Dirty Little Secrets

Every home owner has corners that they cut, and things they hide and hope no one ever notices. Whether it be hanging curtains off center to make that window look like it's in the right place, or hanging a picture over that hole in your wall where you lost control of a hammer. Today, I have one of my dirty little painting secrets.

I don't wash my paintbrushes. 

Okay, that sounds worse than it really is. I do wash them...eventually. But if I plan on coming back to a project in a few hours (okay...realistically....a few days) I don't really feel like washing out my brushes. So, what do I do to keep my paintbrush bills under control? Aluminum foil.

Like I said a few posts ago, painting the wood trim in our house is a laborious process that takes several coats. I, personally, hate washing a brush only to come back to it a few hours later to add that second or third coat of paint and find it's still wet with water and I'm going to have to get out a new brush. So, between coats, I wrap my brushes in aluminum foil. 

This wouldn't be such a dirty little secret if I washed my brushes at the end of the day and let them dry overnight. But it's not unusual to for me to leave a brush in foil for up to a week. It's happened to me on more than one occasion that I go to open the foil and find that the brush has dried inside and is useless.

So, now you know. Hello, my name is Molly and I don't take care of my paintbrushes.

In other news I hope to be revealing the newly painted guest bedroom in a few days and the new plans for our dining room rug (rug hint: I'm bad at math).

Keep on keeping on

I took a big step in the home buying process today. I have started to stop all email updates from realtor websites. I know, it's scary, right? So, yesterday we actually got some things accomplished! no. 1 We stopped by the yard sale at my aunt's house (she does it every year, its a BIG multi family sale) and got an antique buffet for an unbelievable $20! It will need refinishing and will likely be spending the first several months of it's life with us in the basement while I work on it, but that's okay because it has the potential to be a beautiful piece and if I decide I don't like it, we can always take it back to the yard sale next year...and maybe get $30 for it :) I'll post pictures later, it's sitting in my aunt's carport right now since we have to borrow a truck to pick it up (and of course we'll just be taking it to my parents' house where it will sit until we make the big move) no. 2 We picked out wallpaper for the dining room.

(Click on the picture to go to manufacturer's website).

I like it. I think the colors are a little off in this picture. The light green isn't so limey in real life and the blue background is more gray in real life. I won't lie though, it does remind me of this scene in Garden State. We'll be pulling/coordinating colors from the wallpaper to use for the dining room and living room (since you can see one from the other through the big open arch). Here's the plan:

Living room: Sherwin Williams Filmy Green SW6190

Dining Room above chair rail: Sherwin Williams Techno Gray SW6170. We really think any artwork we hang will look great against this. Trim...Pretty much everwhere in the whole house: Sherwin Williams Roman Column SW 7562 EDIT: THE BLUE BACKGROUND OF THE BLOG IS COMPLETELY THROWING OFF THE APPEARANCE OF THESE COLORS. RIGHT CLICK AND VIEW IMAGE IF YOU WANT TO SEE WHAT THEY SHOULD LOOK LIKE. Maybe I need to change this layout...but I like it so much! no. 3 I ordered fabric for the bedroom. This Robert Allen @ Home fabric was 60% off this weekend, and with my additional 15% off educator discount, I managed to get it for around $12 a yard (regularly $35/yard). I'm going to add some of this to the inside edge (where the curtains meet in the middle) of some plain white cotton 84" panels from Target ($17 for 2 panels) and hang them in the bedroom. I'll be getting my lattice/greek key obsession out, but not so much as to offend my husband's sensibilities. I ended up ordering double what I will actually need for the project because I don't think I will see this fabric at this price again for a long while. I might make a pillow, or maybe I'll add some to some to the edge of some pillow cases. Something will happen with it. Adam and I also did a little hunting for side tables, but he was shopped out so that will wait for another day. Just some side tables and an area rug and I'll be happy on move-in day! As I read over the last 3 posts I know they all seem very disjointed because I'm never talking about just one room. I'm hoping that I can devote posts in the future (after move-in) to one room/project/thing at a time. 1 week to closing, everybody! 3 weeks to empty house, 4 weeks til move-in day!