Sleeping Under the Trees

Waaaay back in April, in this post, I alluded to something I had ordered on Etsy for our bedroom.  It arrived a few weeks later all the way from China and has just been waiting in its packaging since that time.  On this quiet Saturday evening, Dan and I decided to finally open it up and get it in its proper place.

Before I take you through the project, here's a reminder of what our bedroom was like before.  We've had a wide, open space above our bed for quite some time now.

In lieu of hanging photos or shelving, Dan and I decided that what we'd really love is a wall decal.  I've wanted to put one of these on my walls for quite some time now, but it never made sense to do it in a rental.  Even after we ordered the one we have now, I think I avoided putting it up for fear that it would turn out to be a huge pain to apply.  Though it was definitely a two-person job to get the bigger sections up, overall I was amazed at how stress-free it was to install all of the pieces.  It only took a couple hours and was pretty easy peasy!

Here are all the pieces laid out. . .

 

and here's me pulling off the transfer paper after putting up the first tree section.

We used a credit card to make sure all the pieces were applied smoothy and remained bubble-free!

First we put up both the trees (choosing to cut off the one since the bottom won't be seen and we didn't want to deal with going around the outlet). . .

then I added leaves. . . .

and then the birds. . . 

and voila!

I am so, SO in love with this wall in our bedroom!  The decal turned out to be a really high-quality piece, and it has completely transformed the entire room.  The trees and birds go beautifully with all of the nature photos on our bedroom walls from our travels, and having the trees (which are a dark grey color) adds a whole new level of serenity to complement the relaxing blue and greens and purples.  Being the tree lover that I am, to me this is about as close to perfect as it can get!  I can't wait to sleep under the trees tonight!

A Shiny New Hallway

On Tuesday, I took a random day off work and planned to spend it catching up on some things around the house.  When I saw that the weather wasn't outrageously hot and that the humidity wasn't so bad, I decided to do something I hadn't planned on. . . take on a painting project!

I decided to take care of finally finishing the upstairs hallway.  We got some of the priming done when we painted the ceiling last fall, but we didn't get much further.  Our hallway has been sitting partially finished like this for months!

In addition to needing a fresh coat, the walls had a lot of dinges and scratches.  Here's one about six inches long that I repaired with some spackle.

 Here's a "before" picture of the hallway with its dingy yellowy paint.

Here's a photo of the hallway once it was primed. . .

and here it is with a fresh new coat of white paint!  So much brighter and cleaner than the hallway before, and a whole lot less banged up!

I'm hoping that this completed project will kickstart us into a number of painting and other house projects to come.  Please send lots of energy our way for a productive summer!

Clean Clothes and a Scary Service Call

When Dan and I first bought our house, the decisions to replace the dishwasher and the refrigerator were no-brainers.  The washer and dryer were a little trickier.  They worked when we moved in, and they've continued to work since then, but they've left a little to be desired.  They were such basic models that the options were basically "on" and "off."  There was no option to adjust the water level, or to wash something on delicate, or to dry something on low.  I'm not terribly picky about how my clothes are washed, but when I just needed a few delicates to be washed gently and dried on low, they just weren't cutting it, and I was starting to worry that all of the high temperatures were eventually going to ruin  half our wardrobe.

Our tax refund gave us a little extra cash to spend, and Memorial Day weekend finally gave us the opportunity to catch some good sales, so we finally had the chance to get a new washer and dryer!  After much research, we settled on the high-efficiency model below, and so far we are pleased.  They were delivered on Friday and I'm so happy to have options when I wash my clothes now!

I had planned to take a picture of our latest new appliances and post them over the weekend, but we ran into a bit of a snafu.  On Sunday, when Dan attempted to plug a vacuum in to the outlet in the laundry room, the outlet stopped working and the laundry room light went out.  Oh dear.  Not good.  When we discovered that other items on the same circuit were working and that it wasn't just a blown fuse, we got a little worried that we could have a wiring problem on our hands.  There are two things I have been a bit afraid of: our first call to a plumber, and our first call to an electrician.  The latter came for us on Monday when we called up an electrician to have them come check it out.

Luckily, our home sale included a home warranty, so we were able to file a claim and pay only a small deductible to have an electrician diagnose the problem and see if the warranty would cover it.  Still we were worried about what they might find. . . . they came today, and luckily, it turns out that it was just some loose wires in the junction box!  Whew!  The electrician tightened up the wires, and we got away with only paying our deductible.  Crisis averted!  And now, thankfully, I can go back to doing laundry without a flashlight.