We Have a Playroom!

After some talking we decided to turn our theater room into Ayden's playroom. His toys were taking over our living room and we wanted a safe area for him to play in. David was a bit sad at having to say goodbye to the red walls and black ceiling, but he was a trooper and I'm glad we made the change. Having an area for Ayden where I can leave him to do laundry, fix dinner and not have to worry he'll get into something he shouldn't is so nice!

Here's the room before:

It took three coats of primer on the ceiling and walls, red & black are not so easy to cover up:

We chose a color called Surfer Waves at Lowe's. I thought it was a nice calming blue color, then it went up on the walls:

It isn't horrible, but not the color I was expecting. I love the mat we have down on the floor. Now I need to decorate the walls. Any suggestions?

We have shades

We've had our new window treatments for awhile now. I just haven't blogged about them yet. Now that it will hopefully be spring soon (it is only in the 30s today). I am getting motivated to get some stuff done around the house. Back in Novemeber we had new windows put in our house, you can read about it here. Along with the new windows, we needed to get some blinds or shades in the house. We decided to go with Roman shades and we love them! Here's some pictures:

Our living room:

Ayden's bedroom:

Our bedroom:

Now I have two more rooms I want to get in order. Our lower level we want to turn into the playroom. It used to be our theater room until a flood back in 2007 ruined it and we had to tear the carpet up and we haven't done anything to it. As you can see , it is now a storage room. Here is what it looks like now:

This next room is our guest bedroom and I can't believe how bad it has gotten. Obviously no one can stay in it right now. I just began putting clothes Ayden grew out of on the bed and it has gotten out of hand. Can't figure out a place to put something, throw it in the bedroom. My mission is the get this room in tip top shape ASAP. I have more pictures of the disaster area but for right now this is all you get. Wish me luck!

Anyone else doing some major cleanup in their house?

New Windows!

Our new windows were finally installed yesterday. They are wonderful and have made such a huge difference on the noise level and of course no drafts either! The tax credit was an added bonus. Now that we have the new windows, I have been bitten by the redecorating bug. If only I had the money to do everything I want. Here are a few pics. The window I love the best is the kitchen window. It went from an up & down to a slider, such a difference when you look outside.

The kitchen window before:

After:

 Living room before:

After:

Window Shopping

When my husband and I got married, he already had a house so I moved in with him after the wedding. I like his house, yes I still call it his house even though I've been there for over a year. The one thing I don't like is he lived there for 8 years before me and seeing as it was a bachelor pad, it was not as clean as I'm used to, not really decorated and needs some TLC (OK, a LOT). We've gone back and forth about buying a new house to call "ours" or stay here. Like I said, I like the house. It is in a great location to shopping and freeway access and the yard alone is worth it, but to me it is still hubby's house, not ours.

In order to sell our house and get decent money, we do need to do some things on the house: siding, roof, driveway repair and windows. Our first decision was to get the windows done. So I called 3 companies to come out for estimates. I had no idea what we were in for! Company A came out and after 2 1/2 hours, my head was ready to explode with all the information. Between the light test to feel the heat, double pane, triple pane, lines or no lines, half screen or full and design of the outside windows, wow. Who knew window shopping was so involved and so expensive? Not this apartment dwelling girl! They also check for lead paint since our home was built in the 1970's. Company A said all was clear, phew, no extra cost for that removal. We had our appointment with Company B later on that day, what were we thinking? Even my husband was exhausted after the first appointment. Same talk, but more condensed, only 2 hours. The interesting thing, he did the lead test and it came back positive! So added expense for old window removal, WTF Company A, were you lying about the lead because you wanted to keep costs down? Having a baby in the house we would rather be cautious. Now we liked this guy and know many people that went with this company. He made us an offer we countered, he came back with a number much more to our liking and then we sent him outside so we could discuss as he wanted/needed and answer then and there. Another tactic I hate that salespeople do, but after 4 hours of out lives wasted hearing about windows we were ready to make a decision. Sorry Company C. So after a 20 minute discussion, we got him down about $3500 less than what he first offered us and we accepted.

Yay to new windows! Hopefully by the middle of December they will be in. We get to take advantage of the tax credit too, so that's a bonus. And so we begin our home improvement process. Pictures will come as we get started.