home sweet home + a painting tip

After a lot of searching we closed on a home last month! Nearly everything we looked at was going to need changes. Fortunately what we ended up with was on the spectrum of mostly cosmetic things. As we were able to build our first home in Texas, moving into an existing home will be a new adventure.

We changed two things right away before moving in. Paint and carpet - because it's easier to do while the house was empty. We factored in some overlap time in our rental, but did eventually camp out at the new place because it was a little easier to get some stuff done while kids were sleeping! Here's a little before and after. The brown ceiling had to go and I"m in love with the white. My husband initially thought I was nuts to want to paint the ceiling, but he's come around to it being better.

We've painted quite a bit in our TX home, as well as some rentals. Here's a little tip (and hopefully helpful visual) we've picked up along the way when it comes to getting clean lines.

--> tape off wall or ceiling as usual --> tape along the tape line with the color that is on the taped surface. why? any bleeding paint that goes under the tape will be the color that's already there and create a seal along the edge of the tape --> paint the wall you're wanting to change whatever color --> remove tape before completely dried.... tada! truly straight lines!

Also .... the "showcase" paint by HGTV/Sherwin Williams at Lowe's ....amazing!!!!!!!