So this weekend I finally got around to cleaning up the wallpaper mess in the livingroom. At least the stuff on the floor. I went and got some cleaning supplies at Lowe’s and had planned to actually start scrubbing the wall, but I never got around to that. Even just picking up all the stuff off the floor makes the room look a million times better.

The room has looked like this for the past few months:

july

october

I would pick up the bulk of the wallpaper every once in a while, but it was still an eyesore with all the bits that would stick to the plastic sheeting.

So I cleaned it all up. My goal was to clean off the plastic and keep it to reuse it, but that idea got scrapped real fast and it ended up in the trash. I figured I got 6 months use out of it, I could throw it away.

I actually can hardly notice how ugly the wall is now that the floor is so clean!

Now if you thought that was exciting, wait ’til you see this! (Note: I realize I am the only one who cares about either one of these things, but humor me!)

naked light switches

This is what my kitchen looked like in April. And yesterday. Since the switchplates were wallpapered over, I threw them away and bought new ones. But, the lightswitches were almond, and dirty almond at that, so I refused to put the white plates over them since I figured they would never get changed.

Fast forward 6 months later…

ugly, uglier, ugliest

The switch on the far left was the dining room dimmer switch. Except the dimmer part never existed. I always felt like I was being mildly electrocuted when I touched that thing. One of the outlets look like it was painted over and then re-dirtied. Such a mess.

I enlisted Keith’s help for this one and though some were a little tricky, in maybe 30 minutes(?) we had them all done.

And they are BEAUTIFUL. Here, look at my light switches.

he looks a little crooked, but I DON’T CARE.

someone (me) forgot to buy that kind of outlet, so he has to stay almond for now. the bottom white screw was also too long due to the wonky hole in the tile, so I have to repaint that one white.

I am most excited about this one since it is the most used and was a gaping hole for 6 months. (still need to caulk between the wall/door)

also really excited for this one, since we attempted to change it once and the plug was sort of hanging out of the wall for months. (safety first!)

and a dimmer that dims! instead of electrocuting! and almost makes the wallpaper look not-so-bad, right? (wrong.)

So two very minor (<1 hour) projects that make so much of a difference! Hooray!

We also spent some time discussing the pantry, I want two more shelves in there, which Keith will be installing for me. Then I’m painting it and I can finally organize it instead of just throwing everything haphazardly in there. And I can hopefully re-organize my kitchen cabinets when that happens because oh man do they need it.

Probably the most boring post of the year, but it happens.