little MOMents from kristin: A little paint goes a LONG way...

Since we've decided to stay put in this house for a while, I decided it's high time to do some re-decorating (or -sadly - first-time decorating, in some instances). Most of the house is in need of a fresh coat of paint, so we started in the living room and kitchen. The big wall got the same color, just a fresh coat. Note, open floor plans are nice, but the walls are never-ending so when you want to paint you have to paint and paint and paint. Our living room leads to our dining room and kitchn which leads to the hallway which leads to the basement stairway which leads back to the living room. I don't know how we'll paint the rest of it. There are no good start/stop points. Anyway, two walls in the kitchen got a new color; it's kindof olive and I LOVE it!! I don't know why I'm so afraid of color on the walls but it makes our yucky oak cabinets look great. Since my mom loves to paint (they've been in their house for 11 years and each room has had at least 2 or 3 different colors) I let her help :o)

A discombobulated mess that never got organized as more and more toys entered the house

Ready for paint... with a really tall ladder

Lots of trim to do in the kitchen

We've had this on the wall for a long time and we LOVE it. We came up with a (tedious) way to keep it and I'm so glad.

Ahhhh, much better

Look at that nice clean wall! I'm planning to do a picture wall above the couch.

My (new) kitchen, complete with a new faucet! Like I said, love the color!

So much better

Here are a few pictures from the rest of our Saturday. While we were busy inside, Jon was busy planting some new irises (thanks neighbors!) and installing a rain barrel. With all the rain we've had in the last couple of days, the rain barrel has already been put to good use for our little garden.