his Tom Sawyer moment

We've been in this house for seven years now and in the last year have really just started settling into it. I have more to say about that. All my thoughts about sinking into this home deserve a post of their own, I suppose. But this post is about Callum and the fence. We've added a tiny bit of fencing, perpinducular to the house to train some plants and such along. It's the one idea about the front yard that I've had that Neel actually agreed to. The fence went in two weeks ago, and last weekend Callum painted it.

We paid him cold hard cash to do the job, and he made great work of it. He was nervous at first, but he took his work very seriously (much more so than his father would have, ahem). As a result, the fence looks great. We have another step to get the project completely finished (that will involve more painting and another paycheck, I imagine), and I'll post pictures after that. Nice work, young man.

'kay

Since redoing our family room, we needed something on the wall above the computer. I thought about blowing up one of my photos, but couldn't quite find the look I was looking for in this spot. I wanted a pop of color, something funky and original.

Enter etsy. Such fun to go browsing. I could do it (and almost do!) every day.

I found this vinyl wall letter at Circleline Studio, and it feels like the perfect choice for this spot. The walls are more blue than the gray that appears in this photo, and the tangerine of the "K" is a perfect pop of contrast. It took a lot for me not to put vinyl decals on every wall.

Friday

3 small (shedding) dogs + a new dark floor = 1 BIG MESS.

It's brutally hot here again, so I'm cranking the AC and Michael Jackson, and I think I'll spend the day cleaning.

splash

Our kitchen project is finally nearing completion (I know! Can you believe it?). There have been several milestones that I've failed to document here, and one of those important ones was the backsplash. I plan on writing a post on how it all began... once we've reached completion, but a new backsplash was a big part of it. Once the counters were in, Neel took a class and tackled the tiling. He learned pretty quickly that there's a difference between tiling horizontally (like they did in the class) and vertically (like on our wall), but he managed it. He sees all the imperfections, but I think it's beautiful.

I helped with the grouting and even that was harder than it looks on the DIY network!

Imperfections or not, I think it's beautiful.

Even better than I expected, and how often does that happen?

while he was out

Callum went away with some friends (and their parents, of course) on Friday, so Neel and I decided to take the time and blow out a room makeover for him.

His room was last painted when we first moved here and he was four. So while it's a great room, the vibrant colors and chalkboard border had become a bit juvenile for him. Picking out a color proved tricky, which is part of why we waited until he got out of town. He wanted blue, and I was down with that. But Callum's choices fell in the electric, or neon category. I wanted a blue we could all live with, and it proved a bit trickier to pick than I anticipated.

We'd already moved out all the toys and ten year old's clobber (Junk is in the eye of the beholder, I guess.), so Neel came home early, and we moved all the furniture to the center of the room and started taping things up.

Afterwards, the Kilz to get rid of all those bright colors.

We caught a huge break because the Kilz and the paint only took one coat each. That meant we finished painting Friday night and were able to use Saturday to put the room back together.

New shelves for all those toys (pared down a bit).

A cleared off desk,

and a cozy spot to sleep. Neel and I were so happy and the room looks so nice. Callum, however, was totally underwhelmed. Too jacked up from his overnight, I suppose. He's saying that he likes it, though. That it's a room he can relax in. Thank goodness for that. The kid could use some relaxation like nobody's business.