Sooooooo much better!!!!

Work hours since last post: 13. Pretty piddly, no?!? But...that's exactly what it takes for two people to get two layers of paint on a room (with lots of door and window frames, small corners, and NO paint tape!)...since that's pretty much all that we've accomplished this week.

We are slowly getting back to work and decided to start with our office re-do. Although we were 100% on board with repainting, I think our crazy blue blunder had us a little paralyzed in our decision-making abilities. After sleeping with the paint wheel under my pillow for a week (for inspiration) and a few hours in Anderson Paints, (talking to the salesman who thought we were insanely indecisive...but who was very helpful and even eliminated some choices from our stack for "personal taste." His personal taste. Not ours. But, hey, we were just happy to have less to choose from) we came back to the surface with Benjamin Moore Silvery Blue. Just like the name implies, it's definitely blue but has strong gray-ish undertones, which makes a perfect combination on four walls in a small room.

It's just what we were looking for and is so incredibly better. It's actually a bit more blue in person, but this is an idea of what we landed on.

We completely (maybe?) learned our lesson on this one. A color might be a pretty color on a 1x1 inch square of paper...or even on a 2x2 foot wall patch, but a "pure" color - any one in the spectrum - is pretty out of control when it's on all four walls of a room. We were initially super worried that our new choice would look gray and dull, but once the crazy old blue was completely covered...this blue is just right. We've learned not to fear the gray.

Funny story to prove our point. I discovered how helpful it is to google (shout out to my brother) prospective paint colors and see what it looks like in some room examples. I checked out Silvery Blue and ended up at this site discussing how to pick a blue room color. Low and behold...they are directly comparing our first and second attempts at a blue room. (They actually name Highland Breeze in the article, but we picked the color shown right above it - Morning Glory.) They're right on with their analysis - blue-blue could absolutely be considered "vibrating" while our gray-blue is soothing and peaceful.

So, now that you've seen how great it looks in the room (at least we think so!), here's a side-by-side comparison. I included a shot of our hallway in the last post, and it really highlighted the "glow" we had at night. Here are both hallway shots - before and after. Also called crazy-makes-me-twitch-a-little meets just right...

Before:

After:

Since I am now so grateful to sites that named walls colors for others to search, here's my quick shout-out: Benjamin Moore Silvery Blue....calm and beautiful. Benjamin Moore Morning Glory...I'm sure it has its place, but be careful!!!

Another short break for Thanksgiving - then we're on to the hallway and master bedroom so we can get the flooring started soon!

A Virtual To-Do List

Hours since last post: Who knows?!? We got too busy to keep count....

BUT...since the last post we successfully housed 11 people for the weekend (with another 5 of us staying at the condo), which means that it was cleaned, organized, tool-free, and fully functional for at least 3 days. And then we took, oh, a week and half off. So now we're looking ahead to the next goal. (I don't do well without goals and endpoints. Reality TV is just too tempting.)

By the end of last Christmas, we had a wedding date set and I figured that it would be the last time I decorated my condo for the holidays. I took a trillion pictures of my decorations, teared up a little (lot) when the last ornament was taken down, and said a bittersweet little farewell to the last of five Christmas seasons in my bachelorette pad. This is not to be repeated!! Hence our new goal...be finished with enough of the work upstairs to semi-move in and celebrate the season in our new/old home.

(On a side not, this is quite similar to the situation we stumbled upon a few weeks ago, when we realized that all of our fall/winter clothes had been taken over the Villa with the expectation that we'd be moved in by the time we would need them. Aren't we just the cutest little over-optimists?!? Sigh, back to the Beach House they all went...)

To accomplish this lofty goal, here's what we need to do (yes, this list is much more for ourselves than for anyone who might be reading this...):

1. Master bedroom

• REPAINT!!! We were pretty disappointed with the "wait, what color is this?" boring room. Back to the drawing boards, but now with a much better idea of what we want.
• Replace the vanity and sink in the dressing area. I'm pretty excited about my idea for this area, but it's going to take a little bit of antiquing and perhaps some craigslist-ing.
• Paint the dressing area and closet.

2. Yellow "project room"

• The most finished room...just paint and replace the grate for the heat duct.

3. Blue "office"

• The verdict is in....repaint. We tried. We really, really did. Sometimes I love it and sometimes I absolutely hate it. Even my eternally optimistic husband broke down and hinted that maybe we should consider another color for the room...and I knew by the speed of my return to www.benjaminmoore.com to scour for new colors that this room just wasn't meant to stay. (See #5 to see the color in it's glowing glory. I think I'd love it if it actually did look like the above picture.)

4. Bathroom

She's looking good, but there are still many things to do, including:

• Refinish the door
• Paint and replace the baseboards
• Replace knobs on vanity
• Replace sink
• Replace hardware in tub
• Cut, replace, and paint trim
• Fix minor leak in toilet (it runs on and off)
• Install towel hangers for bath and hand towels

5. Hallway

• Paint. The color is already selected (the master bedroom reject color, which is lovely for a hallway neutral). The tricky part will just be the stairway. I may have told Jeff that I'd rather not be around to watch while he climbs up on his ladder contraption to paint the high ceilings. His response..."Well, would you rather hear me scream on the way down and get help or find me hours later on the floor after I don't come home?" Yeah, I'll be there with 9-1 already dialed on the phone. (Mom, I'm totally kidding - we'll be completely safe.)
• By the way...from this perspective you can see how much our blue "glows" in darker lighting. Yep. Gotta go.

6. All over

• Floors - may the battle of carpet vs. hardwood begin!
• Freshen up the light fixtures
• New blinds
• Refinish all the doors one by one (including plugging the dead bolt holes from way back in the rental-room days)

See, not much to do at all! (Ahhh!!!!) We'll totally be moved in by Christmas...