can we paint it?

Yes, we can!  Our guest room became a big ol' catch all over the past two years.  A couple of months back I fell in looove with Martha Stewart's Hummingbird Blue paint color.

I thought the walls in the guest room were the perfect place for this paint to live out its days.  The task seemed pretty simple- move furniture out, paint, move furniture in.  Plus, the guest room is the smallest room of the house so painting it would be a cinch!  Remember that line up top about how this room had become a catch all?  Yeah... this room re-model wasn't to be as much of a cinch as I had hoped for.

Last Saturday afternoon we headed to Home Depot for a gallon of the pretty bird paint, roller pad things (you know- not the actual roller you hold in your hand but the part that soaks up the paint) & painters tape & then headed over to the dollar store for the rest.  Man, I love the dollar store- you can find anything there!  Even tuna fish & cracker snack packs which I was so excited to find once only to really (!!!) regret it a few hours later...

We got home & attacked the room.  Holy CRAP, it was full of so many things.  Bed, bookshelves, tvs, luggage, fabric... oy vay.

I really don't feel like the hideous-ness of the original blue on the walls can really shine through in these pictures.  But, believe me- grote to the max.  Like a baby boy afghan from the 80s in the dullest blue you could imagine spit up everywhere.

We moved everything out of the room, taking half of it to the garage (lots of that would find its resting place in the dumpster) & stacking the rest throughout the house, trying to leave a path of safety.  Hands down, this was the hardest part of the re-model.  Heather & I both decided that we're never moving again until we can hire professional movers.  WORD.
But, alas- the room was empty!

Except for this mother.  Anybody want it?

We took a break from painting for a late dinner at our favorite local pizza shop, Rainieros.  YUM!  We love this place- it's got good food & is just so much fun to go to & chat with the people who work there, & the other patrons, about the town & everything that's going on here.  I heart local, independently owned establishments.  If you live nearby, go to Rainieros!  You won't be disappointed.

The next day we finished up the painting & got everything back in it's proper place around the house in time to fall into bed for the night.

The walls look a bit bluer in person.

As of today, this bookshelf & desk (in birch effect) from IKEA are in the room along with lots of other items (fabric, books, etc.) that are in boxes waiting to be put onto the bookshelf.  I'd like to get some fun baskets to put a lot of our sewing stuff in to keep it all very organized.  We also are going to put a futon in this room (along the wall pictured above) but we need to sand it & paint it white first.  &, of course, there's the super fun task of hanging curtains & pictures, buying throw pillows, looking for a fun new desk chair & maybe an area rug for the new space.  Yesssssssss!

I am SO proud of us for getting all of this done last weekend!!!  Ok, so I know & accept that I'm a complete & total cornball but I am just always so giddy at the idea that we OWN our own home!  & for two years now!  When I was a little girl, I used to lay awake in bed at night thinking of the house that my mom would buy some day &  how much we would love that we had a house to live in & decorate & make our own.  She did buy that house the year she turned 50, when I was 20, & the first thing we did was to paint the walls- because we COULD for the first time in both of our lives!  :)  So, being not yet 30 & owning a home is a pretty big deal for me.  & I know I appreciate it more because I really understand what it feels like to not have your own house.  But, as my mom always reminded us growing up- we have a home, we just need a house to put it in.  Amen, mom.  Amen.