It’s back to a normal work week! Whew, doesn’t it seem like forever since there was a normal week of work? I guess it’s been too long for me; I went in to work on Saturday and, embarrassingly, it took me a half hour (no joke!) to log into my computer because I had forgotten my username. Not even my password…just my username.

My guess is it’s a combination of being off work for over a week, being knee deep in house projects and cleaning, and losing brain cells because of all the said cleaning (although I’m finding baking soda and vinegar work wonders when cleaning).

Like I mentioned last week, our project this past week was to put some paint on the walls. It was a rush after getting back from Iowa to make the final decisions on the paint colors and to purchase the paint before Philip’s parents came Monday evening to help, but it all got done and looks pretty darn good, if I don’t say so myself.

We knocked out the three bedrooms in pretty much one (long) day, with a few minor corrections the following day. Philip’s parents are hard core workers! By the end of the day, we had finished up 5+ cans of paint and were dead tired. So worth it, though.

I promise I’m not going to turn this blog into a home project blog, but it is my first home and Philip and I are both pretty excited about all that we’ve done so far on it (lots!). Plus, I’ve gotten a lot of requests to see a few pictures, so here it is!

The room I’m by far the most excited about is our master bedroom. In our last home, I decorated and focused on everything but our bedroom. In this house, I wanted to change that and make it a peaceful and calming destination (okay, so destination might be a little extreme, but you get my point). I probably should be waiting to show off the room once it’s fully complete with things actually on the wall, but that could be awhile. Just picture with me some kind of great wall art, mmkay? And if you have inspiration for me, I’m all ears. :)

I’m happy to say that for once, something I saw on Pinterest turned out just as good in real life. Yay for no “Pinterest Fail”! I had seen walls with stripes in the same color as the main wall but in a different sheen before and thought it’d be perfect to attempt in the master bedroom. I’m so glad we decided to just go ahead and do the extra work to make this happen. Philip and I knocked it out in one afternoon/evening after his parents left with all the other major painting done. It was so much fun to work on it together.

We got a lot of the tips on how to do the stripes from Philip’s sister’s blog, when she painted her oldest son’s bedroom. Check it out for more details! For a brief recap, this is what we did:

We first painted the entire wall in an eggshell sheen…

…Followed by taping off the one-foot-stripes with a laser level. This was just a tad confusing at times when we first started taping to know what we were actually taping off. It was a sort of like a mind game when you looked at it.

Next, we painted over the tape with the original eggshell sheen. This ensures crisp, clean lines. It makes all the difference in the end.

After that was dry, we were ready to paint on the semi-gloss sheen. We tested both high- and semi-gloss, but we liked the subtleness of the semi-gloss. Before the paint was completely dry, we took off the tape to prevent it from peeling off any paint. Done!

The rest of the rooms are still a work in progress for now. I’m happy to say, though, that the kitchen is completely clean from top to bottom now (all appliances sparkle — literally — and the floor is freshly polished). I’m back in business and will have some more great recipes coming your way soon! In the meantime, I hope your week of work or whatever you have on tap for the week goes as smoothly as it can after a couple nice holidays!