Weekend Warriors: March 2010: A Room Fit For a King

March came in like a lion and stayed action-packed.

We spent one weekend celebrating Vince's birthday with his family, complete with excellent carnitas burritos, strawberry cake, and homemade vanilla ice cream.

The following weekend, Vince's parents came into town and they were immediately put to work. His dad changed the brass door hinges and handles in the entire house to antiqued bronze. His mom tackled the downstairs half bath, painting the now "popcorn"-free ceiling and walls.

Meanwhile, Vince made progress on the "pink room." Words cannot adequately describe this room, only a picture can truly show the atrocity that the former owners left Vince with:

Progress has been made to increase the better good by ridding the earth of the pink room's existence. The popcorn ceiling is gone and the ceiling joints have been properly patched. But the horrid pink dots still remain... Hopefully they, too, will soon be gone.

Finally, all four of us joined forces to paint Vince's bedroom. After a bit of trouble picking a paint color, Vince finally chose a great one: King's Canyon Gray. His dad painted the ceiling white, Vince cut in, and his mom and Casey rolled. Casey also assigned herself the special task of getting paint everywhere. On the ceiling, on the floor, on the bed, you name it. Vince, however, wasn't quite so enthusiastic about these contributions. Nonetheless, the room looks wonderful. The adjoining bathroom is waiting for Vince to pick it out a color and then be painted as well.

Master Before:

Master After:

(note the light patch on the left side is from shadows, not anyone's inferior painting skills)

Vince also made headway on organizing his garage. Now this was no small feat as Vince owned a construction business during college and had acquired every tool known to man in the process. With a craigslist find of free kitchen cabinets, lots of hanging implements and plywood, and countless man hours, he's managed to get things under control. Although more organizing is still needed, the change so far is quite amazing.

Before:

After:

We'll rewinding for just a second to show the first major task Vince tackled in his house: replacing the basement carpet.

In other news, Casey's household had a new arrival--Lilly the cat. At first there was hissing and growling when she and Pete met, but they quickly began to coexist rather peacefully. Lilly is a wild child. She chases balls, steals hair ties, and figured out how to get into the kitchen cabinets to help herself to the cat food. She's always helping with the remodel projects (i.e. by getting in the way), while Pete watches from his vantage point under Casey's bed.