Gettin lost in my thoughts

I FINALLY finished painting the hallway/staircase/upstairs hallway!  There were TEN doorways and the staircase/handrail to cut in around.  This gave me a LOT of alone time with nothing to do but think.  I thought about the upcoming school year and how the little one will do at the babysitters (she's still not interested in a bottle), I thought about faith and religion (or I guess faith vs. religion), and I thought a LOT about this little family.  I found their blog just days after they lost their little one and I cannot get them off my mind.  Their girls are so close in age to my girls and I keep thinking that I just couldn't survive that, I'm not stronge enough.  Then I quickly yell at myself in my head not so say/think those things because I do NOT want Him to say, "Yes, you can.  Here, let me show you."  I try not to spend too much time thinking about it because then I can't breathe, but like I said, ten doorways with noting to do but think...  If you're a praying sort of person they should could use some sent their way.

Ok, so on to the results of that thinking time.  I'd painted 3 swatches on the walls earlier in the summer and of course we didn't really agree on which color to use.

Jim liked the darkest color but I thought it would make the hallway/stairs feel like a dark tunnel.  I wanted the light.  So... we decided on the middle.  I'd cut in around one doorway with the middle color when he came home and told me it looked like a dirty diaper!  At least that means we got to switch to my color!

Another thing that made it take ages is the texture on our walls.  I couldn't believe it when I found out that in some places peoples walls are completely FLAT.  Painting would go so much more quickly if that were the case for us.  The texture on our walls is so thick/rough that it takes a ton of coats.

  

Before the walls were kind of yellowy off white.  It didn't do anything for our white molding.  Now, they're coffee.  It took a loooong time and 3 coats, but I'm happy with it and so glad it's done in time for Lucy's baptism on Saturday.  It will look even better someday when we redo the wood floors.  I'm thinking dark treads with white faces - yum!  You can tell the color is off a bit in the pictures since the stairs look more orange in the after pic.  It was taken with lights on in the evening so I guess it's not really a true read on the wall color either. There's a bit less yellow in it.

I also decided to tackle our mantel finally.  First there was the issue of the nasty inside.  It's currently not a working fireplace (though we plan to put a gas insert in at some point). 

First I decided to tackle the inside.  The peeps over at Young House Love painted the inside of their fireplace with heat resistant paint and it made a huge difference.  So... I followed in their painty footsteps.  The inside was none too pretty, but it's the perfect background for some cozy candles now.

Here's my "after".  I'm still thinking of putting some faux paneling over the brick INSIDE the mantel.  I like it better now, but I kind of feel like it's a lot of floating white in a sea of brick.  We'll see...

You can't really tell in any of these pictures, but our walls are a pale blue.  Much too pale for Jim's taste (remember he always goes for the dark/intense colors).  I like how the accents on the mantel pick up on the blues now.  Just a can of spraypaint for some plain ole candle holders!



I need/want to do some family updates too since my favorite thing about this blog is going back and reading about our changing family but Lucy is up from her nap (at 6:10 and she's supposed to go to bed at 7:30 oops!)