What have I been doing you ask?

It has been a while on the posting and I thought I would share what I've been spending my time on.  We decided that since my son is graduating high school (tonight even!) we would update the house a bit.  It started with a few lamps out in the front room and quickly escalated to new laminate wood floors, new plumbing (loooong story that isn't the highlight of this tale), new toilets (22 year old toilets needed some updating), and  ultimately new curtains, blinds and a few new pillows.

I still have to get some of my pictures up on the walls.  I simply ran out of time with all the other activities going on at the end of school.  That pulley lamp on the table - started everything!

The same room a few years ago before the upgrades.  My scrapbox remains in that corner, just didn't get a picture!

This is the family room.  The lower half of the walls is Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter.  One of the most popular colors around.  I wanted to go green (my favorite color), but saw these roman shades in Home Depot.  Sold!  The cornice above the windows were made by my dad 20 years ago when we moved into the house.  The 10 year old Saint Bernard, Abby, would not move for my picture taking.

Another photo to contrast.  That plaid wallpaper was up for 20 years too!

 The switchplates were old and decrepit too.  I almost splurged and bought brand new fancy plates.  Then I was thinking how I Modge Podge things and a trip to Michaels revealed this fabulous fabric tape.  So simple to cover the switchplates and outlet covers with trendy, patterned fabric tape.  If it gets dirty or I get sick of it, rip it off and cover with new tape.  This makeover cost less than $10 in fabric tape for all the covers downstairs.  Fabulous!
















I'm so pleased with how things turned out.  We have a fair bit of work to go through the upstairs and maybe some more updates.  But for now, I'm heading to a graduation family getaway on Friday.  Uploading photos for editing on the plane/trip and maybe I can catch up on some posts.  Thanks for hanging in there with me during my time away.  I hope your summer starts this week with a bang!