Updates and a few Sneak Peeks!

Well folks, things are wrapping up here at the Clark Castle.  Our renovation to-do list has been dwindling down to just a few more things, and then we'll be ready to sell.  Our realtor is chomping at the bit to list, and apparently it's a huge seller's market right now and our neighborhood is prime real estate, so when we list on May 1st, we'll be in the height of the season.  She doesn't think it'll be on the market two weeks.

It seems like everything is working out!  And I'm ready for it all to be done, you guys!  We've got a month to finish up the following list:

1. Finish landscaping front yard.  Replace dead peace lillies (that was try numero two after the snapdragons got a fungus and died) with new shrubs.  Weed like the dickens.  Mulch until you can't mulch no more.  I finally finished this on Sunday!  Whoo hoo!  Hopefully I will not have to do more than remulch when we list.
2. Landscape back yard - I basically just want to kill the fire ants and dig up the weeds in the already-created landscaping area around the tree in the backyard.  It's going to be a challenge which is why I have dodged it repeatedly, but this weekend I bought some established yellow hibiscus and hope to plant them next weekend, along with completing #4 and/or #6.
3. Get the horrible white McLazy paint job off the powder-room cabinets - Done! Pictures upcoming.
4. Test out the Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations Wood Finishing System on the powder room cabinets, to determine if it looks good enough to do everywhere else.
5. If 4 is a yes, apply Rustoleum to the bathroom cabinets (and maybe the kitchen cabinets, depending on how easy the former is).  If 4 is a no, figure something else out.
6. Strip the paint off the banister, sand the crap out of it, and repaint it so that it doesn't look like a 9 year-old painted it.  I've been stripping this for over a week (giving time in between for it to air out).  It got so gunky that I had to buy the paint stripper wash to get all of it off so I could see what's left, but that stuff needs massive ventilation so, yeah.  Learned that the hard way.  More on that story at 10.
7. Finish the white trim upstairs. This is mostly finished, but it needs one more coat.
8. Finish painting all the doors.  ALL THE DOORS.  Or at least all the ones upstairs, because they are the only ones left since all other 85 of them have already been painted.
9. Paint the laundry room cabinets
10. Paint the downstairs closets, which we can't really do until we complete items 1 and 2 from #10
11. Paint the garage, for the same reason
12. Sell everything we don't need, move everything out, and get it on the market!

That seems like a lot, but comparatively?  Not so much.

So, just a few sneak peeks at what's coming up!

 

Minor Update to Garden

Hi all!  It's been a while, but I have some new stuff to show you (finally).  Merry Christmas, here's your present!  :)

So if you remember from my previous garden post, I had to dead-head the snapdragons.  They were also extremely unruly and just flopping about (see picture below):

I was worried that I had waited too long to deadhead, and that I would be resigned to forever green bushes (which would be fine, as long as they didn't die).  Still, the area just looked unruly, like the snapdragons owned me.  I was not having it.

I tried a few avenues, and purchased a few "plant wranglers" online.  But they did not work, and Husband came through in the clench...with green chicken wire.

At first, I was reluctant.  But the result actually turned out gorgeous:

So I chicken-wired them on December 7th, fertilized them, and kept a close eye on their progress.  I didn't overwater, but I didn't underwater either.  I got lucky with a few hefty rains that kept them nice and moist.

Slowly, I started seeing some pink buds come back.  It started at the front, where the sun hits the bushes the most.  But now?  They're all blooming!

Forgive the leaves - it was windy the night before!

The ones at the front are still the most bloomy - this one below kicked out a set that rivaled how many blooms it had when I purchased it.

 

I think we have a winner, folks!

More garden updates to follow, hopefully over New Years weekend.

The Front Yard Garden, Part Two

So I took a break from the garden, mostly because we had stuff to do for a few weekends, and with it being dark an hour before I get home from work every day, it made weekday gardening impossible.  So, last weekend, I was determined to get a good bit of gardening done. 

My intent was to take the same work I'd done with the snapdragons and cast irons and continue the same theme around the front of the house.  Husband insisted that the front needed "some visual height" or whatever, so I did it for him if nothing else. 

