We decided from the start that we wouldn’t make any big changes to the house that weren’t related to the Deli. The wall colors were…quirky…but they were easy enough to stomach. These decisions held strong for about 72 hours. Ed left for a six week job a few days after we moved in, at which point I decided to paint the aforementioned creepy-bedroom-with-a-sink-in-the-closet. I felt like that project was a success. For one, I had apparently rid the room of any ghosts, and two, I had a fairly presentable home office. Until we realized the room was about 15 degrees colder than any other in the house. Our dining room table became home to any and all projects we were working on, and eventually both of got a little tired of eating dinner surrounded in x-acto blades and vellum.

The third floor was basically a dead zone for the first few months we were here. I blame this, in part, in my only having lived in cramped apartments for most of my adult life. The idea of having three floors to roam around on was overwhelming enough that I pretended the top floor didn’t exist. The front room held a few half filled ikea bookshelves, various video game systems, and a two half broken televisions. We moved in a few folding table and moved our “work” set up from the dining room to neglected game room. Eventually, the post-it note green walls broke my spirit enough to make me forget how much I hate painting and we started on major room renovation #2.

Unfortunately this room wasn’t a charmer enough to yield a good bank of “before” pictures. Luckily, the closet was horror enough to leave vivid, lifelong memories. This is the remnants of a patched together build out closet that sported coral floral curtains. Perfect with the green. Take my word for it.

The linoleum came up fairly easily. I hadn’t anticipated how much dust could be packed into four layers of old linoleum. I also hadn’t anticipated what a pain it would be to get it out to the trash. Breaking down and packing a room’s worth of nail ridden linoleum and trying to pass it off as household trash was probably more trouble than it was worth. Next time we’ll just spring for the Bagster dumpster.

We we went fairly basic on the wall color. I was a little nervous coming off of the green walls.

We had a really brilliant idea that we would spray paint the trim. This was a very bad idea. I do not recommend it unless you are really into downing six cans of Krylon before brush painting your trim. From me to you!

After going overly safe on the wall color, we decided to jazz it up on the mantle. The “vibrant” paint section was filled with all kinds of seductive names. In the end we were stuck between Anxiety Yellow, Screaming Orange, and Intense Teal. After choosing a dark grey (Beluga) for the floors, the first two contender were knocked out to avoid any potential Steelers Room or Halloween Room comments in the future. Intense Teal forever.

We evened out the wall where the makeshift closet had been with some masonite. It painted evenly enough and we plan on installing cabinets to help mask the seam in the transition.

Next up is building in storage and work surfaces, but so far it’s a big improvement. I can finally walk into this room without wanting to stab my eyes out!