Happy Halloween! I can’t decide whether I’m more excited to give candy out tonight {I haven’t lived in a neighborhood with Trick-or-Treaters for years!} or just because it’s Friday and I’m exhausted.

This condo is kicking my butt. Add working full time, graduate school, and also being sick, and I’m just over this week. Things are moving along slowly, but I have lots of pictures this week, and lots of proof that things are wrapping up little by little. I still don’t have a move-in day, but I’ve been gradually moving my stuff over in hopes that it will speed things up.

The painting of the doors is wrapping up. All doors with the exception of two louvered doors have been painted.

We actually ran out of room in the master bedroom to paint the doors, so we started painting them in the dining room too. Also on the list of things to paint was the oak light cover in the kitchen. I’m not a big fan of fluorescent lights in kitchens, but given that I’m on a limited budget, this one had to stay for the time being. Thankfully the stained glass panels were a more generic design rather than the flowers I normally see them with. Eventually it will be swapped out for recessed lighting. White spray paint did it wonders. The fun touches started including the stripes in both the back wall of the master as well as the entry way. After years of doing stripes in many rooms, knocking these out is now a piece of cake.

This picture without the tape shows how fantastic the satin paint looks against the flat paint I used.

And my next ambitious paint project was the “painted wallpaper” project. My plan is to do this on the back wall of the dining room, but with the weather getting cold fast, priorities have shifted to moving ASAP. I did a test run on the back wall of the pantry instead. First step was stenciling the wall.
Then came the tedious process of hand painting inside each line. I have to be honest, I almost gave up at this point because up close it just didn’t look good. The finished project makes me smile though and I’m glad I pressed on and continued.

I also purchased door knobs for the closet doors. Getting rid of the various door knobs that had geese and Native Americans {I didn’t know these even existed…} on them was something I was super excited about, and seeing something else completed makes me smile.

Another discovery this week was that my windows and doors are actually white. They were so dirty everyone thought they were silver… GROSS
And some finishing touches started going in. The shower rod was replaced in the master bath.A toilet paper holder has been installed in the guest bathroom.
And sadly, I came to terms with the fact that it’d be cheaper to just buy a new light for the foyer than to find a new globe and salvage the old one.

Other things notably missing in the picture:

• Both mirrors have been rehung in the bathrooms.
• The fridge arrived.
• The plumber fixed the broken shut off valves in the laundry closet.
• Light switch plates are going up.
• The chandelier in the dining room has been taken down in preparation for paint.
• I’m in the process of getting the broken blind in the guest bedroom replaced.
• My Nest Protect smoke detector had to be sent back due to a wonderful defect that caused the smoke alarm to go off anytime it was left on for more than 10 seconds. {Sorry to any neighbors reading this.}

Thanks for stopping by. Until next week…