House Renovations: Days 3-5

House Renovations: Days 3-5

• Sunday, May 5, 2013

WOW.

We have been SO crazy busy.

I'm almost never home anymore.

The majority of my time is spent working on the house.

We are hoping to move in on Saturday so we are trying to keep the renovations on track!

Here's an update on our life and the renovation...although most of our life is the renovation!

I realized this week that Jack Jack always picks up his food with his left hand.

This is his right hand, nice and clean:

 And notice his left hand...

Maybe he will be a lefty like Daddy! Who's surprised? He gets everything from Daddy.

This is Jack's face when I turn Dora on.

Good think he likes it so much since lately he has been watching a lot.

I sit him in the high chair and turn Dora on my iPhone so he can watch while I work.

Luckily he hasn't had to watch Dora for as many hours as I've been working on the house since so many people have been so nice to watch him for me.  A special thanks to Great Grandma Masters, Grandma Wallace, Aunt Jamie and Grandma & Grandpa Davis!

I think the worst part of renovating so far has been paint selection.

Paint Selection 101 is a post for another day but I'll share just a little bit today.

I was on the hunt for the perfect taupe/beige/cream color for Jack's nursery.

I was hoping to get something like this:

After all my hunting I could NOT find the perfect color.

These were my best three options and I didn't particularly care for any of them.

Finally I asked the experts at Kelly Moore.

What is your most popular beige color?

Wise Owl.

I went with it, bought a gallon (without sampling, *gasp!*) and guess what?

I LOVE IT. It's exactly what I was hunting for.

We've been to Lowe's more than once per day this last week

[I think this is a trademark of new homeowners]

and Jack has found a new [and what he seems to think is better] way to sit in the cart.

Don't even try to pull his leg through and make him straight.

He will immediately turn back to this.

We've had a few mishaps in renovation already.

The worst by far?

The guest bath paint job.

We started with pale yellow walls and were changing them to gray.

We didn't prime first because the yellow was so pale we assumed the gray would cover it without any problems.

Well.

After painting two coats the paint was just peeling off the wall and not even sticking in some spots.

What the heck?!

Not sticking near the edges...

What we realized after a lot of confusion is that the original pale yellow paint is high gloss.

I hadn't even thought to notice it nor would I have known it was a problem.

Apparently when painting over high gloss paint you have to sand the wall first

then prime

THEN paint.

We skipped two very important steps

hence why our paint was peeling.

At first I was really sad

My paint job ruined? :[

Then I was really mad.

My BFF Kallie & I spent forEVER painting this room!

and then. I was kind of excited [don't tell T]

You know why? My "gray" paint turned out looking pretty lavender.

I think because of the yellow layer underneath?

And I wasn't a big fan.

Soooo...since I used the whole gallon of paint I get to buy a new color when we start over!

It's sort of a blessing in disguise.

One that cost us around $50, mind you.

The remedy of this awful mistake?

PEEL the entire new layer of paint off.

Look how crazy this is.

My mom is hard at work peeling.

Have you ever seen anything so crazy?

If it all came off so easy, this would take just a few minutes

but near the edges you have to do some scraping.

Look at this huge wad of paint I just peeled off the wall.

I spent a good portion of the day Saturday peeling paint.

Look at all my paint droppings!

T & I spent a couple hours peeling the last big pieces on Saturday night.

It was a nightmare.

Thankfully, it's almost done and then it will be time to sand, prime, repaint. Aye.

Talk about set-back.

Oh! Guess who has discovered how to open cabinets and drawers?

This kid.

Nothing is safe.

According to Jack, anything in a drawer or cupboard must come out.

Dad Wallace spent several, several hours last week removing our popcorn ceilings.

It's not really fair that the only picture I took includes T because he helped with 1/2 a room haha!

He has a good excuse, I guess.

Work.

He is, after all, earning the money I'm quickly spending on renovations.

:]

This is what our kitchen currently looks like.

And my house was covered in sheets for a couple days.

This picture makes me proud.

It looks like a true work zone.

You should know choosing our family room paint color was also a nightmare.

After what seemed like 50 samples I just could not find the shade of gray I was hunting for.

It doesn't help that paint chips can be very deceiving.

The paint on the wall is the sample of this paint chip.

Yeah, I was confused too.

Not the color I was imagining.

This color was nixed immediately.

Luckily, I did finally find my perfect color on Friday.

It's a secret for now but I promise I'll reveal when you see the finished product!

Wallpaper in master bathroom?

Goodbye!

Sometimes, while other people are working, I take a quick selfie picture break.

Just so I can document that I really have been working.

The paint on my face and in my hair is proof.

Our little man is becoming a pro at army crawling.

Better late than never, we say!

He's after anything bright, shiny, or off-limits.

He tried really hard to pull this color-changing nightlight out of the wall.

No luck.

It has been super hot here in sunny California and Mom Wallace is so nice to let us take some of her drumsticks...my favorite!  Apparently it's Jack's favorite too :]

This face is the mark of a tasty drumstick.

Our new slogan?

The couple that paints together, stays together.

If it's true then we're going to be together for a very long time.

Like, say...for eternity?

We've been doing lots of painting.

PS Even if that slogan turns out to NOT be true, we'll still be together for eternity.

After all, we were sealed in the temple.

Guess who got a haircut?

Psst...it's like his second hair cut in seven days.

I may or may not have botched it the first time when I used scissors.

I had to redo it with clippers.

For the next few weeks, you will see my babe sporting spiky hair instead of his usual faux-hawk.

We got a good laugh at this floating head.

Aaaand, also.

I just have to have a quick brag session.

My little sister had senior ball last night and she was

STUNNING.

Somehow I got talked into taking a picture with her

...looking extra lovely in my painting get-up.

PS She is NOT taller than me.

It's the heels.

PS

Jai's senior ball was a masquerade ball!

How fun is that?!

Well, our day off is coming to an end.

Tomorrow it's back to the grind.

Thank goodness for the Sabbath.

PS On Saturday we also attended my nephew's baptism but I'm waiting for my sister-in-law to post pictures on her blog so I can steal them before I post about it :]