Thursday, March 7, 2013

House Warming

Not a single post in February. Blogging was not among my New Year's resolutions, but I know for some of my family, it's the best way to keep tabs on the Haske happenings. 

If you don't mind a wordless update, you can follow me on Instagram. Photographing life is less laborious than writing it down. It's clear from my instagram photos that my life involves a lot of time with this little person.

Finding time to blog has become more difficult because I started working almost full-time at our local community college, where I teach in the paralegal program. It's my dream job, so something has to give. Sorry peeps.

When we aren't working or chasing our little guy around, Paul and I are s l o w l y working on house projects. My intention is always to document these things, but I like to get my hands dirty. And I don't like to touch my camera with dirty hands.     

I am the resident painter. My secret weapon is my dear friend Laurie. She is full of energy, enthusiastic even in the morning hours and willing to work for a cup of coffee and catching up time. None of this would be done without her. 

The living room looked like a construction zone when we first bought the house. You could still see the tape lines on the ceiling and the blue plumb marks from the chalk line, which the previous owner used to line up the new can lights (I really, really appreciate the good lighting in the room). The lower half of the walls had been ripped out to re-run electrical (I'm guessing), so they were a different color than the green of the rest of the room. Laurie, Paul and I patched and sanded every inch of the room. The very LARGE room. It seemed to go on and on and on. Then we primed everything - ceiling and walls. Then we painted everything - ceiling and walls. And the ceiling and walls went on and on.

Laurie and I eyeballed a paint match  from a friend's Benjamin Moore color chart. We decided on Litchfield Gray. It's not really gray at all. It's a neutral tan, almost in some lights peach. But as soon as I have that thought, I dismiss it from my mind because there is something about peach walls that makes me feel ill. Then I convince myself it's leaning toward taupe. The reason we chose this color is because it matches the dining room and kitchen, which are connected visually. I wanted them all to be the same color, but I did not want to paint the dining room and kitchen too. So I tell myself it's taupe. Overall, it unifies the lower level of the house. This was my goal. 

Next - Caleb's bedroom. From gender-specific stripes to boring neutrals. That's the thing about decorating. You get to make it how you want it. I guess I want it very . . . boring. For Caleb's room, I chose Benjamin Moore's Timberwolf Gray. This went over a very (unacceptable-to-my-manly husband) pink.





I don't have many pictures of the interior, but the ones I do have were from a family house warming party. My Indiana family drove in, and my grandmother came to visit from Arizona (Hi, Grandma!), and my sister and brother-in-law came in from Memphis. Because I know she reads this and because she's beautiful, I thought you should see this picture of my grandma.


If you come visit us, and I hope you do. Remember, it's taupe, not peach.


6 comments:

  1. Ahhh! I love it! Reminds me of the time we painted above our old fireplace "chocolate cupcake." Which was really army green. xoxo

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    1. You and Jon are our house project mentors. I still remember tearing up the tile counter at your place. Good thing you don't live in Chicago. We'd have you over every weekend to work on something. Hahaha!

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  2. A house-warming party sounds fun! We never had one... probably because we were too busy with a 4 day old baby when we moved to think about anything other than unpacking and sleep. Maybe when you guys make it up this way we will have one:) And I'd love to see more pics if you have them! Your painting looks really nice!

    Love,
    Cara

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    1. That would be fun! We're looking forward to having you over in May. We need to get back to Minnesota soon.

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  3. Replies
    1. You are beautiful too. I almost posted a very goofy picture of us. But then I thought "No, I'll save that for its own post." Watch out:)

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