I finally updated our spare bedroom - here you can see what I was working with -- from a large 4 poster bed taking up all the room, removed the wallpaper, painted a nice friendly color, and worked with a loose "camp" theme.  Even the window blinds were blue in this room before:



Anyone love looking at a scenic lake vista with a pine tree?  No.

Thankfully, the scenic lake came down in whole sheets.  I threw them away for the good of the world.

One side note: my 2 year old got into the paint.  This is the only picture I have of the aftermath because she was COVERED in white latex trim paint, ruining a homemade dress I made for her, but you can see some little tiny handprints here.  More to come!

I didn't do myself the favor of taking before pictures, but I removed a large boxwood hedge from the front of the house in the heat.  I don't ask myself if I'm crazy, I know I'm crazy.  It had plenty of holes with dead parts and just needed a refresher, to make our front porch look more inviting and friendly.  This is what we got out of the ground - via ratchet straps and our pickup truck.  We dragged them away from the area and put them on the trailer.  It took a whole day.

 Then I went to a local nursery and to Home Depot and picked plants.

 I got several that attract butterflies and some feathery ones.  I also planted our two plumeria I had near the pool finally.  They made it 2 years in pots after our move from Merritt Island to Winter Haven to Seffner.

 It took 12 bags of mulch to mulch everything.

 And did I mention I did the pool beds as well?  I did!  Lemongrass went in to try to deter mosquitos...we'll see if that works.

Long, hard day.  Beautiful and satisfying results.

Abbots - I have a tea set from my great-grandmother & grandmother's house.  It is beautiful but I have let it go.

Did you know polishing silver is easy?  I DID NOT.  I mean easy.  You just keep polishing.  I saw in HGTV Magazine that Vern Yip said this is a task you shouldn't put off because it is easy, there are these amazing wipes (I wasn't paid for this, I seriously just bought the wipes on Amazon and used them.  I'll pay full price for these babies.

 Weiman knows its stuff.  Just wipe until the wipe gets dirty, then get a new one.

 Here's after one wipe.  There are still black spots, especially the handles and feet, but a good start huh?  The entire set took me about 20 wipes. 

But man is it worth it.  I'm so happy I cleaned these.  Let me know how your silver polishing goes, and whether you feel like a second footman, or perhaps Anna Bates?

Being not made of money has its downsides, but it does give you the opportunity to really decide what you want to do when you face a room you dislike.  Mirrored wallpaper?  Check.  Ughly drapes?  Check.  Mint toothpaste walls?  Check.  See?

My sisters fought me on whether this wallpaper was cool.  Frankly I'll fight anyone on that.  Anyone.

 But one thing I will give all the wallpaper in my house, is that it is a breeze to take down.  Praise be the wall paper gods.  Honestly.  I took this all down during a soccer game shooting match on TV.

 I considered saving some full sheets (FULL SHEETS!) for my sisters.  But I didn't.  The world shouldn't have mirrored bamboo wallpaper.  I chose a wall color, found some little things at Homegoods (white shelf and the beach painting).  Got a new lamb and hung pictures we already had.  Whew, so much better.

 But my favorite thing is the entertainment center.  It was hard to find one that we could use because of the long sound bar on the middle shelf.  This has 2 drawers, can fit a 45" TV, a DVR, sound bar, 2 baskets, and a play station.  We are ready to go!

 My husband keeps saying he likes this space....I'm sure he's being nice but sarcastic using the word space too much.  Next step is to remove the large curtains, which means we can move the couch back about 6", and replace with some nice blinds that fit into the window.

We've lived here 9 months and this is the updated to do list from 2012:
Here is a basic to-do list of the house.  There is no priority, there is no distinction between tiny items or big items and it definitely isn't thorough.  (Crossed out means I've already done it.)

Craigslist:
Washer
Dryer
Scandinavian Hutch?
Pool Table 

Living Room:
Remove wallpaper
Paint walls
Do something with curtains (dye them?)
Add crown molding (probably more than a year away from this step)
Widen doorways (probably more than 2 years away)

Dining Room:
Paint walls
Paint trim
Move dining room to living room and make current dining room office/playroom

Family Room:
Sell pool table
Build toy chest/furniture (picked up Expedit at IKEA...not in love)

Add built in bookcases (probably more than 3 years away)
Paint paneling (could be my first job to tackle)
Add crown molding (more than a year away) (There already is crown molding in this room.)

