Every spring for as long as I can remember, Blake and I have a long prayerful conversation about our budget for the year.

Ever since moving off the farm and here to Twin Oaks, this conversation usually entails some talk about what to do next to finish our home.

We bought Twin Oaks when it was a half finished house, which was then quickly “finished” so we could move in.

We were and still are SO grateful for how all of that went – it is truly something we look back on in AWE!

We decided in our budget meeting as we talked about things that needed and could be done, that we needed to finish the windows in our home.

Our window casements had never been finished – they were still raw wood.

We decided instead of staining them, we would paint them white.

We knew we did not have the time or the skill for this job!!

I asked our oldest son about the painter that he used for his first home because she had painted his windows and all his trim.

I quickly got her number.

BEST decision EVER, by the way!

I had her visit us on April 8th to talk about the house and get an estimate for this job.

Before she arrived that day, Blake and I were discussing other things that were needing painted as well.

We have four “outside” doors that had never been painted – except for the front side of the two on the front of the house.

Our upstairs ceilings also looked so dingy already, so we talked about those ceilings too.

We decided to get separate estimates for all of these things and then decide what we would actually do.

The windows were still the most important goal, of course!

Blake and my last conversation before she arrived that day was about the walls in the upstairs.

Needless to say, I had A LOT of questions for the painter that day!!

Well, she came, she answered the questions, and we got on her schedule for the middle of June.

Guess what we were having her do???

Oh my goodness, you guys know us SO well!

Yep – the windows, the doors, the ceilings and the walls –

ALL of the windows (even downstairs), the four exterior doors, the upstairs ceilings and walls (except for the master and master bath).

I was SO happy this was all getting done WITHOUT my husband trying to squeeze it in to his already WAY too full life.

I had from April 8th to the middle of June to decide what colors I wanted to paint these walls!

I started looking through Pinterest, saving photos of things that caught my eye, and having my hubby bring home samples of paint.

It was a little stressful, ha, ha!

I made my girls help me, just so you know.

And I starting putting little swatches of paint all over the place – but out of sight so our home would not have paint swatches all over it for two months!

I knew I wanted a dark, cozy color for the main great room/kitchen area.

We had this new, darker rug in there already too.

I saw this second photo on Pinterest and loved the look!

I swatched that color with some others, but kept coming back to the darkest one.

In this photo, it is the color on the right.

When the painters arrived in June, they decided to tackle the windows first.

It was a good decision, and SO much work.

I really did feel bad for them – it was not an easy job!

Before they arrived that day, I cleaned all of the windows really well.

Some of them really needed it!!

We had a hiccup the very first day as the window casement paint color they had brought was not matching the existing trim like she hoped it would.

Thankfully we had a scrap piece of trim that she was able to take to Nelson’s to get the color matched.

Then they had to redo some of their work from day one.

I was so thankful with how thorough they were being!

This is not something that we will likely ever do again!

The ceilings were next.

This is when we learned that our ceilings only had primer on them!!!

It makes so much sense with how quickly things went when we were getting moved into Twin Oaks all those years ago.

It also made me realize why the ceilings were not able to be wiped – they just did not wipe clean!

I was very excited when I started seeing paint on the ceilings.

It was a transformation!

They turned out beautiful and are so clean and bright!

I honestly cannot remember at what point the doors were done!

They need a mention here though.

Going from unfinished doors to painted wipeable doors is a GOOD thing.

They are beautiful too!

Here are the colors I chose for the walls, and the before and after photos of those areas.

First is our little office/den that is across from the master bedroom.

I chose the color October Mist by Benjamin Moore.

Here are two before photos I found!

Very white.

Everything was very white.

Here is after the first coat of the new color, October Mist.

And here is after the second coat.

Look at that beautifully finished window too!

This is the room all put back together!

It turned out GREAT.

My main goal with all of these new colors was to be able to keep what we already owned in these spaces.

We did add new shelving above the desk there, and also a new exercise ball for the chair at the desk.

Next up was the main bathroom and laundry nook.

I could not figure out what to do with that bathroom!!

So I had her repaint it white.

That ceiling also underwent a huge transformation.

Everything looks so fresh and clean now!

Here is the before:

And here is the after!

It is a bright and cheery room!

In the laundry nook I wanted to do something bold and darker.

So we used Evergreen Fog by Sherwin Williams, and I had her color drench the whole nook.

It is so pretty!!

I love this color very much – and you will soon see that we used it again!

Here is the before, after my hubby took all of the shelves down.

Here is the after.

Don’t you love that color too??!

In the last photo you can see how the ceiling is drenched in color too.

Then for our main room/kitchen.

This is my FAVORITE!!

But I spend literally all my time in this space!

I chose a dark, rich color and I love it.

I also had her drench the hallway in the same color!

Here is the before – the grey that came with the house.

I chose the color Moth Wing by Sherwin Williams.

It is the color from that Pinterest photo!

And here is the after!

It is so pretty and cozy and clean and fresh!

The ceiling in this great room was the worst one – it looks so much better now.

Look closely in that second photo to see that color drenched hallway!

It was a great choice!

Even though the painters did most of the hard work, there was still plenty for us to do for this huge project!

I am thankful for my crew who helped every step of the way.

It was hard to take things apart and have a place to set everything that was out of the way.

So we backed the van out of the garage and put a clean tarp down to set things on.

It was a lot of taking things apart and putting things back together.

We also got new drapes for the living room area and they are very thick and beautiful too!

My crew here was a huge part in this, but Addie and Scottie helped too!

We got to hang at Addie’s place since we were literally in the way here at home when the painters were working.

I will take any excuse to hang out with any of my children!!

We had fun over at their place.

Addie makes the best iced coffee too!

Scottie was the real MVP of a project that I am SO thankful for!

We had a very blank wall right as you come in the front door of our home.

I have always wanted to put some hooks on it – not to have it full of coats – but just to use when we have family or company over.

Scottie took my vision and MADE IT HAPPEN.

You guys, that freed up some brain space for me because that has been in my head for eight and a half years!!

I LOVE IT.

It’s just what I hoped it would be and we use it ALL the time!!

Well, that was a long post!

But, guess what???

Once the painters were done with all that, what do you think we did??

Yes.

Yes, we did.

We hired them to come back and do the downstairs.

Crazy us!!

But it feels SO good to have this FINISHED!

My next post will show you all of the beautiful walls (and ceilings) downstairs!!

I also have to still tell you about our master bedroom and bathroom!

Stay tuned for those transformations – they are awesome too!