The House that Built Me Part 2

The second work weekend was very much less stressful than the first one. We drove down together and were able to get everything finished exactly on schedule.

Friday:
Arrived in Houston around dinnertime, went to Home Depot for supplies. I sanded and floated out any places the walls needed while Bean worked on cutting some trim pieces around the doorway between the breakfast nook and living room. You can see the pieces sitting against the wall in this after picture:

We don't have access to a compound-miter saw so we couldn't get the angles cut correctly, so we couldn't finish off the whole project. We went ahead and finished everything except that and left the supplies for it at the house. Surely there is a neighbor who can cut two pieces at an angle!

Saturday:
Bean primed the living room walls while I did another coat on the kitchen cabinets/fixed up several areas that needed it. Then he hung the cabinet doors while I touched up the living room trim. These pictures are really not very good. I guess I was so relived to be done, I rushed through them. Here's the kitchen looking into the breakfast nook. Notice the orange-ish color above the cabinets, and the not-orange colors in the breakfast area.

And another view of the kitchen. I put up a light texture on the walls above the cabinets where the border was- you could see the relief between the wall and the border that needed to be covered up, since the border wouldn't come down.

I painted the bottom half in the breakfast nook while Bean took a break. That's how nice this weekend was- he had time for a break, and I took an hour nap after that!
Notice how he keeps showing up in the pictures!
Saturday afternoon we painted the upper breakfast nook and living room the same color and cleaned up. From there, all we had to do was prime and paint the upper walls in the kitchen before Dad and Connie made it home. They came in and we were about 20 minutes away from being done! At least we were all cleaned up otherwise.

Here's the scarf that they found in France that will be hung on this wall. Since I had to mix the colors without being in Houston that first weekend, I had to just go with it and guess. I think the color came out ok, especially for being a shot in the dark. At this point it would be very easy to re-paint since we got all of the hard work out of the way.

I think Connie wants that wall as an accent wall and I think it would look good.

I hope that this project inspired them to put the work in on the rest of the house. It needs new countertops, floors, and paint. Plus they could really use an update in the master bedroom. And of course a new couch in the living room!!

But it's not my house to make all of those decisions so I need to learn just when to step away. I guess since Bean and I are always updating our house and looking for the next project, it's hard to fathom not doing a lick of work in 20 years. If they ever sell this house I will be very upset. Maybe I'll buy it myself and keep it as a vacation home. Or maybe Liz and Louis will buy it and I can visit it- she would be right up the road from her parents! These fantasies, sometimes they just get away from me.