Saturday morning, I went to the nursery to get more cast irons.  I'd also intended to go get 2-3 more snapdragon bushes to put around the mailbox, because that area needed to be spruced up badly.  Except the nursery I went to had crap for cast irons (they looked like they'd all been been on the losing end of a fight with a shiv and some hungry animals), and no snapdragons.  So I drove to the other nursery and voila, cast irons everywhere!  I also looked for some elephant ears to plant in the back yard (no, not the animal, but I know that's what you were thinking!), and ended up wasting a lot of time looking at palm trees instead.  Still no snapdragons, so I was starting to go into panic mode.

Then the lovely nursery guy was like, "These Cyclamids will do well for your winter garden, and they're on sale!" Done.  I bought 8 when I was sure I only needed 5, but I was sure I'd find a place for the other three somewhere.  (And I did.) 

Purchases complete, I drove home, prepared for some gardening!  I decided to start with the mailbox.  Why you ask?  Let me explain.

When we purchased the house, we did not have a mailbox.  Well, technically we were provided one, if you count a mailbox with a broken post laying in the middle of your newly-purchased yard as "provided".  Some jerkfaces must have decided that knocking down the McLazies' mailbox was a lesson learned.  (I honestly don't blame them, y'all.)  Regardless, we had to buy one of the cheap plastic ones, and then randomly knock the tiny, cheap piece of wood into the ground, where it wobbled perilously around every time you opened or closed the mailbox.  It needed an intervention.

So I dug up the area where I planned to place the new mailbox.  I do not have progress photos, because I was covered in dirt and my phone died twenty minutes into the process.  I only have after photos, but trust me.  It sucked.  At least this time, I had a wheelbarrow, so that was a definite improvement.  After I got rid of the crap topsoil and dug out enough good dirt to mix with the garden soil, I knocked the mailbox into its rightful place (with the butt of the shovel, because that's all I had on hand.  I'm a resourceful gal), then started adding the soil back.  To ensure the mailbox stayed in place, I hard-compacted the soil around the mailbox post and then wet the soil enough to make it stay put.  It worked, and apparently my mailman was extremely pleased, because he drove by at that time and looked at me like I'd just handed him some freshly-baked double chocolate chunk cookies.  He was like, "Yes!  This is good!  Your old mailbox was very wobby."  New favorite word.

Once the soil was down, I started planting the cyclamids.  By "planting", I mean arranging them just so, getting a ruler to ensure they were evenly spaced, then starting to dig more and discovering that there were about eleventy billion huge rocks down deeper than I had dug, making planting impossible.  Super awesome.

Those three loose rocks?  Dug them up.

Also dug up these four rocks.  ALL FROM ONE LOCATION.

 I took comfort in the knowledge that at least I wasn't digging up dead bodies.  I honestly wouldn't put it past the McLazies.

So anyhoo, I planted everything on Saturday and then once I was done, I realized I hadn't put enough of the soil in, so I had to take them out, put the rest of the soil in, and then repeat the process.  Then I spent an hour making the damn garden border, and mulching.  Final product?  Worth it, I think:

The mailman will be so pleased!

The best part so far is that they still haven't died yet.  It's been almost a whole week and they still seem really perky.  The pink one on the far right was laying down like it was dead yesterday, but this morning it was perkier than it was in this picture, so...way to play me, pink cylamid!  

The snapdragons are not faring as well.  I don't think we planted them with enough soil mixture, and apparently they needed a lot of aeration which doesn't work for clay soils (which I have).  Still, they are alive.  They just aren't budding...except for one.  

The rest of them look like this:

Sigh.  So I dead-headed them (which apparently means to cut the buds off once the flowers have spent), except I did so about a week past when they needed to be done.  Le sigh.

The only solace I can provide these poor fellas is that I have purchased a circular stake that will hold them up, so at least they'll look like they want to be alive instead of being spread out like a five year old who hasn't brushed their hair in six weeks.

While I was in prune-mode, I pruned all of the cast irons and the palm tree of any dead material.  Only green is demanded here at the Clark Castle. 

Before (before we even moved in, but you get the point.  There was yellow everywhere):

After:

Much better.

After all of this, I began to dig.  And dig.  And dig.

I dug up the random growth seen above at the bottom corner of the picture (which turned out to be a tuber of some kind, which looked enough like a daylily that I will now call it such).  I dug up some atrociously unruly weeds with roots deeper and wider than some trees.  I dug up a large (and this term doesn't do it justice, because it's everywhere) patch of clover-like groundcover, and raked up about ninety pounds of pine needles.  Basically, I turned this:

Into this:

Then I saw a snake come out at me from a burrow. It was a blind snake, so after my initial shock and thanks to Google, I realized we were cool and quietly got back to work, until I ran out of wheelbarrow room and couldn't move it because it was too heavy.  Good work, Taylor.  Now I refer my husband to the front yard to handle the removal of dirt.  This is why I have him.

