When we moved into this house 4+ years ago, all 4 of the bedrooms were really ugly. The room in the basement has been painted, though the carpet is horrible. We painted the master, which was a greenish-brownish-orange. And while we replaced the carpets in the other two bedrooms (the kids’ rooms), we hadn’t gotten around to painting them yet. I’ve been promising Abby and Olivia that we’d paint their room for at least a year and a half now. I fully intended to do it last summer, but I was too pregnant-sick to follow through.

So, this summer, we’re going to try to get both rooms looking nice. We’re doing the easy one first, which is Abby and Olivia’s room. They’re really excited to be painting, and while I’m happy to have the help, they get to do all the fun stuff. They’re rollering, I’m cutting in.

When Nate gets home, that hideous cabinet is coming DOWN! Finally! I have a big antique mirror ready to fill the spot that was in my room all growing up.

Abby can’t seem to stop putting a supporting hand on a wet wall

Here’s the room with all the furniture pushed to the center

After the blue on top is done, we’ll paint the wood around the bottom bright white. The carpet is green. It’s looking really nice already, and they’re SO excited. I’ve even pulled down those gawsh awful purple blinds (seriously? It took 4+ years to replace purple mini blinds? What’s wrong with me?) and the new, white ones are in the living room waiting to be hung.

Veronica/Clark/Max’s room isn’t so easy. The walls have been wallpapered, and what’s worse, they’ve been primered to paint. I can’t get the stuff off. I’ve tried steaming it. I’ve tried glaring at it. No good. So we bought a couple of those PaperTiger things (ours has a scraper on it) because my mother-in-law said it would help. We haven’t tried it yet, though it seems to be intriguing to Nate as he’s picked it up off the counter and examined it at least a half dozen times since Wednesday, so maybe I’ll have some help!

While I was in Oregon over the weekend, Nate bought Abby a bird. When pulling photos off my camera, it appears Abby tried to take a picture of him. It appears he was shy. This is the best of the lot.

He’s a really neat color for a peach faced lovebird. He’s blue instead of green. A really, complex, dark sort of blue, with a bright violet tail. He’s handfed, but still terrified. I was going to make some snarky comment about how the breeder that “handfed” him must have had anger management issues, but that really isn’t fair.

So we’re giving everyone the benefit of the doubt and spending our efforts trying to get him used to being handled.