renovation time!

We've been homeowners for less than a week and Paul has been burning the wick at both ends to get us in by labor day weekend.  I'd mentioned before that the one thing our new home lacks was the character we'd come to love from older homes.  This little farmhouse is definitely remnisant of the decade it was built, complete with faux wood beams, bad light fixtures, and popcorn ceilings.

Ever since we put in an offer I'd been scrolling Pinterest during my night nurses, brainstorming what we'd fix, how we'd fix it, and when.

After careful research, I decided the popcorn ceilings absolutely, 100% had to go first.  The Internet told me that it'd be a messy process, and I didn't want our stuff in there before they came down.  Paul's been beyond amazing at making this happen, despite politely informing me several different times on how much of an epic pain taking down popcorn ceilings are...

But look at the difference it makes when they're gone!  Check out that corner of ceiling that's clearly brighter than the rest of the ceiling.  That is what a ceiling is supposed to look like.  I'm so impressed with how much brighter it makes the room.

While he's been plugging away at that, I've been trying to pick out paint colors for the house.  We're not painting all of the rooms at once, and are instead doing a couple upstairs, and living with the rest for a while.  We are however, trying to decide ahead of time what colors we'd like for the whole house (so that we pick colors that compliment each other).  I've been on color picking duty, and with the trusty help of my two sidekicks, I've successfully collected more paint samples than I know what to do with.

We've been looking at what colors Behr has to offer, and have settled on Ultra Pure White for the trim, Silver Drop for the hallway (and eventually the entire downstairs as well), and Old Map for the master bedroom.  We've started looking at colors for subsequent rooms... though, the more I think about it, the kids will probably want to pick out their own colors in no time.  Which leaves me thinking about bathrooms as well.  I like the idea of using blues, yellows, and greens, and am currently looking at these three colors for a green tone.

These three are Urban Mist, Mild Mint, and Sliced Cucumber.  Thoughts?