And later that night, I discovered that I pinched a nerve somewhere that made the inside of my left arm all the way to my fingertips filled with shooting pain, pins and needles, and varying degrees of numbness. 

I hate you, gardening!  But I WILL PREVAIL. 

Part three, hopefully coming soon!  Here's a sneak peek of my plan:

Dost Mine Eyes Deceive Me?

No, they don't.  I'm actually posting!  One for an official "here's something we did" thing, and another will just be a little sneak peek. 

First, if I didn't say so already, the kitchen is completely unpacked and is in full use.  Pantry is cleaned out and sorted (or "sorted"); cabinets are full of utensils (except when Husband unloads the dishwasher and doesn't remember where I told him that the stuff goes, so it just sits on the counter until it magically disappears into its proper location.  Or, more accurate, just gets used and put back in the sink again); and I'm always cooking so the stove looks like a food bomb went off...every day.  Poor Husband (for he is House Husband).  I try, but most of the time, I'm like, "Eff it.  I'll clean it later."  And then later it's just magically clean again.  Must be the gnomes.

The master bathroom has received no actual renovation.  We haphazardly moved the stuff we needed from the living room into the bathroom (towels, bathroom products, etc), but it just ends up finding its resting place on the toilet we have yet to install upstairs.  The master vanity was used as a holding place for renovation materials, bathroom storage, and probably rat skeletons (I call him Skippy), while the very small powder room was being used as our primary getting-ready area.  However, given that the powder room is a) small and b) also contains the toilet, I got fed up a few weekends ago, and cleaned off all the crap items crap off the counters in the main area and decided we'd actually use the master vanity for its intended purpose: Having two people able to use an area at once to get ready.

There's not much to show, really, since this is just a temporary situation.  However, I took the mirror that is supposed to go in the powder room and gave it a temporary home in the main bathroom area.  I cannot describe to you how much that small of a mirror opens up this area.  (It's actually a large mirror - the mirror we will have to buy is going to be around 5 feet wide.)  Then I just cleaned up the rest of the area and moved our daily toiletries to the main area. 

Tada, or whatever.

It's a huge improvement over how it used to look, trust me.

In other news, Husband replaced the door to the bedroom (if by "replace" you mean, remove the door that was leaning up against this area and blocking it from our path, and actually installing a new door that wasn't falling apart).  We already had to remove the trim to put the granite in, so it's not that pretty.  Sigh.  But it will make it easier to paint this area without having to worry about painting around the trim, so I am Ms. Bright Side!

However, while this is technically considered a progression in renovation, installing this door has actually set us back.  Because installing the door meant tearing off the trim to the bedroom side as well, and motherf#$!, because I just painted it.  Grrrr.

I will attempt to maintain my calm.  Not successfully.

...

Onward to part two of my post: SNEAK PEEK!!!

Let's pretend that the area around the new (waiting-to-be-planted) pansies and Cast Irons isn't horrifying.  It will require extensive pruning, sweeping, and digging.  But I will have a SUPERAWESOME DUO helping me out!!!!!

I hope they're not looking at this picture, because they may rescind their invitation to help. 

Gulp.

But (hopefully) seriously!  I have the parents coming into town this weekend, and I'm totally going to put them to work.  Muhahahaha!!  They have offered to help me "plant some stuff in the front yard" which in their language probably meant "plant some stuff in the front yard", but to me meant "pull weeds, dig up gross ground, pour new soil, plant, and mulch." 

Moms can't read the internet, right?

Crap, I think they can.

Kitchen and Bath Update - Sneak Peeks

So it's taking everything in me NOT to post all of the progress pics.  Granite got installed yesterday, and it's so freaking gorgeous.  OMG, y'all.  You're gonna flip when you see it.  The tile is being installed today, and already from the progress pics Husband has been texting me, it's going to be amazing.  It's already just spectacularly gorgeous.  But I'm fighting it!!  I'm not going to post pics until it's totally done.  So, instead, I will tell you the dramas of the granite, and show you what we've purchased, and show you teeeny sneak peeks.

