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If this, why not that?

Since we were going out of town for 8 days, we decided to have a protective coat put on our wood floors while we were gone. Which meant that while I was packing for a cruise and a Disney World trip, we were also moving out of the first floor of our house. Then I decided that after all that effort of getting furniture out of the way and taking pictures off walls, it was time to paint the living room. And if the living room was getting painted, we might as well paint the main floor bathroom too.  I should have taken "before" pictures!  We now have white instead of builder's beige ceilings in the living room, kitchen, and bathroom. And instead of scuffed up beige walls in the living room we have "paradise green" ones.  Oh, and those chevron chairs in the living room.  Target sent us two gray ottomans and gliders instead and that was a total pain in the rear to get fixed.  I'm glad to have them and am awaiting the magical email that says the chairs we sent back via UPS actually made it there so we can get our money back.  Ugg.  At least when we realized the rug no longer worked, we just stole the rug we had in the master bedroom and wah-lah!  Finished living room.
The trim got a new coat of paint and the stairwell looks so much better after getting the caulk and new paint it has needed for a while now. I did need to buy a couple new yellow pillows and white picture frames to replace the red ones above the mantle (which also got a new coat of paint) and the picture above our sofa. The lime green chairs got kicked to the basement with that picture and was the first art to hang in our basement. Yay, finally something on a wall down there!  While shopping for that picture I happened to find one for the basement bathroom as well.  Then I decided to add more art down there -- a NYC collage from Ikea and some posters along with a wall mural that gave Hubby and I our first experience with what it is like to hang wall paper.  We have a new found appreciation for people who do that for a living.  I know it's out there but if you aren't going to have fun in your basement, where are you going to hang crazy things on the walls?  

 
 I also decided the navy blue towels in the bathroom would be transferred to K and D's bathroom and I bought white ones for the bathroom downstairs. That bathroom seems so much brighter and happier now!  And M and I are super happy to have the house put back together again!  We just couldn't get the furniture all moved back before we left for our niece's wedding so it took a bit of patience on our part.  But it's better to put it back together nicely instead of just getting it done.  Forced us to do some major spring cleaning and organizing on the first floor!  Even little things, like a less cluttered book case in the den has a noticeable difference to me.  I decided to move most of my children's scrapbooks to their individual rooms.  That meant purchasing bookcases for K and M's rooms.  M picked out a book rack online that cost $159 + $20 shipping.  No way!  I felt the prompting that if we went to the local flea market instead, we would find something she liked.  And we did!  For only $23!  We used leftover paint from when we painted her bathroom and wa lah! Happy children, happy mommy.
I'm glad one thing led to another and we got lots of things done this way that had been low in the priority list but we had wanted to do for a while. Now to enjoy some beautiful spring weather and start on the yard work! Lol.

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