Upstate Projects: A Very DIY Christmas
When the truck exploded into the living room
A Very DIY Christmas
I closed on the house mid-December, so we had about a week to get things planned and pulled together to spend the week of Christmas moving in and doing the first push of work.
Because my parents are rockstars, and love a bit of DIY, they volunteered to come help me get things started! Mostly cleaning, painting, and assembling furniture. Still rather surprised that between my apartment, some hand-me-downs from my parents' basement, and a giant trip to IKEA ... this big ol' house ended up pretty full.
First, Paint It White
The most important first decision - which white paint to use as the main color for the house. I'd done some preliminary research to narrow down all the choices to these three, which I got as samples from Benjamin Moore.
I'm usually fiercely loyal to Sherwin-Williams paint, but they just do not have great white options. After reading tons of blogs from other designers, I realized Benjamin Moore was where the options were!
I narrowed it to:
Then tried them on two walls in different light to see what the house wanted. I went in thinking I'd prefer White or Super White, but both were too cool. Chantilly Lace was creamy, soft, but still quite bright (not at all like the nasty off-white currently on the walls)
Lessons Learned:
Definitely try out colors in the space! And definitely do not rely on website renderings of colors. Chantilly Lace appears almost brown on bm.com. (*Science Moment* - websites and other screens use RGB colors, where paint and paper are in CMYK, so there will always be a difference in how things appear in person vs. on screen. Meet things in person! Especially when you're about to spend $$$ on paint!)
An Heirloom Table
My dad made this table when he was in college in the '70s as a gigantic desk. It had been tucked away in my parents' basement for years and years. Time to dust it off and give it a new life as my dining table!
The Most Helpful Dog
Spent the week curled up in her bed, wrapped in a blanket, in front of a heat vent. Spoiled doesn't begin to cover it.
Some ... Adventures ...
One of the massive issues in old houses with old windows is heat loss. It costs a f*&%ing fortune to heat this place! We worked pretty hard that first week to get the windows closed, storms in, and Moretight sealed around the edges. That, coupled with strategic curtain usage, already made a big difference ...
Until we ran out of heating oil. *facepalm*
Not a rookie mistake, more a learning curve that signing up for "automatic delivery" doesn't mean you'll for surely have enough oil during a cold snap. Long story short, after a realllly cold day (where I resorted to wearing a fleece onesie over my long johns), the oil arrived and all was well.
Some other small adventures in those first few weeks:
1. That time one of the basement windows fell out of its rotten frame and into the basement, just leaving a hole to the outside world
2. That time I learned that the yard floods every time it rains into some sort of pond / bog / river
3. That time I learned a family of rodents are living .... somewhere ... in my house. Mostly we co-exist and they steer clear when my the Farrell daughters are around. But their poops and nibbles into food left outside plastic containers tells me they're still enjoying the place when I'm not there
4-Infinity. So many quirks to this old gal. We're getting there, though.
Waterfront Property
Just a casual lake that appeared one week in the backyard.....and then never left
The Good News
I'm writing this 6 months the other side of this ... and we're all still talking to each other!
The house has progressed quite a bit (check out the other "Upstate Projects" posts below!)
And there's still so much fun to be had
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