
step 5: look online at other peoples' kitchens and realize you wish you had a different kitchen.
step 6: get cussed by your husband.
step 7: see a black kitchen you like.
step 8: google black room images about 45 times.
step 9: tell everybody you know you are going to paint your kitchen black.
step 10: get shot down by everybody you know, except your husband who surprisingly says this is a good idea.
step 11: go buy more paint.
step 12: wake up on a saturday and think you will knock this out in about 2 hours.
step 13:realize that its going to take more like 8 hours. painting a wall black, around stark white trim is not easy going.
step 14: take pictures of black kitchen. show them to everybody you know. tell them they were wrong.
step 15: take a night time picture. also be sure to get a good picture of your trash, because there is no door. which is convenient, but unsanitary.
step 16: take a daytime picture, but from the other direction. so you can't see directly into the trash.


step 17: take another picture from another angle. so you can't see the open air trash can at all. but you can see the cabinet door. now on the floor.step 18: be really happy you painted your kitchen black.
step 19: decide you really need to paint another room now.

it has been a while. obviously.

and since it has. we have accomplished a few things at the homestead. if i had done this post in a more timely fashion, i would have gone on and on about how much work it was. lucky for you i have the anesthetic of time, so you won't be subjected to all of that. just some nice pictures.

the yard no longer looks like this....
and looks more like this.
oh what a difference 100 bales of pine straw, 50 new plants, and about 170 plants from your old house can make.
this once, i am not exaggerating. we literally had at least that many plants. day lilies, iris, amaryllis, spirea, hydrangeas, some purple things that i am not sure of the name of and whose fate is yet to be determined, and a few other random things. my mom and i dug up all of these items, hauled them across the road to the new house. then my parents and i planted them. sounds fun, right?

this is about 1/25th of what we had going on....
somebody mentioned that i may be the worst tenant ever. basically because i moved out of a house we had lived in for 10 years. and then took everything in the yard too. this sounds like i am a gypsy or something, which may be true. but i took the plants because they were my great grandmother's, then my grandmother's, and some of my mother's. so i have a history with these plants. so i feel this is justified. plus i cleared it with the new residents beforehand. so fingers crossed everything blooms beautifully next spring. or i am moving it all back.

also if you think you don't see plants in those flower beds it is because we cut everything back before we planted it. so i am not faking that number.

stay tuned for more fun new house posts. like "how to repaint two rooms in your brand new house that just got painted 5 months ago".

finally

the porches have been stained. it should have been done probably 3 months ago, but you know. things happen. i couldn't hardly stand looking at what i deemed an unfinished porch. see the before.and now they look like this.closer, shall we?
we still have some small trim details to accomplish, but this is 100% better.i think i could have done a tad better with my color choices. and the dogs could wipe their feet. but what done is done. we will get another chance at it in about five years anyway.

fingers crossed that we may get some plants in the ground this weekend. more importantly, some pine straw on the ground. the dirt is keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelling me.

welcome to the augusta national

ok, not really. but it's just as good to us!

until yesterday, our yard looked like this. dirt. just dirt. no weeds. only dirt. hard dirt. dirty dirt. dirt that likes to come indoors. and its looked like this since, um, well lets see when did we start building this house? almost a year ago? ok so a year. of dirt.and this isn't the nice kind of dirt. this is more like clay. you need a tractor to cut through it. much like most other things that happen at this house, this clay is an anomaly. There is no clay is this part of the world. there is sand, everybody has sand. it drains well. clay does not. we have clay. as a result, chris has spent the past two weeks installing drain tiles and an expansive sprinkler system. and bringing in other dirt that is not so terrible. so our yard has looked even better with a series of trenches everywhere. which is a problem for low riding dogs such as ours.

so chris has spent all his energy and time installing 80 something sprinkler heads. i probably lost count while i was putting them together. nonetheless, he has worked himself past the point of his normal working himself to death. (p.s. he says hes ready to get back to farming, that is easier than landscaping). so yesterday i came home to this. hard work pays off.


i cannot even explain how wonderful it is to finally have something living in the yard. chris had to hire someone to help him cut and lay the sod. he didn't have the equipment for it, otherwise he would have done that himself too. he has pretty much done everything thing ALL BY HIMSELF. with the exception of a couple of days he had some help. he even grew the sod. he may have some sort of OCD thing going on for real.