Dramas

So, as you probably remember from my previous post on what the kitchen would look like, that we were supposed to get this sink:

Me and Husband both loved it.  It was awesome double-fold, because in addition to being very aesthetically pleasing because it wasn't the generic rectangular sink, it was deep on the large size and shallower on the small side, making it easy to thaw hamburger or soak something if necessary without filling up an entire ginormous sink basin.  We were both psyched.  We confirmed twice the model number of the sink we wanted, plus pointed it out in a brochure, and nodded enthusiastically when the lady writing everything down said, "Oh yes!  That's a nice popular one."  Yes, it would be perfect.

Imagine Husband's surprise when the granite guys were laying it out, and there was a big rectangular hole. 

After my initial hissyfit, I realized that there was little-to-no chance of having it fixed with any expediency considering it took three weeks just to get them to cut the granite the first time.  So despite being super bummed about it, I put my big-girl pants on and told myself that hey!  It's granite!  Granite is pretty.  Plus the sink itself is larger than the one we ordered, and deeper, so I was focusing on the bonuses in the situation.

Except when I got home and saw the sink installed (Husband had not seen it yet), I kind of blanched again.  Because the sink wasn't the right size.  So, not only did they not cut the granite for the sink we ordered, they also didn't bring the sink we ordered, and they didn't bring the same size sink as the hole they cut for the granite.  What?  Really? So now the granite sticks out over the sink in a very noticeable way.  Fail.  (Husband called the guys today and they are "investigating if it will be easier to bring out the sink that fits, or cut the granite to fit".  The problem is, the hole they cut only fits one sink, and that sink is three inches shallower than the original sink we ordered.  Why would I want a six-inch-deep sink?  No.  So, there's going to be problems if they bring out the short sink.  I'm recommending for all vital body parts to remain intact, that they cut the granite to fit the bigger sink they brought us that I didn't really want anyway, but want more than the little sink they will probably try to bring out.  (Insert me turning off my rant button now.)

Drama two was smaller, but as I went around inspecting the awesomeness of the new granite, I was polishing the fingerprints and dust off the granite that the granite guys didn't bother to clean off before they left.  So as I was polishing the powder room granite, I noticed an area that didn't want to rub off.  As I got closer, I noticed that the granite in one spot had a very noticeable gash in it.  The overhead light hit right on that spot in a very visible way.  Great.  (Thankfully, the guy came out and said all it needed was to be filled with some epoxy and buffed out.  Win.)

New Purchases

1) So for the few of you who have already been privy to our home, you will remember that the downstairs toilet was....less than new, less than stellar, less than in optimum working condition.  The toilet itself was like a dingy off-white, the entire interior of the bowl was stained permanent orange despite the amount of cleaning products used (giving the impression that we just never bothered to clean our toilet), and there were myriad other cosmetic issues.  Topping this off was Husband's sudden discovery that some valve thingie or seal thingie (official terms!) was broken, meaning we couldn't regularly flush the toilet - we had to flush it, let the basin fill up, then turn the water off to the toilet...or else it would leak.  I'd already resigned to purchasing another toilet, but since we'd have to be removing the toilet anyway for the tile to get put down, it was time for the purchase of a new one.  Thankfully toilet prices have dropped in recent years and high water efficiency is in (thank you, tree huggers!).  So we got a dual-flush high efficiency toilet, in white, elongated tub, comfort height (which means it's higher than a regular toilet)...for $100.  What? Yes.  I tried to convince Husband to purchase a second one for the upstairs (it needs it too) but I got vetoed at the moment, considering there's nothing wrong with the upstairs toilet except the toilet seat doesn't want to stay on and it also is afflicted with rust stains.  Hopefully some Rust-Away or whatever should do the trick. Hopefully.

2)  Considering we just got two new sinks and we bought Moen shower fixtures in brushed nickel, we needed to purchase matching fixtures for the dual sink vanities that just got installed.  Y'all, why do they supremely overprice these things?  There are basic bathroom faucets for upwards of $300.  ITS ONLY JOB IS TO PUT WATER ON YOUR HANDS.  WTF.  I'm used to faucets being like, $40.  But after the initial rebellion against purchasing anything over $50 and realizing I couldn't find anything cheaper online, we just sucked it up and purchased some (gorgeous, IMO) matching Price Pfister faucets:

