Decorating

I don't know why, but lately I've been thinking a lot about things I'd like to do to decorate the house. We spent so much time unpacking and doing little stuff last summer that we haven't done everything I'd like to with the house. Over the next five years or so, though, I'd like to really fix it up to our taste.

Here, in no particular order, is what I'd like to do.

The Side Steps:

This is the only project that will have to be done prior to E's arrival. Our concrete steps are crumbling. I think this could be an easy enough project for Mike and his brother to do in a few days.


P's Bedroom:

Not much has to be done in P's room. After we moved in we found out that the walls we thought were drywalled were actually just painted wallpaper. Ugh. But it's holding up okay. However, in P's room, like most rooms in the house, there's a drop ceiling with acoustic tile and a big fluorescent light. The guy that used to own the house worked as a custodian in a school so the house is very well maintained, but you can tell when he made "improvements" himself because they look very school-y. This is one example. I'd love to rip it out and get a new light.


Living Room:

Our living room had two colors in it - a weird green tapestry pattern wallpaper on half the walls, and white on the rest. We ripped the wallpaper off the green walls and painted it peach. But the white walls have remained white. I'd like to paint them two shades lighter than the peach walls so they're a super-light peach.


Kitchen:

The kitchen was re-done before we moved in, so not much needs to be done. I'd like to replace all the handles on the cabinets, though. I also want to repaint. This is the wall color.

And this is the color of the counters.


It doesn't quite match. I'd love to paint the walls a bolder blue, with slate gray trim.

Hallway:

Ugly wood paneling, which is common in our house. I'd like to take it out and repaint the walls the same light peach I want to paint in the living room, since you can see the hallway from the living room.


Oh, and take out the ceilings and replace the lights too.


Exterior:

We have a very 70s-ish exterior. Chocolate brown trim and beige siding. Like so:


Mike's tulips look so pretty along the walk.

Anyway, I'd like to paint the siding to make it more of a moss green. I think we could still keep the brown trim, because I don't want to replace the door.

E's room:

We're still in the process of organizing E's room, as you can see.


You can also see the awful wood paneling. Ugh. Once she's around a year old and we transition from the baby Pooh motif to whatever her big-girl motif will be I hope we can tear down the paneling and repaint the walls. I just don't have the energy to do it now. I also want to rip out the drop ceiling and install new lighting.

Our Bedroom:

Our bedroom will probably be the last project. It also has horrible, but different, wood paneling. I swear, there are so many types of tacky wood paneling in our house that we could turn it into the American Fake Wood Paneling Museum. I want to rip it out and repaint.


And no, this isn't a black-and-white picture. It really is gray.

We also have drop ceilings and fluorescent lights, like E's room. I want to tear it out and put in new lighting.


Bathroom:

Our bathroom has no shower. We actually didn't notice this until we were touring the house a second time with our parents, and we had already figured out the payments, researched the schools, driven around the neighborhood, and generally fallen in love with the place. I don't know how we missed it the first time around. But yeah, it sucks. So I'd like to install a shower. And also, replace the tiles. They're plastic and somewhat unsightly.


So yeah, we have our work cut out for us. It's fun to think about, though.