I have not actually SLEPT since the exterminator came to our house. Oh no. Instead, I jerk out of sleep three thousand times a night to scan the walls and ceiling for silverfish shadows. And all day long I see little flickers of my own hair movement from the corner of my eye, and snap my head around to face the menacing hordes head on.
So far, I haven’t seen a one. BUT we all know that they are waiting for me to become complacent. Then they will appear by the multitudes.
ANYWAY, let’s talk about Not Bugs.
Do you remember the Hideous Green Wall? If not, here is a little reminder:
Why is that clock SO BIG? (Pictured: Not our clock. Or our TV. Or our stripey wall-coordinating couches.)
Some of my sweet readers previously mentioned that they didn’t think the wall was all that bad. Oh readers. You are so kind. But really. In person, it was HIDEOUS.
“Was” is the operative word in that sentence.
Because the Hideous Green Wall…
Seriously. I have NEVER SEEN a bigger clock. I mean, outside of London.
…is gone! (Mostly. More on that in a second.)
My husband and I rented a reaaaaallllllllllllllly tall ladder from The Home Depot. Which wasn’t THAT MUCH less expensive than BUYING the ladder. But we already HAVE a ladder, albeit a shorter one. I mean, there are only so many reasons one needs a thirty-foot ladder, am I right?
TWO LADDERS! At the SAME TIME! We really know how to live it up here at Chez DoktorHaus!
Then we made a split second decision to paint the wall NOT the beautiful Hinting Blue hue we’d decided on months and months ago. Instead, we painted it a shade darker – Honest Blue. (I’m betting the good folks at Sherwin Williams wanted to call it “True Blue” but discovered that those bastards at Benjamin Moore had already bogarted that name for one of their colors.) I was suspicious of Honest Blue. It sounds a little full of itself, no? But it wasn’t quite as dark as I thought it would be. And it opens the door for us to use Hinting Blue – so coy, Hinting Blue – in the kitchen. So Honest Blue it was!
I think it turned out really well!
The clock is gone and SO IS THE GREEN!
How do you like it, Internet?
Let me tell you something about the previous home owners. They took very good care of the house. But they were terrible at painting. TERRIBLE. My husband and I (okay, mainly my husband) are meticulous about painting. We use that green frog tape on all the edges and we keep a damp paper towel handy to quickly eliminate any mistakes. But the previous homeowners had a very… liberal view of “lines” and “edges.”
Which means that my husband had to twist his body at odd angles while hanging precariously from the super-tall rented ladder while he hand-painted the dark green paint that meandered along just on the wrong side of the wall/ceiling joint.
But… it’s pretty! And it feels so much lighter and happier than that oppressive dark green.
Mini Digression: That couch? The lovely, probably expensive, very GENEROUS gift from my in-laws? Is the most uncomfortable couch in all the lands. It's also filled with feathers. Stabby, stabby feathers.
And I think that the fireplace – we all know my feelings about the fireplace, DON’T WE – looks like less of a hulking monstrosity with the blue. LESS, I said. I still want to paint at least the mantle white. But I no longer want to gouge my eyes out on the bricks every time I look at it.
Although…
There is ONE THING, Internet.
One additional example of how little the previous home owners cared about paint.
Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy??????
ACK.
SERIOUSLY, poorly captioned close up. WTF indeed!
Who… does that?
(Don’t worry. We’ll paint them white, to match the baseboards in the rest of the room. [Which are WHITE like normal baseboards in a room that has three walls’ worth of WHITE BASEBOARDS.] We just haven’t gotten around to it quite yet.)
LOL they really liked green pastures??? LOVE the blue….and the couch LOOOKS good…although feathers? I can barely stand them in pillows, much less the couch!
The blue is lovely. It really opens up the space, and you are right, it does make the fireplace less of a disaster.
The previous owners of our house were bad painters, though I can’t say we have been much better. Our paint jobs have often been done in a crazed rush without the proper tools (like a 30ft ladder). The strangest thing we found was the guest bedroom when we pulled up the old laminate flooring. The baseboards were all white except for about a quarter inch at the bottom that the floors had covered. That bottom quarter inch was a different primary color on each wall. The cement under the floor was also school bus yellow if you want to talk about strange. We assume it was a childs room.
Wow, they really really loved forest green, huh? The blue is lovely. I still say paint the whole fireplace white! But that’s just my two cents.
I love that blue! And I agree that feathers in a couch seems … odd.
Oh the couch! And there is no way to get rid of it until it’s been enough DECADES to justify it! At which point they will probably REPLACE IT FOR YOU. Giving furniture as a gift is like giving PETS.
oh my goodness the blue is pretty! It really does lighten up the space!
And that couch DOES look really comfy, it’s a shame it does that! You would think they would have thought of that when they were making the couch!
oh btw – I’ve been trying to comment but I guess I had a wordpress account and I don’t remember the darn password so I kept pushing it off and today I just figured I would say “screw it” and signed on with FB.
Which is all to say that I’ve been reading, and I fear for you with the bugs. YUCK. I found a spider a few nights ago and told Russ we need to spray inside and out before they take over. *shivering*
It’s lovely! I really like it. I’m still with you on painting the fireplace white. It will be (even more) crisp and clean and light. Nice job!
Also, I agree with Swistle (as usual!) – giving you a piece of furniture that you didn’t choose yourself, while very generous, is pretty risky.
GROSS. Who paints a baseboard the same color as the wall???? That is weird.
Ha! Green baseboards! Amusing!
I would paint the whole fireplace white. Obvs because I am not the one who has to paint it. Love the blue!
If you paint the fireplace white ~ the baseboard will match….I like the blue tone too.
The blue looks awesome! White baseboards + white mantel will look good. All white might look too washed out with the light blue, excuse me, honest blue! Sorry about the stabby feathers, that doesn’t sound relaxing in the least bit. I’ve got baseboards painted to match the walls too, from previous owners. But no hideous green, so I doubt I’ll do a thing about it.
I love the blue. The previous owners of our house were also not so good with the paint lines. Plus, they spattered all over our (original wood) baseboards. My husband refinished the baseboards in one room and it didn’t really work out, so we’re just going to have to buy new ones for all the rooms (someday).
Our house was painted by the previous owners who did a terrible job. I don’t think they taped at all and things look dreadful. It’s time for us to repaint, but every time I do something like that, we have to move again.
Ooooo! That is very similar to the blue I have in my family room and kitchen! I HIGHLY recommend painting the entire fireplace white!! I’ll take a picture of mine sometime today and email it to you so you can see how lovely it is =).
Colored baseboards make absolutely no sense.
I liked the green better. I hate blue walls…I hate pastel walls.