What a novelty.

I spent most of Saturday working on my house (after several months of slacking). I started with the breakfast nook, which has had the same awful wallpaper since I moved in (of course, if flower meadows are your thing, more power to you). I stripped the wallpaper and then spent half an hour trying to get the shelf thingy in the second picture (the one holding all my coffee cups) off the wall. Seriously, I was thinking four screws and it's off, but that would just be too easy. Instead it came apart in pieces (I'm guessing the previous owner built it himself; he did a lot of that). Not two or three, but *seven* pieces. And each piece was individually attached to the wall. It started out with a handful of small screws for the top pieces, then graduated to extra-long nails for the middle pieces and eventually ended up with bloody 3-inch lag bolts for the bottom part. In completely random places. He bolted through the boards and into the wall, then painted over them, so I ended up shaking it until I located the places where it moved the least and then dug through the paint for the screws (where's the screw? Oh, there it is). I'd originally planned to put it back, but after the fourth piece came off I decided it was time to retire it. I'll buy a corner rack to replace it. (Amusingly, two playing cards fell out from behind it when I removed the last screw. I wonder how long they've been back there.)

Walls cleared, time for the first coat of paint. Then the second. I used the same faux finish I used in my living room (and later in the entryway) except I switched the colors. (Ooooo, I even have a couple of daylight shots. 'Cause, you know, I can manipulate time. It's like a lightswitch.) Here I've flipped the "daylight" switch back off and started painting the mid-wall divider and the window frames (in the same color as my kitchen cabinets in order to color-coordinate). Unfortunately, I ran out of paint, so I still need to paint the window frames. (I haven't stripped the tape yet; the actual border isn't that messy.) I also need to buy some new curtains. Linens'N'Things is going to love me.

While waiting for the first coat of paint to dry in the breakfast nook, I started on the entryway, which was completely untouched. I also sanded down the entry closet (which had large patches of peeling paint, likely because it has a window and thus gets direct sunlight). First coat on. First (and hopefully only) coat in the closet. Second faux-finish coat in the entryway (I also painted the inside of the arch between the two rooms with the same color as the trim in the living room). I also bought a new copper switchplate for the entryway. Oh, wait, no I didn't. That's the original stainless steel one that now looks like copper because Lisa told me about this cool-as-hell "hammered" spray paint that Scott used on their railing. Guess what's going on my front railing? And anything else I can remotely justify making look like copper. ;)

I wonder what a hammered copper Saturn would look like . . .