We're Moving

I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything new in a long time. We are in the process of moving. Movers officially come on Friday. We are so busy that all we do is pack and unpack. I promise to post some new pictures soon. Don't give up on us :-)

Movie Room

The picture on the top is before. The picture on the bottom is after. So, here is what we did. We, first of all, painted the door leading into the room white (you can see the brown door very clearly in the before picture). We painted the walls Sherwin Williams color Rain to make the walls less reflective of light. We also painted the ceiling Sherwin Williams Top Sail. It was two colors lighter on the paint chip. This is to take the glare off of the white ceiling. That's it! This room is ready for Chris to move his couch and TV in.

Master Bedroom

There is really not much to say about the master bedroom. When we purchased our home, it was our least favorite room. First of all, it was dark. There are so many trees outside that there isn't a lot of natural light. Second of all, the PHO had painted the walls antique lace (light shade of yellow) over the wallpaper that you see in the above picture. Third of all, when they added the room above (Chris' media room and office), they dropped the ceiling to eight feet. We started calling our bedroom the tomb.

Here is a good picture of what antique lace looks like. I immediately started putting wall color samples to see what we were going to do with the tomb. What I quickly realized was that the yellow walls were killing my color samples. Yellow is such a strong color that you can't really tell what a color is going to look like in the room. So, two days into this project, I had a mild panic attack. Here is a little bit of what it consisted of... "I have to live 18 years in a tomb. Buying this house is the worst idea that I have ever had. Maybe I can just sleep in the movie room because I really like that room." Then, Chris (the non decorator) had a moment of genius. He said, "let's just paint the walls white." That got me thinking...Here is a sneak peek at what I decided to do. The wall our bed is going on is painted Robin's Nest. It is the most beautiful shade of aqua that I have ever seen. The other three walls are Steamed Milk. They are a great shade of white with grey undertones. On the wall opposite the blue wall, I am going to do a mural just using the blue paint. I can finally see my vision in my head coming to fruition, and I couldn't be more excited. I no longer feel that my bedroom is the tomb. It is going to be my sanctuary, and I love what it is becoming.

Updating Old Knobs

I love spray paint! I first discovered the wonders of spray paint when I was going off to college. My dad turned my white wicker hanging lamp yellow to match my dorm room. That's how the love affair began. My spray paint projects are vast and well documented by the finger prints on my wine glasses.

So, the picture doesn't do the knobs justice, but they are a very dull brass. However, they are in great shape and much nicer than anything that we could afford to purchase. That's when I started googling spray painting knobs. First, I sanded it. You can see in the picture above that one is duller than the other. I suggest using sandpaper 220.
Next, I used liquid sander deglosser. Warning! This stuff is vicious. Make sure you have a great pair of gloves. Then, I primed them using metal primer.

Finally, it's time for the spray paint. I chose the hammered bronze (although it should be called hammered nickle). Above, is the final result. I love them! Restoration Hardware has nothing on these knobs. Now, the big question is how long will the finish last? I'll let you know.

These are the products that I used minus the sandpaper.

Breakfast Room

The breakfast room is huge. So big that Chris and I would one day like to do window seats on all three walls (with storage) and get a big table for the middle. It could easily seat 8-10 people. However, for the mean time, we will have to use our four person table.

When we purchased the home, the walls were a faux finish dark green over wallpaper. They also had this tile "rug" pattern on the floor. The color of the tile is not something that we would have chosen. In the mean time, I found a great area rug to cover the tile.

Here is our new breakfast room. It's so much lighter! This picture has not been lightened or altered in anyway. This is the difference that paint can make. The color on the walls is a custom color that I have named Padre Sand. It's better than the original nickname that we called it which was Putty. Getting the green off the walls has toned down the salmon under tones in the tile. It looks much more neutral. Don't get me wrong, the rug is still going in, but this has been a great lesson in good paint choices.

Kids Play Room

This is going to be the kids' play room. The open door next to the built ins leads to the movie room. The door next to it is Christian's bathroom. The open door to your right is Christian's room. Right next to it (not pictured) is Alexandra's door. The wood paneling is dated and makes the room dark. It definitely doesn't feel like a place that a child would want to play. Also, the walls are now a neutral green, but they were country blue with a duck boarder (think 1982). The owners painted over the wallpaper and boarder so our contractor has quite a project ahead of him.

Carpet has been removed, and the walls and built in have gotten their first sanding. There is no turning back now!

The wood has been sanded, primed, caulked and is ready to be painted a white. The room is already so much brighter and more modern. I can see the potential. The dark hole has quickly become my favorite room in the house. Tomorrow, it gets its first coat of paint. I am so excited!

Movie Room

Here is the picture of what this room used to look like. The PHO worked from home. They added this very large "study" in 2000 over the master bedroom. They also added a fifth bedroom that Chris plans to use as his office/workout room. This room will make the perfect media room for Chris. It is just the size that he wanted. Because it used to be attic space, it is also very sound quiet. Great for keeping his loud movies to himself. This room (and Chris' new office) really made this the perfect home for us.

Here is the movie room on the day that we purchased the home. The open door leads to his office/workout room.

It's about to get painted... The color we chose is Sherwin Williams Rain. It's a great mix of blue, green and greys. We are painting the ceiling Top Sail. We just want to cut the glare of the white, but we don't want to make the ceiling feel like it is falling in on you. I can't wait to post the end results!

New Dining Room

This is what the previous home owners (PHO) used as the formal living room. Chris and I do not have a use for a formal living room so we decided to make this our new dining room.

Here is the old dining room. It has french doors that close it off from the foyer, and it has a door leading from the kitchen. This is the perfect location for my office.
So the wall came down between the family room and the new dining room. Here is a great picture of the new "view" from my non existent dining room table.

As of today, this is the view from the family room looking into the dining room. It is the paint staging ground for upstairs. The ladder represents where my chandelier will hang. We hope to extend the hardwood floors into this room. One day, this room will be fabulous.

Family Room

Our Family Room as it was when we purchased the house.

This is the wall that you can't see in the picture. I decided that it needed to be removed to open up the formal living to the family room. We are going to use the formal living room as our dining room.The wall is coming down!Apparently, this one wall that I decided had to come down is the sole support for the house. Who knew? Our contractor (whom I adore!), had to call off the removing the studs and reevaluate. So, after lots of thoughtful evaluation they decided to reenforce the studs, get a thicker piece of steel and move forward. I (thankfully) had a dentist appointment. My parting words were "please don't call me if the roof caves in. I handle problems much better in person." Then, I called Chris, and we hoped for the best.

Yea! Our house survived. The contractor says that it is even stronger than it was before. This picture is taken from the new dining room looking into our family room. Can you just see family dinners?

We bought a house!

Yes! You read this correctly. Team Norris is moving to Kingwood. Chris and I have really considered this move for over three years. We built our current home without the thought of ever having kids. Well, two kids and two dogs later, we need a home that is best for everyone. We love our new neighborhood (more on that later). We love the location. We love that everyone will finally have their own place. We think we found the perfect house. It just needs some love. Our house was built in 1980. Chris was six, and I was five. We were just starting school and watching "Star Wars" and "The Smurfs." We are the third family to own the home. The house was originally purchased by a single pilot. He got married and had his children. They sold the home in 1990 to the family that we bought it from. Their son was only six-weeks-old when they moved in. They had a daughter and raised their family in our home. This is where we plan for Alexandra and Christian to grow up. We couldn't be more excited!