Last Minute Decorating

Since it looks like we are 100% moving in August, I have been doing some little things to spruce this house up to sell. I had so many wonderful ideas for this house and thought I would have time to do it, but it doesn't look like that is the case. When we first moved in, we painted the living room a light warm brown color (All the walls in the house were white and not maintained at all). We painted one wall in the kitchen a deep red because the theme was Vintage Coca-Cola. The boys bedroom had a red accent wall for firetrucks and our bedroom was a calm blue.

I have been eyeing our bathroom since we moved it. The people before us did a horrible paint job and painted the whole bathroom this horrid light blue. I mean EVERYTHING. Walls, trim, door, everything. Thank goodness not the ceiling. They had two racks against one wall that were oversized and awkward and no place to hang a hand towel. Last week, I decided it was time to paint it. I always wanted to do a pale yellow. I found the color "Bees Wax" in the paint section at a local store and got a gallon. I should have only gotten a quart because I barely used any of the gallon. Now, I'm trying to figure out what else I can paint yellow... Maybe the laundry room.

I bought a new towel rack to go next to the shower and tub and a hand towel rack to go beside the sink. If we were going to stay, I was going to change out the storage from above the toilet and put in a pedestal sink and a oval mirror. But, we aren't so this will do.

My next project is to paint the basement a cream. We have a full family room downstairs that needs painted. It is all paneling and UGLY! I had the idea of making it a "Man-Cave" family room. I think it will up the price of the house if we paint it because there is new carpet down there, but it is so dark.

We also have to paint the outside of the house before we put it on the market. Lots of painting!

TIPS FOR PAINTING WITH KIDS

I did all my painting without Lyndon here, I did it while he was working. Here are some tips.

1. Snacks. Make sure the kids have lots of snacks as distractions. It will keep them busy for a good 15-20 minutes which is enough time to do the trim. 2. I'm not for TV as a babysitter, but turn on one of their favorite shows or movies. Alden loves Wreck It Ralph, so that is what I put on. He doesn't sit and watch the whole thing, but it gives me a good 20-30 minutes of paint time without little ones. 3. Make sure they is a safe place for your crawling babies. We have a toy room, which luckily is across the hall from the bathroom. I put up a baby gate and put Collyn in there to play. He would get bored within 10 minutes, but a cracker here and there and a brother for distractions helped. 4. Of course, right when you are almost finished they will have a melt-down. At least mine did. I had about 10 minutes left of painting and they were both crying. I finished the job and waited for the clean up. I went and rocked my babies until they were calm and content and then cleaned up my mess.