Week 4: A Horse (or room) of A Different Color

Task #5: Room Rennovations

Have we mentioned yet that the former owners painted everything in the room one color?  Trim, walls, nails, outlets...everything.  So in the master bedroom everything is pink.  Great for the girly girls, but not exactly fitting for Matt.  This past weekend we focused on refreshing the master bedroom.  This involved cleaning the walls, taping, spackling, sanding, painting, and carpet selection.  Can you tell from the picture where the bed used to be?  Don't worry, we're replacing the carpet.  (We went to Home Depot and picked up some samples, but have not decided on one yet.  We are currently planning on using Martha Stewart Living carpet since HD has a special on it right now.)

First task was painting prep.  While removing all nails/hooks from the wall and taping the perimeter, we discovered 2 large anchors in the wall.  There were two options here: 1) leave them in the wall and paint over them (what the former owners decided to do) or 2) take them out.  We went for option 2 and what we didn't realize, was that there was a bulge in the device that caused it to rip open the dry wall as we pulled it out.  How this got in the wall without creating any damage was a little beyond me.  After some spackle and sandpaper though, we were ready to paint.

Matt and I have gotten into a good rythmn were I cut in (paint around the edges of the wall) and Matt follows behind with a roller.  The paint we chose for the master bedroom is a greyish-blue.  For those interested, we used Flat Enamel Behr "Manhattan Mist".  When researching paint, there were a few complaints about the quality of Behr.  We, however, have no complaints so far.  Rolls on easily and evenly.

We plan to paint the trim white in the next couple of weekends.  And for those who don't know yet, Matt and I also got engaged this weekend!!  So it was a pretty busy weekend for us. :-)

Week 3: Here and there

Task #4: Yard Maintenance etc.

Fortunately the prior owners were kind enough to keep the lawn in decent shape before they vacated completely. Now that a few weeks have gone by under new ownership, the lawn is beginning to look a bit amazon-like. I figured before I upset the neighbors, I should be a good citizen and get this situation under control. After some research, a few conversations with family and friends, and a helpful review from consumer reports (and a wild goose chase to 4 different Ace hardware stores), I purchased a Toro Super Recycler self propelled mower (#20092 for those interested). It looks like I may have gotten the last one of this model in DuPage County.



Matt mowing the front yard, trying to beat the sun going down.

 The other item that needed to be seriously addressed was the wild bushes growing all around the house. My inspector had warned me that bushes too close to the house would hold in moisture around the foundation (not recommended), and pruning them back would help with this. I picked up a Black and Decker electric hedger; they run about $70 and are actually very fun to use (I had never used one).  30 minutes into pruning I had 6 scalped bushes and a huge mess to clean up, not a bad start.