there is no way. noooo way that we would have any of this if it weren't for chris. this stuff is crazy talk money, unless of course you grow the sod, grade the land, haul in free dirt, dig the drain tile, dig the trenches and install 80 plus sprinkler heads by yourself with some friends. so chris should be commended. he said he wants to move now. he's had it here.

the dogs say thanks.as a side note. when chris isn't digging ditches, he spends his free time growing cotton, soybeans, peanuts, corn and carrots.

doors open for mudboggin at 8 on saturday!

that's how i feel when i look at the yard.that photo was a couple of days ago. we have moved onto to this. which is actually a series of deep trenches, that irrigation is going in. see we need that to get the yard real wet for the mudboggin. i realize that is a small picture. but its all i had. and i didn't want you to miss out.
i am pretty sure we wouldn't be in this short of shape if chris didn't use these items to do yardwork with.that's three different tractors that he would just rotate out.

i currently have to park on the other side of the pond. chris said that was a good place for me to continue to park. yay!

we have curtains. and a pre-schooler

finally got two of the four sets of curtains up in the living room area. i believe they help!

check off 2 items from the list of about 425 things left to do. how are there so many in a new house?

and we shipped bo off to pre-k. how sad is that?

norman rockwell

i love him very much. take note. (if you are looking for a birthday gift for me, as my birthday month is approaching. there is a "tattoo artist" print out there that needs to live at my house.)
also note i have blinds. i am sure some of you were concerned.

also note the drawings. from chris. as in he drew them. points to me for putting them in the pink manly room. this area still needs some other items. fake deer head, etc. etc. lets don't get too mundane in here.

Elvis is in the house. literally.

i can't believe it's taken me this long to get this classy bathroom together. from now on i exclusively use only this bathroom. there's no shower, but i will deal.please note the picture where elvis is shirtless. we originally had this hung over the toilet. but moved it to the opposite wall. we figured the ladies could see it better that way. instead of the gents.here, you need a close up.


we swapped it with this one. which is my first picture in the elvis gallery collection. a gift from my mom's cousin who took the picture while he was a security guard at one of elvis' last shows. he was kind enough to give it to me. probably so i would just shut the hell up about it.


in doggie news. i got bessie the best new bed ever. smeagle promptly took it over.which resulted in this.don't worry. she remembered that she outweighs him by about 100 pounds.

the kitchen

a couple of shots of the kitchen. please note that i am boiling gumbo over on the stove. not a good thing to let boil over. especially on this flat top thing i have. easy clean my foot.note to self. get some curtains already. or put on the elvis sunglasses while in the kitchen at 6:00 p.m.

the dogs

made their first visit to the new house since we finished building. they were in doggie heaven. we haven't moved them permanently yet, to avoid them going to the actual doggie heaven by way of the NASCAR type highway that we live on. we will be implementing a wireless fence this week and weekend. that sounds like something i don't really want to be around for.

bessie is an excellent swimmer, despite her stature.smeagle prefers to stay far away from the water. and chris is basically his hero. so if chris is around, forget smeagle paying you any attention. i mean can't you tell?
this is pretty much the last time we saw these three. if anybody knows their whereabouts, please call us.
i figured they were occupied for a while, so i went inside to take some almost finished interior shots.

the living room bookcases, with minimal styling. i am sure it will all change.the dining room, almost done.the almost manly pink sitting room area.and i just have no words for this. no words.

can i get a fairy to send me back in time?

poof. here she is.so like any good oscar speech. i, of course, forgot to mention a key individual. it has been brought to my attention that i did not mention my sister. jodie. i would like to take this time to acknowledge that she spearheaded the organization of bo's closet. if anybody knows us as sisters, you of course know that she is the organized one. i prefer to leave things in a haphazard manner and hope for the best in remembering what is where. so thank you jodie for making sure that each of bo's shorts and shirts had a match, and if they didn't for not getting rid of them. even tho mom said you should. i couldn't have done it without you. or let me rephrase. i wouldn't have done it without you.

i also didn't mention our parents by name, because i mean who really wants their name all over a blog besides me (and jodie.)? but just to reemphasize, we would never be near moving into this house without the help of my parents, chris' parents and our neighbor. and all of our friends who have helped. i won't call out names here because i am sure i will leave one out and then here we go again with me needing to issue an apology via press conference.

so thank you all again.

i will leave you with a parting shot of myself that pretty much sums up how i feel everyday now.