Our New Normal

It's been quite the week! Most of the boxes are unpacked, but I have not done any decorating, so the house still looks pretty bare. We are going to be painting soon, so I don't want to go through the hassle of hanging pictures until after we have painted. We have not decided on a color yet though...we have just narrowed it down to a neutral color.  I have my eye on several colors in the Restoration Hardware paint fan deck :).

Paris has been keeping me pretty busy too! She is a typical puppy...always finding  stuff to chew on or eat that she isn't supposed to chew on or eat. I discovered this morning that her front paws can reach the tabletop (Groan)! Although she is devious at times, she is also very sweet and obedient.

What a sweetie! Just look at that face!

Here are some projects that we have started to tackle:

The fireplace was actually fairly clean when we moved in, but there were stains, so we decided to paint it! I started by vacuuming out the soot from the inside of the fireplace, but our vacuum didn't like that and the engine died. So, I finished cleaning it out with a tooth brush! It took a long time, but I finally got up enough soot so that I could wipe it down with a damp cloth. 

 

This is after I had spray painted the inside (with fire safe paint of course!).

Then we began the fun task of priming the oh-so-porous brick.

It looks like it's mostly done, but it's not :)

Jeff is filling in the grout with primer. Absolutely every square inch has to be covered in primer or else the topcoat will not stick. I don't have a picture of the finished product yet because it still isn't finished :). More pictures of this project coming soon!

This is a picture of the kitchen ceiling before we moved in.

Demolition in progress...

Demolition completed. The ceiling in all of it's glory is exposed. This weekend we will be putting bead-board up on the ceiling to help hide the inconsistencies. Jeff will have to fix all the horrible wiring job and install recess lighting. Oh and we will be painting the kitchen too, of course! I'm so excited!

  
One last thing...
I found this awesome mirror at our new neighbor's garage sale on Saturday:

 I'm not sure if I am going to refinish it or not. I'm leaning towards just leaving it like it is...it's so Restoration Hardware-y.

 I love the details! Oh and did I mention that is was $3?

I know this post has been quite random. If there are any unfinished sentences it's probably because I got up to take something out of Paris' mouth :).