Recent home improvements

BFF Laura was here a few weeks ago, and totally shocked by our new-ish front door, new paint in the guest room, new paint in the family room, etc. 

"When did you do all this?" she asked.
"Oh, a while ago," I said.
"How come I didn't know about this?" she asked.
"I don't know..." I said.  Then it occurred to me:  LAURA DIDN'T KNOW BECAUSE I FORGOT TO BLOG ABOUT IT.  And mention it in phone conversations.  GASP!

And if I didn't blog about it, did it actually happen?

Of course it did!  Here are some home improvements that were made in the last half of 2011.

In September, the guest room was painted peach which was a huge improvement from the puke olive green color that had been in there.  Soon after we added artwork (I'm a Wizard of Oz fan, can you tell?) and floating shelves to the walls. 

We also had the master bedroom painted in September. I love, love, love the blue color on the walls.  In November, we got this amazing picture from Uncle Rich (Hi, Uncle Rich!).  Growing up, it was displayed above the couch in my grandmother's house, and I am excited to be its latest owner. The sea painting goes great with my beach-inspired bed- and bathroom.

In November, we had the family room painted by Ron Miller.  He and his daughter did a great job, and had the whole thing done in two days.  The Big Guy choose a lighter color for the room (Benjamin Moore's Hazelnut Cream) and it has really brightened up the whole room.

Also in November, Handy Freddy installed a storm door for us.  We got a really fancy one that when the glass on the upon portion slides down, a screen takes its place.  Nice!

And once the storm door was installed, we decided to take that opportunity to paint the front door.  It went from black to bright red in only four coats.  I'm not thrilled with the finish of the paint, but I do like how cheery it's made the front entrance.

Especially when the outside is cold, snowy and incredibly bleak. It's nice to have that pop of red in the middle of a sea of taupe and gray.  Not that I have anything against taupe and gray.

So that's all the home improvement we've done recently that I forgot to tell you about.  Sorry!  I'll do a better job of keeping everyone in the loop the next time we tackle major projects...which I'll have the energy for (hopefully) in the spring.  Right now, all this gray makes me want to hibernate!

Have a great weekend, everyone!