Price Pfister Pasadena, $79 at Home Depot

3)  I purchased a kitchen sink online.  Again with the super-overpriced.  This one, at least, I understood.  I needed a single-hole faucet that also had the pull-out sprayer and was a good brand and was stainless steel (can't be chrome, because Husband insisted it wouldn't match...despite that they were $30+ cheaper than the stainless steel - which, I agree, but when you're talking about $200+, it makes a difference).  After agonizing over the price, I chose one that was cheap and had good ratings online.  It was not a brand name I'd heard of before, but the reviewers had nothing but good to say about it.  Except...when it came, it wasn't metal.  They forgot to tell you that it was made of plastic.  No wonder it was $60 cheaper.  So it went back into the box for return (I love you Amazon Prime for not charging me return shipping!  Actually, I love you Amazon Prime for just being you.) and we went to Home Depot.  I asked around to people who had sink faucets I liked when I was at their houses, and they both said they had Moen.  Moen is a winner for me anyway, since I've traditionally loved their stuff and they consistently have products that have not only not done me wrong, but stood the test of time.  So my choices were narrowed down to the Delta product (which was more expensive but had the "Magnatite technology", which was essentially a magnet that brought the pull-out sprayer back securely to its home) or one of like three Moens.  I played with them all, talked it out to husband, and then gave him the say to choose.  Was the magnet in the faucet worth the extra $40 bucks?  Apparently it wasn't.  Husband said to me, "I am not going to use it that often.  You will.  You choose."  So I picked the one I wanted the most. It looks like a swan!

Moen Solidad in Brushed Nickel, $199 at Home Depot

4) We also purchased a few other small things, like new air vent covers to replace the old cracking and yellowed ones that are throughout the house.  I replaced one already:

Sneak Peeks

Get excited, y'all.

Bonus to being able to see the overhang of the granite in the last pic.

So...hopefully I can post tomorrow with the full completed picture!!

Please Strip Me of Strep

Wonder you, why we have been gone over a week?  This would be why:

Yes, folks.  That thermometer says 101.7.  We had strep.  I was so sick that I barely dragged myself out of bed to eat, but at the height of my terrible illness, I had to drive all the way to the apartment to drop off the keys.  I remember a sense of delirium, and crying a few times.  I don't remember getting home. 

We did, however, eventually stop from dying.  On Friday, I ended up completely tackling the billion boxes and bags of clothes that was previously the contents of our closet, and got all of that organized.  I will post the rest of this weekend's work in a separate post, for it is grand.  But here is a sneak peek:

Die, bad tile!

Sneak Peek

So I have no real updates.  I have only dirty sneak peeks!

Since the kitchen completion, I kind of crashed out.  We've been moving the rest of the stuff this week since I have to work this weekend, so we've been trying to get everything moved from the apartment to the house.  Considering most of the house wasn't packed yet......that means that husband spent most of yesterday packing and filling up his truck with stuff while I was at work, and mostly moving by himself.  I met him at the apartment after work to fill up my vehicle, but I didn't bother unpacking it because I had more important things to do.  Namely, taping off the upstairs rooms in preparation for paint.

But see, here's the deal:  With this husband-bartering-his-life-away-for-home-renovations deal, we figured out that we could cut down on a lot of in the costs by doing the demo work ourselves.  Plus, demolition is fun.  We are having new carpet installed, new wood floors, new tile, new granite, the bathroom is getting almost an entire makeover, and all of this is happening quickly.  So we have to rip out the counters/backsplash (where we can), rip out the tile (where we can), rip up the carpet, and paint the rooms upstairs before any of this gets done.  The renovation guy says the order is supposed to go: 1) Granite, 2) Tile 3) Carpet 4) Wood.  But since we elected to trade out the crap tile in the hallway and the newly-discovered-to-be-crappy bedroom carpet for the same wood that is being installed in the living room, we figured we could probably convince him to get the carpet guys to come and put down the new stuff, since it didn't touch any wood or tile (it's only going to be in the upstairs and on the staircase).  So Wednesday morning, we were told "I'll see what I can do."  So I figured last night, I needed to rip up all the carpet and starting painting to prepare for it, just in case he called this morning and was like, "We're coming out Friday" and I had to paint two rooms before they can do the carpet.  Sigh.  So I was freaking out, because not only did I want both coats of paint and the trimwork to be done by the time the carpet guys installed, but I also wanted it done by Saturday, since we'll be having an impromptu guest over and I don't want her to be like, "OMG what is wrong with these disgusting walls". 

