It’s cold here in Brazil. Very cold. I am not sure what the temp is exactly. But as I sit on my bed, wrapped in a blanket, wearing gloves, 2 sweaters, AND sweatpants, I am freezing. If you look very closely you can see my breath. I am not sure WHY our family chooses these cold places to live, first MN and now southern Brazil. Ugh. Atleast MN had indoor heating…. but I am not going to ponder on that thought for very long… I wonder how much it would cost to put a fireplace in our livingroom???
Speaking of which, it is a HUGE disaster right now! Michael and I have been wanting to change out the carpet downstairs, and put in tile. Given the fact that we have 2.8 kids, carpet, food, milk, children, and Brazil just don’t mix. Also we plan on in the near future converting half off the room into a kitchen so we can stop making a mess in the grandparents kitchen, have a bit more of our own space since we will most likely be here for a few more years.
Mine and Michael’s interior designing hearts, brainstormed a grand plan. Of course since we don’t have access to cheap stores with major cleareance like IKEA and Home Depot, our plan has many steps and phases.
Phase One: Paint the Walls and change out flooring. Due to budget restrictions, we opted NOT to do the ceramic tile. Instead we are puttting in linoleum in the kitchen area, and carpet in our living area. We figure we can keep the kids food out of the living room. Michael can put in both floorings himself saving us a ton of money. The carpet is going to be grey, and the linoleum is black. But first we had to paint. Thus being the reason for the chaos. We choose a pale bluish greyish color for the cement walls. And on the opposite walls we choose to stain the wood a dark, almost black tint. Michael and I spent hours yesterday painting, and finally the cement walls are a beautiful color. But it came with a price tag: lack of sleep for my husband ( he stayed up till 3 am to finish it), and a dirty, unorganized mess for me to live with. Yay! You may remember from previous posts just how well I do in chaos…. not so good.
Tonight Michael hopes to stain the wood, and tomorrow lay down the flooring, and white trim. I know it is going to look beautiful. But the mess. Oh the mess. Combine that with the cold, 2 kids, and a fat belly, we got problems!
I am hoping that we will be able to finish painting a few peices of furniture white as well. So the room will look more complete. But then again there is that stinky budget, always getting in my way! ( Did I mention that we found not one, but TWO mouse nests during this process. Oh ick! I am so thankful we found them now- before their little babies invaded my house!)
Phase Two: I want to make curtains for the windows. A pure white. The room has amazing windows, and an amazing view – I am so thankful for the natural light. I also want to make a new cover for our couch/bed that is in there. Currently it is orange, and somehow doesn’t match my new color scheme. I think Michael and Pat actually have a plan to make a real couch in there that will turn into a double bed. We have tons of people passing through the Dugan home, so the more sleeping space the better.
Phase Three: Buy or make kitchen cabinets. Buy a kitchen sink, a fridge, and a stove. This is the most expensive phase. I joked that for now we could just draw the appliances on the wall with a magic marker until the Real stuff came in. It was funny until Bella took us to heart, and pulled out her markers wanting to help. Don’t worry, disaster was avoided so far. I also would like to paint the kitchen table white, and buy ( or make) black kitchen chairs. I haven’t thought of a accent color yet, but knowing me, red is on the top of the list.
Phase Four: Purchasing all that stuff that is needed to make, and eat food. Like pots and pans, bowls, plates and glasses, silverware, etc etc. I think that I am going to go simple, and buy most of the plates, bowls, coffee cups, a pure white. That way if we ever move, which I do believe will happen one day, they will go with any kitchen.
My personality says lets just do it all now. But of course that isn’t possible. I amtrying to be content and wait. Hard to do when you know what you want and have always had everything accesible to you. I am thankful though that the big parts will be done before baby bean arrives. It is easier to deal with the chaos with her inside my belly, rather than out!
When phase one is finished, I’ll post a picture!!!
