Getting there...

Words can not adequately express how whipped Mr. Quilting Bug and I are right now.  We have been working almost non-stop on renovating our Master Bedroom and Closet.

This is what our closet looked like 2 weeks ago...

Master Closet

When Mr. Quilting Bug remodeled our bathroom last year, he moved the closet.  He also made it smaller than our previous one.  I was OK with that as long as we got a closet system for it.  I read in The Family Handyman magazine (great magazine by the way) that a closet system will give you 3 times more storage than your standard hanging racks.  We designed and ordered it from Easy Closets.  They shipped it for free and it arrived in 20 different boxes.  It took Mr. Quilting Bug over 2 hours just to inventory the pieces!  But after a couple of days of assembly, painting, baseboards and molding, this is what our closet looks like now...

New Master Closet

We fit all of our summer and winter clothes in there along with the towels and bedding.  In fact, most of the storage bins are still empty, so we have plenty of space to grow into. 

After that was completed, we started on the Master Bedroom.  So far, it has required the following:

• 6 hours of sanding the walls - to get rid of the Venetian Plaster we previously had on them.
• 5 hours of washing down all the walls, ceiling and furniture - to get rid of the plaster dust.
• 2 coats of paint on the ceiling, walls, windows, doors and all the trim.

We managed to finish with the painting late yesterday.  The timing was perfect, because we are both too sore and tired to do any more work at all!  Seriously, we both hit a wall of exhaustion and pain.  If I climbed a ladder once, I climbed it 100 times.  Although it was kind of backbreaking, we found we worked really well together.  We also came to a few conclusions over the course of it all...

1. If we ever want to repaint this room, we will hire someone else to do it.
2. If we ever build another house, no ceiling will be taller than 10 feet.  (The ceiling in the bedroom is about 14 feet high.)
3. If we ever build another house, we will pay extra to have two full coats of paint put on every wall, ceiling, window, door and other trim.
4. Our next vacation will be another staycation, but we will not do any home improvement projects.  Instead we'll relax, eat well, go to the bookstore, movies, etc.

First, here's a picture of the room before we repainted...

Master Bedroom before repainting

Here's the room when we started painting the walls.  Initially, we weren't sure about the color (even though we'd gone through 7 samples to choose!)  It just didn't look the same when it went up.  In fact, you can see it looks like 2 different paint colors side by side but they're actually the exact same color...

Questioning the paint choice

However, we decided to continue with it and the end result is exactly what we hoped for.  It's so much lighter and brighter than it used to be...

Newly repainted Master Bedroom

We still have a few things left to do in here, but they don't require much effort on our part.  As I type this, the carpet installers are installing new carpet in both the bedroom and closet.  Tomorrow, our new mattress will be delivered.  We bought it from The Original Mattress Factory and it's supposedly the softest mattress they sell.  It's also a latex mattress, which is supposed to be more resistant to dust mites and such.  In any case, I can't wait to sleep on it.  As I'm feeling now, I may never get back up!

On Monday, I'm planning to install the energy efficient window film, just as I've done for most of the rest of the house.  It keeps it warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.  Also, next week, we're hoping the new Roman Shades we ordered will come in.  And finally, we have some chairs on order from Lazy Boy that are expected to arrive in early November.

The only other thing to finish the room off will be a new quilt for the bed.  This one's all on me.  I have the fabric and the pattern, but just haven't started yet.  I'm going on a quilt retreat in a week and plan to devote most of my time and energy to working on this.  The pattern is 45 And Life To Go by Lisa Bongean and the fabric is Little Gatherings also designed by her.  The quilt finishes at 110" square.

45 And Life To Go

So that's a recap of my life lately.  I'm hoping to get back to quilting next week.  I'm in the process of quilting a couple of quilts and would like to finish them before the retreat.  However, my neck and back are going to have to recover some before I can work on anything.

As usual, David was a great helper during this project.  Just after I finished painting the window sills, he snuck into the room and jumped up on them.  I tried to get him off, but only succeeded in scaring him.  He then ran across all of the furniture in the room and out into the hall.  Although I managed to clean most of it up, I discovered that I missed a couple of spots in the bottom of a drawer.  From now on, whenever I look it at, I'll think of him...

David's footprints in the bottom of the drawer

Until later...

Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. 

Romans 12:12 (NLT)