The One Thing I Will NEVER Do To My House

After telling you I was ordering my kitchen cabinets- which after much delay due to measurement issues were apparently just ordered yesterday-I wanted to have something tangible to show you for some progress in the kitchen. Annnd My best friend was almost excited as I was about ordering the cabinets (she has seen my kitchen in person.)  She was going on vacation the day after I ordered them and I thought, I am going to take down the wallpaper while she's gone and she will be so surprised when she gets back! She is an awesome cheering section and since she has 2 little ones she is fully appreciating what I am going through with my kitchen.

 So the wallpaper matched the rest of the kitchen. Yellow and blue stripes. Thankfully only on the sofit (which is only on 3 walls) but still ugly.

This picture also highlights our dire need for some cabinets around the fridge. We will be putting in a cabinet over the fridge and a tall pantry next to it. I CAN'T WAIT! 

Anyways, back to the wallpaper. So after 3 days of working on it for several hours each day, I have made this much progress.

That's it.

So it is safe to say I will NEVER, EVER put wallpaper up in my house.

The wallpaper upstairs (in the guest room) came down so easily- especially compared to this- that I thought this would be easy. It's not. This stuff is vinyl and I have scored, steamed and scraped my way this far. It's like this one piece of wallpaper has 3 layers.  Grrr. So I am asking for all and any wallpaper removal tips you have. Please! I would like to have this down within the next week.

I have a furniture project in the works too. Hopefully I will have the to show you next week. We'll see.

~R

I'm Baaaaack!

So my little break went a little bit longer than I intended, but it was so nice to spend some time with my family (and friends that came to visit!) without worrying about trying to get some crazy project finished. That being said, I am *hopefully* ordering the kitchen cabinets tomorrow!! We decided to just replace the bottom cabinets (so that we can install the dishwasher!) and put the cabinets around the fridge for more storage. We can talk about all that later. I promised you a guest room update.

To be very honest I haven't touched it since the last time I posted. That means the stuff that is supposed to be hanging on the wall still is sitting on top of the dresser waiting to be hung but if we look back at our before pictures we have still come a long, long way!

So if you remember we had some really lovely wallpaper.

And some realllly red walls. That, once I went to paint them, I realized needed quite a bit of spackling.

Honestly, the walls should just come down and drywall put up but that costs more money than we had planned on spending right now. Someone patched all the walls but just the bottom halves and did a very poor job. So that is one of those projects that will get put on the "someday list."

Our camera is acting up so I don't have many After pictures for you. I think I need to sit down with the instruction manual -if I can find it- and try to get it fixed so I can take good pictures!

From the doorway:

 Back towards the doorway. These are "real-life pictures" people- laundry basket included!

Some of the stuff waiting to be hung up- including the other curtain rod and curtain. Whoops :)

Some $5 artwork from Goodwill.

So like I said- it's not finished but it's come a long way! Just having it painted the lighter color makes it feel so much bigger in there! Now that the room is mostly set up the kids LOVE to spend time in there. If Aleena disappears you can usually fins her curled up on the guest room bed. It's very funny!  Hopefully we'll talk again soon. I have a few things waiting for my attention. If I know you're waiting for new things to read it pushes me to get things done!!

~R