Progress, Inspiration, and a Confession

Extreme Makeover: Mobile Home Edition is still in progress, but we are miles and miles further along than we were when we began in January. We are all moved in, I finally have my computer set up in the office, and all the major systems of the house are online and functioning. But we are still living out of boxes....moving one pile of stuff here to make room for another pile of stuff there...you know the drill. Therefore, I don't have all the "after" photos yet for a full before and after tour, but I did want to share a couple of photos of the messy process in between to give you a sense of what has kept us so non-stop busy for the last two months...

The above photo is the living room about a week before the new carpet was to arrive.

Below is a shot of the hall stripped down to its skivvies and primed. We did this in every room...no flooring was salvageable. Oh, and Kilz and me...we're best pals!

I do have one teensy before and after to share...the living room ceiling. In the interest of thrift and prudence, we tried to keep anything that was functional and somehow make it work, but the living room ceiling fan was just too far gone (although I did rescue the glass light covers for a future repurpose project)

We were continually amazed at the huge difference a bit of paint makes (OK, a whole lot of paint). It was by far the best makeover material for the money. The "new" ceiling fan was simply rescued from the master bedroom, cleaned up a LOT, and hung by my sweet handy hubby the electrician.


Finally for this post I want to confess something to you. I've been obsessed with finding a couch for our living room. I've been stalking Craigslist for a couch for months (actually not just "a" couch, but "the" couch...you know what I'm talking about). Mind you, we have a perfectly good couch in great shape...but it just wasn't the right look for the new cottage....plus, it is so soft and squishy (which I loved at first) that it eats you and your guests alive and is very hard to get up out of.


SO, I obsessively looked online in the wee hours of the morning or whenever I could, just knowing it was out there, and knowing I would know it when I saw it.... I got sidetracked by a seductive price ($30!!) for a cute vintage couch that we lugged to the newly erected storage shed on the property, only to discover that once the carpet was put in and we lugged it into the house, it really didn't match the room at all. Rats...how could I, the queen of color, the artist, make such a gaff? :o) (that vintage couch, by the way, is really cute and will be a feature in my future studio...I'll share photos of it somewhere down the line...)

That episode should have taught me to be sensible, appreciate what I already have, and be content. But alas, I was still obsessed - even more so. I had to get it right...had to redeem my poor judgement...so I continued to stalk Craigslist....and this past Saturday night I found her..."the" couch. My perfect cottage couch - just the right color, fabric, condition, style, and price...sort of. I paid a bit more for her than I would have liked, but it was still a used couch...not new, and I saved a bundle over what she would have cost new. By Sunday morning I paid for her and then my very sweet, long-suffering hubby (who was perfectly content with the old couch), picked her up on the way home from work, and we lugged her into the house...

And yep, she is all that....just perfect...

She sets the tone for the house....she's the inspiration piece that helps drive the cottage color scheme...she's just right for us....she's home. (and hubby loves her too BTW).

So, anybody out there in need of a perfectly good used soft squishy couch?