One step closer...

I spent the past weekend painting my room.  Friday evening I painted the ceiling and the only thing I have to say about that is "Never again!".  The ceiling has a popcorn finish to it and while that wasn't the hard part, barely any popcorn came off.  The hard part was looking up while trying to roll, not drip paint on your face and use muscles that have never been touched.  Thank goodness the paint rolls on pink (but dries white) so I could tell where I already painted or I would never have survived it.  On Saturday I was able to get the primer on the walls and the joy of painting started Sunday.

When I first started cutting in around the ceiling I was getting a little worried that the color was going to dry too dark but I had faith that it would be alright.  I really do enjoy painting, as long as it's not white.  I like to watch the wall transform with the new color.  It's liked of like my love of hand-dyed yarns.  I love watching the different colors appear as I start to knit (at least knitting is easier on the body).  I am very happy with how the color dried.

Depending on the light it can look a little darker.

My wonderful DH told me today that the flooring is all arranged.  I picked out a beautiful Maple flooring that I thought would look great with the paint and help to keep the room light and airy.  The flooring will be similar to this picture:

Decisions, decisions....

DH's friend Jay was here today to repair my drywall.  He did a FABULOUS job!!!!  Right now the mud is still drying on the walls, so Jay is supposed to be back on Monday to finish the sanding and take out the baseboards since we'll be putting in new ones when we do the floor.  He did such a great job that once it's dry you'll never know I had a hole in the wall.  Jay even installed all the new outlets for me (insert happy dance).  I will be able to start painting next weekend!!

Jay is a contractor by trade and does lots of custom work.  He left me a bucket, yes a bucket, of floor samples to choose the new flooring for my room.  This may be harder then choosing the paint color. 
Here are the choices in laminate flooring:

Here are the choices in engineered flooring:

And here are the choices in hardwood (in my dreams!):

Decisions, decisions.....

My First Mystery Shawl KAL

The other day I took a risk and signed up for my first mystery shawl KAL on Ravelry which starts April 1st.  Who knows what I was thinking because I have a number of projects on the needles already that I really need to finish, but what the heck.

Pattern: Spriteling  by designer Alice Yu
Needle Size 7 (4.5 mm)
Yarn: Pagewood Farm Denali Hand Dyed Sock Yarn in colorway Mississippi Mud

I was able to complete and block the swatch on Tuesday.  I'm quite happy with it so far.

I'm not quite sure why the colorway is called Mississippi Mud, it reminds me more of caramel.

Room update: confirmed that our friend will be here on Saturday for drywall repair and carpet removal.  He's also supposed to bring samples of the flooring.  My good friend K-Ro posted pictures of her room today and while I didn't know it at the time, apparently we have the same taste in wall coloring.  Great job on your room K-Ro!!

FINALLY....

....all the wallpaper is DOWN!!!!  Amazing how much brighter the room looks with no wallpaper.

Our friend Jerry is here today doing some work on the front and back doors and he took out the closet doors for me so I could get to all of the wallpaper.  I think I'll be throwing out these metal closet doors.

(pardon the laundry)   The extra door shown is replacing our side garage door which Jerry will do next weekend for us.  It's going to be a busy day around here next weekend - garage door being replaced, drywall fixed and carpet taken out.  Then I need to make a final decision on my wall color so I can get the painting done before the floor is installed.  I am still waiting for DH to bring home floor samples so I can choose the color.  Right now I'm kind of partial to 'Sparkling Lake'.  I'm planning on white Billy bookcases from IKEA and maybe splashes of red in the room.  But I could always change my mind.

Two down, almost there

Today I was able to get the wallpaper off another wall.  I think I'm getting better at this because it's going so much faster.  While I was at it today I also cleaned the window screen and did some window washing.

This week I'm going to slowly start moving my yarn totes out of their protected sanctuary and move them to our back Florida room so I can get to the rest of the walls and get the paper down.  I was also thinking about getting some space saver bags to store the extra linens in.  Has anyone tried them? Do you like them?  DH has a buddy who will be coming over to do the drywall repair, take out the carpet and put in the new flooring - SCORE!!!

On a different note, I saved a life today.  Yes, little ole me saved just one little life today.  On our patio we have lizards, lots of lizards (it's just part of life in Florida).  Two little guys caught my eye today because a) they were some pre-historic looking suckers and b) it looked like they were gonna have a tift over territory.

I watched these two guys posture and chase each other around the patio.  Then fight club started.  One poor guy was getting his little lizard butt handed to him and it was just breaking my heart.  So, I just had to go out and break up the fight - ya'll can fight, but I just don't want to know about it.  Live to fight another day little guys.

One down, three to go

This weekend I was able to finish one wall (the biggest wall) and about a third of another wall.  I figure over the next few weekends I'll be able to get it all done. I'm going to have DH take down the blinds this week so I can do the wall with the window this weekend.  Then I will need to move the yarn out so he can take down the closet doors so I can finish up.

 

Here's a shot of the dry wall repair that needs to be done.  This was what was hiding under a wallpaper patch.  On the other side of this wall is the washer/dryer in the garage and apparently before my DH bought the house there was an issue.  The repair job they did sucks so I'm either going to bribe my DD with home cooking to come fix it or my DH will have one of his friends repair it when they put in the flooring.

 

While pulling down the wallpaper I've been listening to some older CD's.  Sunday I pulled out my Jill West and Blues Attack "Code Blue" CD.  One year when I went to visit my folks while they were still living in Pittsburgh, they took me to see them at one of the bars downtown.  Apparently DD knew a lady who was dating someone in the band.  They were great and I highly recommend checking them out if you are ever in Pittsburgh.  I also was singing along to my Vinnie Jones - Respect CD.  Nothing like listening to "Bullet Tooth Tony" belting out the tunes.