But I don't want to paint anymore

The weather in Lewistown has been absolutely amazing the past week. We have been able to enjoy our backyard on a daily basis, especially after we bought Chad his grill. He can now cook like a man and he couldn't be happier. Here is a picture of Chad with his first creation:



The past weekend was relaxing and a lot of fun. Chad went hunting on Saturday morning and came back with some bounty:



I slept in. Which meant I slept until 7:15 am and it was glorious. I went on a psycho cleaning spree washing some of the woodwork that hasn't been painted yet, then I started an herb garden and planted a few indoor plants. After this little bit of garden work, I am now addicted to gardening and I can't wait until we can have a nice garden (which is on the to do list for next summer). I guess there are far worse things to be addicted to though, but I will try to restrain my spending on my new found love so I don't put us in the poor house.

After Chad got home from huntin', he cleaned up the backyard (lots of sticks and bags full of dog droppings needed to be removed) and the grass is starting to look really nice. We spent a lot of the day outside- Grace got sunburnt on her nose and Ty might actually be turning into an outside dog, but only when we are out there with him. We get our lawn mower on Monday, so more yard work is in the near future for us. I will admit, mowing the grass is one of my favorite chores so I am really excited. When Chad and I lived in Mesta Park, we lived next door to a funny couple and everytime I would be outside mowing the front yard, you saw the guy look out the window, let out a sigh, then an hour or two later he would be out mowing his yard probably silently cussing me for having to mow that day. It was a friendly competition.

The only downside to this beautiful weather is that it has put a dent in our painting progress. We have lost our painting momentum, it's not as fun as it once was. But we finally finished the majority of the dining room a couple days ago. The only thing we have left in the dining room are the windows, which I have been dreading. I think it will be a slow process in order to keep the windows from sticking or being painted shut. Since we do not have air conditioning, opening windows is a necessity. All of the instructions Chad and I have found online mention that we should simply remove the windows and paint them that way. Yeah, totally not doing that and how do you "simply" remove 100 year old windows?

We hope to finish the rest of the living room this week. Rain is in the forecast, so this should help us in completing the painting downstairs. Next up on the painting to do list (sigh) is finish the trim in the entry way and upstairs hallway, paint the master bedroom, and then tackle the baby's room. The guest room and the bathrooms are on hold for awhile, so please don't judge us on how the walls look in those rooms. (Suggestions on things to say when you come to visit and notice the guest room and bathrooms are not complete: Your house couldn't be more perfecter, I really do love the textured walls in the downstairs bathroom, can you show me how to do that?, or where on earth do I find that fabulous decal you have over the toilet?- more on the above the toilet decal in my next entry).

The baby's room is a monster in and of itself. It's the smallest room in the house, but it makes me the most nervous to start on. This will be our little man's room and I have imposed a lot of pressure on us to make his room look cute, but not cutesy. Trendy, but not something that will go out of style in a year. And it is tough! This is our inspiration for the nursery: http://theartfulabode.wordpress.com/2009/04/12/weekend-warriors/

We might go with a bit darker blue for the walls and throw in some accent colors using red, yellow and charcoal, but we haven't quite decided on all that yet. I am not a fan of theme rooms, but at this point I am thinking a theme room isn't such a bad idea. It would be much, much easier to shop for. But what theme would we choose? Disney? Monster trucks? Camo and bright orange? Nope, none of these sound like a winner so I am sticking to my guns on this and deciding no theme rooms allowed.

Alright, back to painting...