finish decorating my house

rearranged furniture and hung up art. now we just need to paint some stuff and hang up a curtain.

The painter finished every room and the curtain installation is scheduled for April 2 – the day before my son’s 5th birthday party! I’m so excited that it will be done in time! I’ll be posting before & after pictures next week!

Ok, so my home is fine, there’s nothing really wrong with it, but it’s not what I want. I’m craving a warm, cosy sanctuary. Inviting and relaxed. Will require some time, effort and hard cash to get there. May take a while but I think it will be worth it. After all, getting home to a house that you really love will surely lift your mood after a stressful day.

technically, I dont have a house, but my friend and I are redecorating a little playhouse on her property. Its going to be decorated in a friendly cottage style. But we still need to do a lot, like paint and move furniture and stuff. We got a lot of great antiques at a church flea market for cheap!

Finish the small room by the end of February

Get a new kitchen this summer

Finish our bedroom also by the end of summer

We’ve lived in our home for 2 years and we have no curtains anywhere in the downstairs. At first we were waiting until we knew what we wanted. They after we got an estimate for what we wanted, we had to wait until we could afford it! Now – after a year of saving every month, I’ve order drapes for the dining room, living room, kitchen and foyer. I’ll be calling my painter this week to get the color on the walls (he’s fast and cheap and with two kids under 4 years old – it’d take me a year to get it done!). Installation is scheduled for mid March – just in time for my sons’ birthday parties the first week in April. Pictures to follow!

I keep umming and aahing about this one… yes, i’d love to have a beautifully decorated, lovely-looking home, but do i want to invest the time and money in doing it?

Our house is clean, and tidy, a little worn or tired in places, but nothing’s broken, and who knows – life changes (children hopefully!) will mean we’ll be forced into redecorating the spare room into a nursery.

So i think i’d prefer to spend my time with the people i care about. But then i spend time in my best friend’s beautiful home, with her beautiful family, and think “i want this! I want cushions and curtains that coordinate! i want my home to look comfortable and lived in and finished!”

I go home full of ideas and energy and then i sit down and look around me and think… one day i will decide on the colour of the living room and paint over the random swatches of colour in the corner by the window, but not today. Today i’ll bake cookies and take the dog to the park…

This is fun

it just ,makes you feel better to be in a home that says what you want it to say about you.

We moved from Connecticut to Virginia back in November ‘06. I started decorating right away. Some looks fine, some didn’t work out. And everything needs finishing!

So—tied in with my 1st Thing, FOCUS, I’m going to redo the dining room first. I’d painted it a bright sunny yellow, and I’m finding that its just too bright, too sunny. Looked great with the red Christmas decorations in December, but just too hot looking now that the weather has appreciably warmed. So I’ve switched to a paler, creamier yellow and already finding that easier to live with. Also, it didn’t start out to be the dining room, but the family room. The original dining room, in the front of the house, is a little too small and cozy for me, but will make a great TV watching/reading den. So the switch is on.

• Decide to make the family room the dining room.
• Choose & purchase new paint color.
• Start touching up plaster ceiling, paint 1st & 2nd wall
  coats creamy yellow, and paint one coat white moldings.
• Get enough painting done to move in hutch.

Goals for this week: Finish all of the dining room painting.