Decorating someone else’s house: PART ONE

I have a ton of pictures from our trip out to help with my husband’s brother’s new house. I debated back and forth about whether to jump to the projects or if it would make more sense to go in chronological order.  And then I thought about breaking it up into non-project stuff and project stuff.  I did not take before shots because I was planning on using the pictures from the MSL listing. But even though the house is still  listed on there, the photos have been removed. I am hoping that my husband’s brother took some. If not, all I have is a video tour they made. I guess I could pause it and take screen shots……  Truth is I was not thinking about blogging when I was working. I was just happy to be there and help.

So that realization made up my mind about the order in which I blog about the trip.

I already blogged about visiting the Utah Truffle factory on our way out of Utah. We stayed the night with my husband’s sister and her family in Boise, Id. They introduced us the the You Tube sensation called Kid History and we laughed and laughed. We hung out for awhile and then drove to Washington state. We went to my husband’s oldest brother’s house where we had dinner with his family, my husband’s parents and his grandma. Grandma Risenmay is one of my favorite people in the WHOLE world. She was the first person in my husband’s family that I met and I told myself that if the rest of the family was half as fun as she was I would marry him in a second. She has red hair and is the spunkiest lady you will ever meet. Some of my favorite stores are Grandma Risenmay stories :)

We spent the night at  my in-law’s house which was a high point for my kids. We don’t get to see them enough.  The last time we were there was 3 years ago. One of the many fun things about their house are the Go Carts!!!!

We left the next day and had to go through Snoqualmie Pass while it was heavily snowing. We were white knuckled the whole time!!!

We made it through and got to our destination (the NEW house) just in time to paint! They were waiting for us in painting clothes ready to start on the transformation :) In all, three rooms got painted that day/evening.

The next day we went and did a little shopping at thrift stores, antique shops, and home improvement stores.  I about died when I saw the prices at this shop:

Things were so much cheaper than here in Utah! It was heart breaking to walk out empty handed. Stupid job loss! I fell in love with a yellow tractor seat. I just know I could have made it into something fab. But I wasn’t there for me (at least that is what I kept telling myself…).

Okay, here are a few sneak peeks cause I can’t handle leaving you completely in the dark!

We picked up these antique books…..

….at this cute little place.

And we picked up this new rug on sale!

We also bought some lamps at a thrift store, some lumber, rolls of metal flashing, some antique drawer knobs, and a topiary from Good Will. And that folks, is all we bought! Like I said, we used what they had already had for the most part.

Tomorrow will be the Show Me What Ya Got linky party and then Wednesday I will be able to post about the family room I decorated. It may have a blurry screen shot of the before, but since it was an empty room, I don’t think it will matter that much :)