Widen doorways (probably more than 3 years away)

Kitchen:
Paint cabinets (maybe?)
Replace hardware
Put in IKEA apron sink
Replace faucet
Paint floors (probably replace but it would be fun to try paint)
Remove desk and cabinets on short wall
Replace appliances (already replaced dishwasher)
Add garbage disposal
Take down wallpaper
Paint walls

Hallway:
Paint walls
Replace 2 ceiling light fixtures
Remove wallpaper
Change hanging light fixture

Master bedroom:
Replace vanity, sinks, shower stall, lighting
Remove wallpaper
Paint walls

Nursery:
Paint closet doors, back of door, and trim
Install pallet bookshelf that is already built
Replace lighting (remove ceiling fan)

Utility Room:
Install upper closet bar for drying clothes
Build laundry basket holders for 4 baskets (Ana White plans)
Install iron & ironing board holder (already bought, just have to install)

Garage:
Move garage door opener switch
Make mudroom racks out of existing storage shelves for removing shoes

Florida Room:
Buy patio furniture

If I try to make a list in priority order of what I think I'll tackle first...maybe I'll give myself deadlines??
DONE 1) Paint family room paneling - October 13th (we are having a party and I think I may try to get this done)
DONE 2) Replace family room light fixture (it is SO dark in there) - October 31st
HALFWAY DONE 3) Remove wallpaper in master bathroom and foyer, remove wallpaper in living room, kitchen, guest bath- November 30th
DONE 4) Install upper closet bar for drying clothes in utility room - November 30th (we have Thanksgiving break)
DONE 5) Install iron & ironing board holder - November 30th
XX - Changed my mind 6) Get cable hook up for family room - November 30th
DONE 7) Install pallette bookshelf in nursery - November 30th
DONE 8) Paint master bedroom - December 24th
DONE 9) Paint master bathroom - December 24th
10) Replace bath light fixtures - January 15th

Here is the priority list as it stands now -
1) Remove wall paper in living room
$ 2) Add crown molding in living room and master bedroom
$ 3) Paint hallway
$ 4) Change mirror in master bathroom
$ 5) Replace 2 hanging light fixtures in master bathroom
$ 6) Replace 2 hanging light fixtures in hallway
$ 7) Paint living room walls & trim
$ 8) Paint dining room walls & trim
9) Remove wallpaper in spare bathroom
10) Paint spare bathroom walls & trim
11) Paint trim in nursery including closet doors

Most don't require a lot of money, in fact I have the trim paint.  I put $ next to ones that we'll have to save for.  I haven't picked out paint colors for most of these rooms either, I need to figure out how to get the paint colors to flow throughout the house.  We have gray stripes in the foyer and a deep blue in the family room. 

The master bedroom should be a retreat.  And ours wasn't, at all. Here is what it looked like when we moved in.

 *The brown door above has already been painted white, when I painted the brown paneling.

The first step was to prime (again), and then to paint the wonderful color Martha Stewart's Tidewater matched in Behr paint & primer in one.  It was my first try with the paint/primer combo and I liked it, but I used a lot more paint than I normally do and was worried I would run out of the gallon I had purchased.  When did paint get so expensive?

 This is the color with a horrible flash.  It is much deeper than this.  I'll try to take a daytime picture to give a more accurate representation.

I love the dark wood with the sea green color.  We don't make our bed, by the way.  Ever. But I did for this picture.

The curtains are homemade and were in our last house's dining room.  I like them a lot and the rod, I had as well.  Again it was from out last house.  I hung up the art that we have.  The walls are pretty bare.  I don't mind sparse decor, but I think we need a little bit more.

The bookcase looks good for now, and gives me a lot more storage for albums and my books.  I read about 5 to 6 books at a time and need a place to stack them.  Here it is being painted:

I love the sea foam green!  We are getting rid of the floor lamp, and the lamp on top of the shelf needs to find a home.

I also tried to follow Young House Love's idea to buff scratches out, but it didn't work for my dresser.  For now, it is how it is.

