Reality.

Oh my, what a week it has been. I'm SO happy that I have a weekend off work ahead of me! I must say, I knew the house thing was going to be a lot of work, fun work!, but now that we are in the midst of everything...unpacking, painting, decorating, organizing...I can honestly say I did not realize the extent of the WORK it actually is. I wish someone would have warned me that every project was going to take about 10x longer than I expected. For example...

We made the decision to have our hardwood floors all shined up before moving in, in fact we waited a few extra days after the closing to have them done. They were really in pretty good shape, and just needed some shine, no.big.deal.

Only to move in and have that shine start bubbling and peeling off a few days after. Turns out that SHINE did not adhere to the floor properly. So now it all has to be removed, the floors sanded down, stained, and refinished. One room at a time, one day at a time. One messy day at a time. Oh my.

On the upside, they should look like brand new when they are done this time!

And our future TV room? Well, it was covered in wallpaper. Albeit a perfectly acceptable wallpaper in my book, with a linen like texture... unfortunately it was discolored and peeling in spots and needed to come down. We decided we'd like to paint the walls in there so we tore down the wallpaper. What did we find underneath? Wall paneling with caulking in between. In case you're not aware of what this means (because I certainly wasn't!)...it means you have to remove the paneling, put up some wall board, plaster over that, and then paint on top of that! Yikes.

So instead, that room will be re-wallpapered...which involves about three less steps...hopefully.

Tonight we went to our local Benjamin Moore shop to finally pick some paint colors. Most of the house is pretty neutral and will remain that way, but we wanted to add some color to our bedroom and the guest room, and hubs wanted to paint his office. Luckily, they had small cans of sample paint to test out the colors. So we sat in the store and debated over the slightest differences in the greens and blues for about an hour, and we walked out with six cans...two colors to try for each room.

Out of the six, we liked one. We hated the colors we had chosen for the office and our bedroom and decided we are sticking to neutrals. Because those little color swatches they have at the paint shop? They are deceiving! And the sample cans? They are expensive!

Oh the irony, and joys of home ownership!  I'm beginning to feel like this guy..

 I promise there is more to come! Stay tuned :)