Ch-ch-ch changes….

We’re getting ready to do a little work on our house. Nothing too exciting, but stuff that just needs to be done. We’re getting all of our interior trim painted (Benjamin Moore Decorator’s White, which is VERY white, and will hopefully really pop). We’re also having our bonus/guest room painted, and I’m completely torn on colors, but I’m trying not to stress about it. I’m also hoping to have a tile backsplash installed in my kitchen. We’re waiting on the estimate for that to see if it fits in the budget. My guess it that it fits in my budget, but not the husband’s. He keeps mumbling stuff like “might as well line the whole house in gold bricks at this point.” Hmph. Men. He also doesn’t understand my need for $225 shoes, so how can I truly expect him to understand house stuff?

Anyway, I want a backsplash in white subway tiles. Like this:

 

or this:

Sadly, I’d also like to go ahead and get rid of our white appliances and upgrade to stainless, but that is most definitely NOT in the budget. So, hopefully the backsplash is.

Anyway, the husband sings his own praises when it comes to painting. And I wanted to have our entrance hall painted, too. Since it’s a small space, he decided he’d do it himself. And he did. He did a great job. I’ll say, however, that it was my addition of a second coat yesterday that was really the icing on the cake. So here’s the before and after:

Before: (boring, boring, boring)

And after (Benjamin Moore Algonquin Trail in eggshell):

Much better. Although we still need to figure out what’s going back on the wall.

Now. Change #2. I used to have a dining room. Well, I guess technically I still have a dining room. It just doesn’t serve the purpose for which it’s named anymore. Unless perhaps you cook a meal in a small, pink kitchen: (WARNING: I made no attempt to make this look nice before photographing it. This is real life. Don’t say I didn’t warn you).

We have a bonus room. It’s upstairs, and the rest of the house is downstairs. As in, bonus room is the ONLY upstairs room. And while it’s okay for a 5 year old to play up there alone, I can not trust my 18-month-old to be unsupervised there. Like, even for a second. Because he would likely catapult himself from the sofa or something equally life-threatening. The child has no regard for his own safety.

So, we had this dining room, filled with my grandparents old furniture. And it looked pretty nice. But we NEVER used it. Never. I can count on one hand the number of meals we’ve eaten in the dining room in the last 8 years. So, we made the decision to bring most of the bonus room toys downstairs. And you know what? The kids love it. They act like they have never seen these toys in their life.

And yes, my poor son plays in a pink kitchen. (What? You think I would buy a new one just to help with his manliness? The child also rides in a pink floral carseat. PINK. I think it’s character-building).

Here’s something else that toddler boys who have big sisters do:

First, get out your sister’s Belle doll (good thing she’s at school, because this is a completely prohibited activity otherwise):

Then, go in for a closer look:

Niiiiccceee. No, I don’t think the pink kitchen is interfering with his manliness one bit.

Ta-ta!