Have you ever sanded? Do you remember me talking about how dreadful it was to take off popcorn ceilings…?

Well, take that same frustration and use the words sanding walls. *tries not to pull my hair out*

First I’ll take about the big project then I’ll give you all the other little house things I’ve been doing. First the before dining room pictures:

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I had a general idea what I wanted for the dining room because of a ‘Home’ sign I bought at a junk bonanza (you’ll see it in a bit). I tried out 3 different colors (hence the WONDERFUL P. C. R. you’ll see on the wall in some of the photos) and finally came up with the C on the wall. Which is Sherwin Williams Colonnade Gray (<–find more on the color at this link). It’s kind of a gray/beige or as they call it these days “Greige.”

Previously we had pulled out the carpet and now I spent DAYS sanding the walls. Because like the ceiling…the wall had texture..like cut your hand if you rub too hard texture. So unless your into that sort of thing-it has to go. I spent a large amount of time taping up plastic because…well… I didn’t want the rest of my house to look like a construction zone. Here’s a few pictures of the fun plastic filled bio-hazard zone:

I used both 120 and 220 sand paper and a hand sander. I went through approximately 200 hand sander discs for the whole room (I’ll let that sink in for a minute). I was always covered in the stuff.

Don’t I look sex-ay?! *wiggles eyebrows* Once I was done sanding it took about another 3 days to clean all the dust up. Each day I swept, mopped, washed walls, washed the ceiling. Dust got into places I didn’t even know existed (that INCLUDES on me). When it was finally all cleaned up, the next step was NOT painting believe it or not. The next step was putting in the light I had bought for over the dining room table. I had been looking and asking people’s opinions for MONTHS… and I do mean months, like since right after I moved in. I never really found one I was super in love with. Just ones where I was like ‘eh…that’s cute.’ Kinda like a guy you’re SORT of interested in but wouldn’t sleep with. You know…kinda cute. 😉

Then one day I’m glancing through my favorite site, and I catch this brand new light:

CLICK ME!

It’s so new there was only one review, and it was 4 stars. I was nervous. But because it was new it was on sale. It’s regularly almost a $900 light (again…waiting for that to sink it.) I bought it for just a little over $300. As you can tell from above it’s nowhere near $300 now. I feel like I got a pretty sweet deal.

My dad helped me install the light with both of us only minor grumbling. It was by FAR easier than the bedroom light. Check out the light and the walls while I was in process of painting:

After the light was installed and the room painted it was time to finally move the table in. Which also meant I finally needed to get some chairs. Don’t misunderstand…I had been roaming the deep dark depths of Wayfair for months looking for chairs I wanted. I had an idea (like usual), but just couldn’t snag what I wanted. Then one day they just appeared *POOF* and there went my wayfair credit card..up…up…and away!

About a week later and some grumbling after having to put all 6 together here’s a peek:

I’m kind of in love with these. I also added that infamous HOME sign from the junk bonanza:

The dining room is now MOSTLY done. I want to add a credenza or something to the wall with the home sign and then a few more little things for the wall but over-all the room is almost finished now.

This was the big project I did and then it started getting nice outside. So I put inside things on hold and decided to take on some projects outside. I have tree in my front yard that I wanted to put some block around and then put a flower garden in place. My dad and I went and picked up what felt like a MOUNTAIN of brick. It was about 100 for the ring around the tree and then while we were shopping for those I decided to pick up blocks for a fire pit. Here’s a bit of the tree with the blocks around it and the finished fire pit:

The ring probably sat there for a little bit while I put 7 layers of wet newspaper all around the tree to help the grass die and then my dad and I went and picked up a truck full of dirt. We put the dirt in the ring and then I planted some of the flowers I had been starting since spring. This sounds like it took a short amount of time, but really it was a few weeks to get everything purchased and FINALLY get everything put together.

OoOoOo…purrrrdy! Guess what else I learned working in the yard…???? Mosquito’s SUCK! I decided early on I needed some help in this department. LEMONGRASS. Works wonders, and smells pretty good too. I went and got a large metal feed bin and my dad and I filled it in with the remainder of dirt from the truck load for the tree ring. Then I planted 4 lemongrass plants in there right next to the deck. It turned out so well I think eventually I’ll get a couple more bins to go around the other areas of the deck. But here’s my sexy yard work:

Pretty cute huh?

From here I did a whole bunch of little projects. When Cori and I went on our ghost hunting trip to Missouri we ventured to a couple of antique/junk shops. On the way home I picked up this cool cast iron decor that I stuck above my closet in my bedroom. It looks like it was meant to be there:

Speaking of bedroom. Remember I kept talking about wanting something for that back wall by my bed. That was white, and curved…and I just KNEW what I wanted. My mom and I went on a junk hunt…and both of us turned the corner and instantly went “there it is.” A cool window that just screamed at me. I bought it, and finally put it up on the wall. Seeing it on the wall I don’t think it’s COMPLETELY done yet. I think eventually I’ll do something to it to liven it up a bit. However, I haven’t figured out what I want to do with it yet so for now here it is:

I also purchased floating shelves for the left wall in the bedroom AND a bedroom door. THAT’S RIGHT….I now can lock my door and keep the cat out. It’s the little luxuries in life…

Look at that door picture closely…can you see the LOVELY funky floor in the hallway. It’s green, and brown…and someone thought it would be cool to paint the floor a cool design… You know since I’m detouring about changes I made we might as well talk about the weird stuff that’s there now right?!

So there’s not much left to finish in the bedroom. All I need now is to finish up the closet: organizer, sliding doors, and change the floor. The wall next to my book case, (we’ll call it the right wall when facing the bed) is going to be a gallery wall. There are a couple of things up on the wall…as it progresses more I’ll take some pictures.

The last thing I’ve been up to is changing the light in the back hallway to the basement. I wanted something that hung down a little bit because it’s kind of a tall space. It looked easy enough to put up although I’m PRETTY sure my dad was cursing me to hell under his breath. On a ladder, on the edge of the stairs, still having to stretch about as far as his arms would let him. I just wanted to keep his heart going…fast? Here’s the result:

There’s a fun thing I’m currently working on, and I think the hallway to the bathroom and bedrooms will be next but hey, you never know. Hope you enjoyed and don’t say I never show you pictures 😛 . Till next time!