granaryliving: JULY 19 UPDATE: Painting! and more!

I'll admit this right up front: I'm getting impatient.

I don't so much mind during the times when either Dave or I is working out there, but during the times when Dave is at work and I don't have child care, I can just hear the unproductive seconds ticking by. The feeling is worse now that some of the rooms are starting to look habitable, I think. I'd really like to speed things up now that we're nearing completion! (Or we can at least see it from here. Maybe "nearing" is too optimistic.)

But we've had some dramatic progress in the last few weeks! The addition is painted, and the electrical finish work is all done in that room.

I tried to decide what color would be best for a laundry room, which is also the first room the family will enter most days, and went with green (or "Bahia Grass," as the paint chip says). It seems calming. (This picture was taken before Dave finished the outlet behind the chair, but you get the idea.)

So all that's left for that room is the trim and the floor. What I'd like for trim in that room is some barn wood—it would tie the room together, since the one wall we are leaving as is, with the old wall of the granary showing. We'll see if we can find something that works.

Sofia and Erik's room is also painted, off-white and yellow ("Queen Anne's Lace" and "Yukon Gold"). Mari (my sister, that is) came over on Thursday, having handed off three of her girls to the other grandma so she'd have time to help me paint. When we were finished, we held up the curtains that Mary (my mother-in-law) had made, with the mushrooms and gnomes on them. The effect is just darling! But I didn't get a photo then, so I don't have one to post. You can see the colors in the photo below, though.

This is what Dave accomplished on Saturday! We had enough of this old wood (given to us by a friend of the family, Eve) to cover one small wall. We were a little worried that we'd run short, but Dave selected pieces very carefully and had just enough. It looks very nice, I think! I'll have to think a little about how to finish it, though—how it would best harmonize with the rest of the wood in the house.

Sofia really wanted to help when Dave was making that wall, so she pounded a few nails.

The window that goes in that hole in the wall is also painted and ready to go! Well, ready to go once we figure out what hardware to put on it, as we want it to be able to be opened. The yellow side will face into Sofia and Erik's room; the side that faces the living room is off-white.

... Today, Dave did the sanding in the bathroom, then I touched it up with the drywall sponge (with Sofi's help—not sure that she exactly understood what we were trying to do, but she had a good time helping). Dave got another coat of mudding done in our bedroom in the afternoon, and then we switched places after supper and I got the bathroom primed. Priming always shows the imperfections in our mudding/sanding work, so I might go out and touch up a few places in the morning before I paint tomorrow.

So things are shaping up!

... We are in the height of berry season! The currant bushes are loaded. We've been able to put a number of containers into the freezer, and we've eaten some fresh as well.