Closer than we think

Progress continues. All rooms except the bathrooms and stairwell are DONE PAINTED. The enormity of that fact is slowly dawning on us. The painting is winding down-- and, you see, since painting has consumed our every weekend since November 5th, that's a big deal-- and we are wrapping our minds around it. What do we do now? Well, there's plenty of things. But now the work is more likely to be in the details. And I absolutely LOVE the details.

This weekend I was experiencing some bizarre back spasms-- throbbing pain under my left shoulder blade when I bend a certain way-- so I was left to the low-impact things. I stripped the wallpaper out of our glorious built-in.

I left Patrick to paint the entire kitchen.

I swallowed a lot of Advil. And I wandered around taking pictures. There were lots of rooms, I realized, that I hadn't updated you all on since before Christmas. Progress has been made. With a bright snowy day outside, the light was cooperative, too.

As I mentioned last weekend, we painted the dining room. This might be my favorite color in the house.

Valspar Cliveden Gray Morning. The door with the latch leads to the basement.

There's a little porch out the door, there. The Eatin' Porch.

This is what the Dining Room looks like through the arch. The built-in lives just inside the arch, but you can't see it in this picture.

I took this one with my back to our front door:

The color is Behr Parmesan. I love the double doors. I can't wait to entertain here. I can't wait to LIVE here.

Inside the double-doors. We're calling this the Great Room. The wall on the right is where I traced flowers last weekend. The color is Behr Castle Stone.

Upstairs, things have been done for awhile now.

First, we have a thoroughly regrettable color choice. This is Behr Pear, and it should be avoided like the plague. EW.

We all have those occasional color gaffes, right? What were we thinking?

Patrick stripped the carpet out of here last weekend.

Next weekend, the floor gets refinished.

This is our bedroom, and I'm in love.

The color is Behr Limelight, which isn't lime-y at all, but more of a soft lichen color. I love the closets. Remember what they used to look like?

And there you have it. Our House So Far.

Next weekend, we're again enslaving my gracious father-in-law for some more Guy Work, including dispatching the last of the carpets and hooking up a working stove in our downstairs kitchen. Woot! I'm going to paint baseboards and hope my back heals itself. Soon.