We hired the same painters who helped us paint our first home to help us paint some rooms in our new house this week. We're DIY-ers through and through, but we also know our weaknesses. We're not good at painting walls and trim, and did I mention we hate doing it? We do! I could paint pretty pictures on canvas all day but stick a roller in my hand and I turn into a major grouch. These painters do a great job and are super affordable, so we feel like it's money well spent.
We picked out some paint colors on Monday, and they got started today. I literally did a little jig when I came over tonight after work and saw the built-in cabinets primed and ready for white paint. Some awkward white girl dancing was involved. Fun fact: I used to be on a traveling clogging team when I was a little girl and sometimes I can't help but break into some of my favorite clogging steps from back in the day. It's like riding a bike. ;)
*Please forgive the horrible iPhone photos– it was all I had with me and we do these projects at night since we have to work during the day! You can follow along with us on Instagram under JordanG106.
Now that the cabinets are primed, they will be painted with Sherwin Williams Pure White. When comparing samples at the paint store, it seemed the closest to a pure white to me. Some were too creamy, and others were too blue. It really is tough to pick out the perfect white, so I hope I got it right with this choice!
Despite the terrible lighting below, you can see that the painters have already finished the living room. We liked the color of our first home so much (Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter) that we decided to use it again for the main living areas in the new house. I know it's hard to tell, but it really looks so much better than the yellow-y beige they had before, which you can see in that wall to the right. As my mom texted me after I sent her this photo, the new color makes the wood floors look so much richer!
We stayed at the house really late last night working on not-so-fun projects, like scrubbing the kitchen cabinets and drawers as hard as I could to remove the grime. The previous owners weren't a super messy family or anything, but they didn't really deep clean when they moved so everything needs a really good scrub.
I opened up all of these cabinets to see what it might look like if I took off the doors and made them open shelving, like I did in our first house. What do you think?
While I was scrubbing the cabinets, the husband was sanding down the texture on the walls of the kitchen so the painters can paint that area next. The texture looked a little something like this, and this technique was only used in the eat-in area of the kitchen, the dining room and guest bathroom. I'm guessing they used the texture to cover wallpaper, but I'm not a huge fan of how it looks. We used a sanding block to make the texture much more subtle before the coat of paint goes on this week.
When we first walked into the house when it was completely empty, we detected a faint pet odor in the house that I didn't notice when the previous owners lived there. A little Googling quickly taught us that hardwood floors soak up a lot of odors, so we decided to lay some baking soda down on top to soak up any smells and freshen up the house. We used a big broom to sweep it around and get it in all of the nooks and crannies. We let it sit overnight and used the shop-vac to vacuum up the powder the next day. It smells much better, and our plan to do this to the other rooms before we give them a good cleaning. There is so much to do before the big furniture comes on Friday– I'm predicting a lot of late nights this week!
I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with my to-do list and stress of moving earlier this week, but one peek at the newly painted walls and cabinets reminded me how much I love our new home and how blessed we are to have this opportunity. I know it's super important to remain thankful even though my right arm and lower back are really aching from scrubbing my heart out in the kitchen last night!
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On a separate topic, our neighbors to the north in Oklahoma are facing unimaginable destruction this week. I can't imagine what they are going through, and it is absolutely heartbreaking to watch the news coverage. Learn how you can help here.
We have had our share of tornadoes down here in the DFW area, and my mom even had a tornado tear the roof off parts of her elementary school in central Texas on Tuesday (thankfully she is fine). I decided to download the free Red Cross Tornado App, which was really helpful yesterday when we were under a tornado watch all day. It sends you live weather alerts depending on your location so you can be aware of the weather even if you aren't near a TV or radio. You might want to think about downloading it if you also live in an area that is prone to tornadoes.
* Focusing on our progress instead of the growing to-do list... *