Finally: the to-do list:

• Paint bedroom walls
• Install floating shelves and put up decorative items on them
• Get bench or seating for room
• Remove wallpaper in bathroom sink area
• Paint bathroom sink area and bathroom
• Install curtains and new curtain rod
• Change ceiling fan or get new light fixture
• Get new nightstands to match the height of our actual bed
• Sand and paint bookcase
• Move in bookcase to hold books and personal items
• Hang art, some pictures, and other stuff for accessories
• Clean old dresser and buff out scratches, perhaps get new pulls

Here is my post that explains my inspiration for the room (part 1).

The curtains in the living room aren't the greatest by any stretch.

Before:

So I started with 8 panels of some curtains that I loved online, but are a little bit too shiny.  Anyone know of a way to reduce shine???

 Here they are all sewn together, it is one gigantic panel.  Then I sewed onto the very top of the curtain something called pleaters tape.  Mine is 3 7/8" wide, unfortunately for me, the pleater pins I bought at 3 7/8" went out of stock and I couldn't get them anywhere.  So I had to make do with 3" pins and 3 7/8" tape.

 It has pockets spaced evenly on the tape to insert the pins, which will gather the curtain panel evenly to make a pleat.

 You just slide one prong in at a time (there are four prongs on each pin).

 Two...

 Three:

 Four!

 I skip one pocket in between each pleat pin.  Now, I sewed on the pleat tape, and left about 7/8" hanging off the top, to cut off, so that the tape is approximately 3" wide.  This is how I got around not having the right size pins.

 Snip off the excess tape:

 Here are some pins on the back, with one pocket space between them.

 After:

As you can see, they are so long because it covers up a large sliding glass door.  A feature is that they can slide all the way clear of the door, which is a pocket glass door, and when it is open the curtains don't block the doorway at all.  I just wish they weren't as shiny.  My husband wishes it didn't look like a theater curtain.

What do you think?  Can I keep them?  They don't match the style?  Hate them?  I am not in love with them.  But of course now I've modified 8 panels of curtains from overstock.com and cannot mail them back.  We will keep them for a while.  But then I'll definitely have to switch them out.  Baby steps.  They are still new, clean, and a step up from the original.

The master bathroom is coming together, after a paint color change (bah!).  Don't you hate painting things two times?  I am a quick decider, which sometimes means I don't end up loving what I do.  Which means I have to redo.  Bummer.  But it is so hard to pick everything right the first time.  Try not to beat yourself up if you have the same problem, we all find it hard sometimes.  

I think this house is harder given the fact that we don't have a lot of natural light in rooms.  If the rooms have dim or non-natural light settings, then your color will look differently than in another room, or in the store.  Don't forget to get a paint sample if you can't tell if it will work for you!

Here is what the bathroom looked like when we moved in:

I left off with the walls ready for paint.

And then I painted the Havana Cream color...but it was TOO yellow.

I couldn't keep it.  It brought out the pink in the shower stall and I hate pink.  So I switched to an off white color called Cozy Cottage.  I also took down the wall paper in the outer area of the master bathroom and primed the walls so I could paint that area at the same time as I painted the shower stall for the second time.

 It all came together really nicely and the paint color very closely matches the sink.  The color is Behr's Cozy Cottage.  Can you tell that it is more neutral and without so much YELLOW?  I like it much better.

 I also added a hook hanger for about $12 from Lowe's so that we have a place to hang towels in the shower room.  Previously I was using a plastic hook off the door.  It is truly the little things that help room to be more functional.  My husband didn't even know I put this up, that is how easy it is!

 You can see a little of the master bedroom paint color, although it is much greener in person.  And you can see the shower room with the hanging towels from this view as well.  I just rehung the pictures we already had in the same configuration, because I like them that way.

 Obviously, the lights still need to be replaced, but I'll save up for that and give another post when I do.  I also want to update the mirror.  It is currently just plain and actually too large for a one person sink.   The door on the mirrored wall is to the garage.  I wish I could just drywall that over and add a double sink vanity to replace what is there already.  Maybe later...

 We need to add some drawer locks for the tall less than 2 year old.   Below is the view from the bathroom to the bedroom.  It is coming together!  See the shelf leaning against the wall in front of my dresser?  I still have to install that and add some accessories, and update the outlets.

 And the view from the shower room into the closet area. 

See more about how far the bathroom has come here:  part 1, part 2, part 3