Before and After

I'm sorry it took so long for this post. I have been really busy the last few days. Last night was the first night I got a really good night's sleep and I think I've finally caught up.

On Monday Oran and I went shopping in Westport, the closest town, and bought paint to redo the den and bedroom that will be our home for the next few years. The bedroom was a lovely shade of baby blue that kind of reminded me of Easter. Neither of us were huge fans. It was really cool picking out colors together...our first step in making the space "ours." Tuesday we got up bright and early (i.e., 1:30pm) to get started. As soon as we started taking stuff off the walls we realized that the layers of paint were so thick that it was peeling off the walls in sheets. I kind of thought it was wallpaper at first. Unfortunately, it meant that we couldn't paint until we stipped off all the existing paint. Here's what it looked like:

After several hours of stipping paint off the walls we were able to prime everything before we ran out of steam. Tuesday night Oran went to the pub to hang out with Johnny (you'll hear more about him) while I went over to Lizzie's house. She's my best friend in Leenane. You'll hear more about her too. Anyway, we ended up staying out way too late, again, so I still couldn't get on a proper sleep schedule.

Wednesday morning I forced myself out of bed at 10am. Keep in mind though, that's 5am EST. Around noon Oran and I were back in the bedroom to paint. And paint. And paint. I'm not kidding, it took four freaking coats of paint and we still weren't finished!! I thought it would take us a day. When we get our own place we've already decided we're hiring professionals.

So that brings me to yesterday. We finally finished the trim, the ceiling, and the closet. Here's what it looked like. I'll send a picture of the room when it's completely finished later. We're still waiting on a new dresser we ordered and our bed to come from the U.S.

Tonight is the first busy night of the season. The guesthouse is completely booked and we're expecting a full house in the restaurant. I'll be waiting tables tonight and tomorrow and I'll help out cleaning the bedrooms in the morning. It's a lot of work, but I'm really happy to be here and getting to spend time with Oran. Also, I figure at this rate when it's time to go back to work I'll be excited for the chance to finally relax!!

Love, Kim