Life after the move

We moved. And it was a ton of work. And...the house needs more work than I originally thought. And...it's costing more money than I thought. And...taking more time than I thought.

Surprised??!!

After reading my last post pre-move, I think I was living in dream land where time is endless and money rains down from the money tree in our back yard. We have done some renovations, but it's definitely going to take more time and money than I had previously thought.

Here are a few of the painting projects we have tackled so far.

Interior Painting
We have painted the entire first floor living area/kitchen. That was a project that we hired out due to the size of the job. It would've taken us weeks to complete. The task included all the ceilings and walls. Here are some terrible before pictures (which reminds me I need to put together a pre-reno home tour)...

Can you see what we were dealing with?? Gold and brown walls and ceiling in the living area, forest green ceilings with maroon walls in the dining room and kitchen. Uff da (Minnesota thing). Our painter did a great job and completed the whole thing in 4 days...all-by-himself! One man. All by himself. It was amazing.

We love the new color. We went with Anew Gray from Sherwin Williams. It definitely feels more like us and brings modernizes it to the current decade. Here's a quick picture to show the huge transformation after...

Granted, the walls are not decorated and I haven't figured out a furniture layout. But the house is so much lighter, airier, and comfortable. I even like the oak trim better!!

I have to say this is the first time I've used Sherwin Williams and I love it. I used to go to the local large home improvement store and get the cheapest paint in order to save money. I was so wrong. Sherwin Williams paint might be a bit more expensive, but the quality is so much better and so is the color choices. I can't say enough great things about their paint.

Painting the Shutters

The siding is a light gray and the trim is white. And originally the shutters were also white. It was a lot of light colors. It basically looked like the same bland color. Nothing popped. (besides the ugly landscaping - a project for next summer). So my husband headed to Ace Hardware and picked up Rustoleum Ultra Cover primer and paint in semi-gloss black. After removing them, priming, painting, and re-installing, we had a whole new look! It adds a bit of class and updating.

We have also done some not exciting improvements including adding plexiglass window well covers, adding curtains and blinds to the main living area, and adding additional storage to the garage. On a more exciting note, we have also started painting the bedrooms and doing quite a bit of decorating.

Patience is not one of my stronger suits, but I'll definitely need it for this renovation! Pray for me...or more importantly, pray for my husband who has to help me with all of my big ideas!!