Thankfully, husband talked me off the ledge.  He was like, "The carpet guys aren't going to come that quick."  Then he bribed me with Mexican food.  (It works every time.  I'm a sucker for Pappasitos.)  So instead of freaking out, I simply taped off the trim in one of the rooms, we ripped up some carpet (to find some surprisingly-new padding underneath - Score!  Less to have to pay the carpet people for!), and helped unpack.

So here was my one official update, to the master bedroom door:

From this:

Boooooo.

Yay!

And here are my sneak-peeks:

Soon to be featured throughout the downstairs

It's this rich cherrywood-base hickory wood.  Awesome.  Gorgeous.  Looks amazing in this room, looks amazing everywhere else.

This is pretty much exactly what our kitchen will look like.   We're doing an Ubatuba granite...

with this Mirado undermount sink and faucet...

 and diamond-laid tile in the backsplash as shown above.  Our backsplash will be the same tile that will be going on the floor and all throughout the bathroom, but I don't have the exact picture of it.  This floor is as close as I can find, though it has a bit more green in it where the darker elements are below:

If you combine the basic color and the way the tile goes from diagonal to straight in this pic...

...you will have what our tub will look like when we're done.  Gonna be awesome.

We've got the granite guys presently cutting the granite, and it sounds like they'll be finished and installing (fingers crossed) next week.  That means kitchen and bathroom countertops will be done!!  Got lots of work to do before then...

Kitchen - Before and (Sort-Of) After

So, the kitchen paint is finished!  Let's do a true before and after, eh?

B-4

With the dining light removed (it actually didn't look too bad with it) and the window shades put back on!

Before the door and the trim was finished





 Not so great from this angle, but just wait until the next updated photo.  You will be floored.  Trust me.

Please note the lack of ceiling texture in the after photo!

I cannot express to you how disgusting the pantry was (door and interior) in pictures.  The best I can do is above, which can only scratch the surface of disgusting.  After five coats of paint, this is what it looks like:

Not brand new, but definitely a remarkable improvement.  I had to do the door, every shelf, the walls all around, and then do it all over again four more times.  Not fun.

So when Amanda came in and started taping off, she did an awesome job.  But given that I knew I'd be painting the ceilings, I didn't worry about taping up there, since I'd have to touch up anyway, and the ceiling texture is not a tapeable surface in any way.  So once the paint was dry and I did the trim (twice), I had to paint the ceiling.  I don't have a before picture, because you know, it's a ceiling, and in the dark you can't really tell.  But here's a good representation:

See the yellow in the middle?  That's kind of what color it was before.  What was crazy, was that you couldn't really tell it was that color until the white went on.  So yeah.  Oh, and check out that texture!  It's way detexturized sirs and ma'ams. 

So yeah, when I was painting the ceiling, I did end up taping off the wall so I wouldn't get white all over the wall.  Except guess what happened?  It bled through.    And then I still had to paint the green off the ceilings as well:

So I did all of that, and then had the bleed-through, so I had to go back and touch up the green.  Now, in most places, I could have just touched up the blatantly-wrong places, and been done:



Like so.



All fixed!

Except I have this problem with putting my name on something that's not perfect, or at least as close to it as I can do.  I can't in good conscience walk someone into a room and be like, "I painted this!!!!" and have them internally go, "Well there's a spot there, and a spot down there, and one up there that she missed." because that equates to "Wow, meet Taylor McLazy."  So...I was like, Ninja-Touch-Up.  I cut in like a mofo. 

This:

Turned into this:

And this:

Turned into this:

The thing is?  You can only see these changes when you're close up.  I could take a far-off picture of the 'before-touch-up" part and you could be like "There's nothing you need to do.  But when you get up close, you see the minutae of what I did to give it an overall amazing look.  For example:

It didn't look like that before, dude. 

So anyway, I'm not going to post a billion before-and-after-trim-touch-up pics, because I took a million and really?  It was only for my own edification.  The overall picture is just gorgeous, and I'm so proud and excited for company to come over and I can go "look at this room I painted!!!" and people to say internally (and hopefully externally), "Holy Wow, Batman!  This looks professionally done!" And I want future buyers to think the same thing.  I don't want them to come in and be horrified by the quality of paint job, such as we were when we came in here for the first time.  :)

So...in other news!  Sneak peak of what we're currently working on: