Hot weather makes me do strange things, like wandering around with a quart of white paint. No, wait. I do that all the time. Sometime between watering the plants and making dinner, I found myself on the ladder painting coaxial cable and nails. The cable ran across the front of the house near the roof overhang. It always kind of annoyed me. The nails were my fault. I put them in a few inconspicuous (sort of) places to hang Christmas lights. Now that it’s all painted, no one will even notice.

Before:

After:

We finally had the driveway sealed. It looks almost seamless (we had the end of the driveway repaired because it was a mess. The last time we did this was three years ago, so it was long overdue. This is the best it can look without ripping out the whole thing, which is never going to happen! I’m very happy with it.

There are a few updates inside the house as well.

The little shells from Rockport inspired me to add some new decor to the living room. I found this cute little plant stand for $10.00:

I wasn’t sure what colors I should use in this room. We have black leather furniture, but the walls and curtains are made up of greens and neutrals. The colors also had to tie in with my favorite part of the room, my grandfather’s painting (read his story here). I bought pillows in a mix of Waverly fabrics. I like the fact that I can buy covers later to update them for different seasons, too.

Now that we’re a family of six, we struggle a bit with closet space. I handle this by choosing a closet or cabinet every couple of months to clean. I do the same thing with the attic and our clothing. If there’s too much clutter or things we haven’t touched in years, it’s time to send some things off to charities.

There was one area I couldn’t figure out, though. When you have a big family, you have a lot of shoes. Micah and I leave ours in the master closet, but the kids kept throwing theirs in the coat closet upstairs. We store the Dyson and our little Shark sweeper in there as well. We needed some separate place to store their shoes.

Most of the things I found online were intended for entryways, but bi-level homes don’t leave you with much space when you come through the front door. I finally settled on a leather storage bench (this one). The kids also like to sit on it when they’re watching TV.

We painted the upstairs hallway and living room a nutmeg color in 2006. We had just enough paint to finish it. I learned from that mistake later on, as it eventually needed a lot of touch-ups. I also discovered that my love of semi-gloss does not necessarily pertain to walls in a nearly 40-year-old house. I bought two gallons of a taupe color. I painted the hallway and living room, then continued on with the upper half of the dining room to stay consistent. It turned into a bigger task than expected, but then again, everything does when I’m involved!

The entryway and downstairs hall were also a warmer neutral color, so it seemed like we needed to divide the space. I chose a shade of green for the walls near the top of the stairs to accomplish that. It brings in color from my grandfather’s painting, the rug and coffee table. I think it worked very well. I will update the photos of the rooms soon. Here are the Behr colors:

Everything is nice and bright. I also touched up baseboards and trim in a few spots throughout the house.

We sold the crib and changing table, then decided to put the money toward a new sofa. I wasn’t really prepared to part with the changing table, but people were only interested in the set.

The futon in the family room was broken, so our old sofa went down there. The only problem there is that the walls, sofa, and curtains are exactly the same color. It wasn’t planned that way (the curtains used to be in the dining room, and the wall color was chosen when I found the oops paint). My plan for the family room is do do something with an accent wall or accented areas, get new curtains and toss pillows. I am thinking of using dark brown for this, but I haven’t decided.

Back to the living room. The new sofa is very comfortable, and I don’t feel the need to change the wall color to go with it. I added a couple of neutral, striped panels to the windows. The toss pillows have a design similar to the black candle holders I added to the room, with a foreground that matches the roman shades. I bought pillar candles in different earth tones for the holders. It all pulled together nicely, and the whole thing was very affordable! I will update the living room photos during daylight, after the railing has been installed, and sometime soon I’ll add a few things to the family room. In the meantime, here’s a photo of the sofa:

Lastly, the kids have a few new things in their rooms. The twins have new Disney princess comforters, and Will has new toddler bedding and a “thinking chair”. I creeped back to eBay and found some really good deals on Blue’s Clues items for his room. He already loves that chair! I got it for $25.00 with local pickup (a steal even by eBay standards), but I read that it originally sold at FAO Schwarz for $400.00!