Monthly Archives: September 2011

I like to call myself a jack of all trades. I mean, there isn’t much that I won’t try to tackle myself. But it does take me some time to get started. You know, I’m kind of like your old car. It may take a while for it to gain momentum and get rolling, but once it does, there’s no stopping it. That was all just to say that, well I’m a procrastinator. Whew! I said it. Yes, I daydream, plan, put off, forget, re-plan, and then get to moving. But My husband Antonio is the complete opposite. Some people may call it a bit impulsive, but the man does not play. Once he’s almost certain that something needs to be done, the ball is already rolling. Which (although I may be rolling my eyes) I do admire.

So awhile ago I got the itchy feeling that I get when I must, I mean, absolutely must do one of my projects. This time it was an empty wall in our family room that was irking me to death. The wall is visible from the front door when you come into the house, and it kept bothering me how blank it seemed. I mean, are we those people? You know the ones who’ve lived in their house for five years without putting ten holes in the wall. No. So after much debate and thought I decided to create a piece of large art for the wall.

(Blank wall)

With that decided I went in search for the needed supplies with my 40% coupons in hand. However, because of the size of the wall the canvas was still going to cost at least $40. Ummm, no. Luckily before leaving the store I checked out my favorite section (the clearance isle) and there was a ray of sunlight shining down on a 4 pack of canvases marked down from $48 to $9.  And then I even found the good acrylic paint usually $7 a tube for $1 because they were discontinuing the brand. So it was my lucky night. Once I got everything home………………..well there was a lapse in execution (procrastination) as I pondered what to paint. A few days later I enlisted the help of my original helper, Monkey, to paint the canvases. We decided to do an abstract piece mainly because, well…. because we  can’t paint! So we just played around with the colors and the texture until we were satisfied with the results.

(Monkey painting.)

Then we went shopping around the house to accessorize the area for free (candle holders and table). And this was the end result and we were all pretty happy.

(Initial end result)

Until….. my technology happy husband had another idea that involved buying  ANOTHER big flat screen tv.  His plan involved installing a 51 inch flat screen in the place of the painting. The family room is very large (it includes the kitchen, dining area, and tv area) but there’s another 56 inch tv in the room!  The plan sounded a bit much. But with my Antonio, that’s not unusual. At our old house he had HIS seat in the living room that he sat in during football season. He loved it because he could watch one game in the living room and turn his head and see the tv in the den to check up on another game. And since football season  is now under way, it was the inspiration for this newest plan, which I was pretty opposed to. But he used his skill of persuasion and noted that this new tv would only be used for:

1. secondary football games (with no volume)
2. play music with a screen saver showing
3. to display photo slide shows

So he won me over. Until the mammoth appliance arrived to the house! It was gigantic. Which meant back to the drawing board. I was perfectly fine with it all going back to the store, but he had other plans. After much planning, he decided we should move our tv that was in our bedroom downstairs to the family room, and put the new tv in its place. This did sound a bit better, because the other tv is much smaller (46 inches) and looks less like a traditional tv because it has a white frame. So three days later (of which we were out of town half of, what’s up WR) his plan was complete.

(Master bedroom BEFORE, with the white tv.)

Master bedroom BEFORE the switch. (months ago)

(Yes, that is a baby under the table. After a long day traveling and shopping at Ikea, she stayed up with me until 3 in the morning while I assembled everything I bought!)

(My movers bringing the table BACK upstairs. I think they need more protein.)

(The new tv upstairs.)

(The master bedroom AFTER the switch.)

The bedroom looks like it was always intended to be this way. We love it.

(Antonio figuring everything out.)

To finish off the family room we bought a new console table and used accessories we already had but weren’t using.

(View from the door)

(Close up)

(View of whole family room AFTER)

I’m usually in charge of our home projects/ decor, but I loved doing this with my husband. We transformed two rooms in a maater of days. It was fun. I doubt if I’ll be able to drag him along to go  shopping for throw pillows, but  I can’t wait to do our next project together. We love the way it all turned out, and most of the credit goes to him for thinking outside of the box. Antonio, you really did a great job. (OK, enough already, stop patting yourself on the back.)