How fun Debbie, Can't wait to see the reveal. I think I kind of went ass backwards with my dinning room/sitting room at the front door choosing the paint color last. I had not really planned on painting the space. Glad I did. I am sure when you get those walls painted it will make a huge difference. Busy week ahead for you two. Enjoy.

Sounds like a very good plan, Debbie. You spend a lot of time in the kitchen and I agree that waiting to make it at least some nicer will go a long way and keep your spirits high. If you can do all you hope to just this week, it will be time well spent. I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures. Embrace the change!!

If you're not doing "Roosters," or "French Farm," could it possibly be lop-eared bunnies? LOL

You gotta drop more hints than that! You should show us one tiny picture now, just as "bait"!

Good for you, Debbie! Even five years is a long time to be needlessly depressed about your surroundings. I'm sure you'll be much happier once it's done.

Yes! What everyone else said.

LOL, Caroline! How did you know I love bunnies! :-)

Chris, I don't think you were backwards because I don't think there's one right way to do it or one right order to do it in. We each do what we can with what we have and as we get inspiration.

Thanks for the support, writersblock. I agree; numerous studies have shown that color affects mood, although most of us really didn't need a study to show us that. And it's not just the color, it's putting our own stamp on it. Instead of living in F's old house, or the hoarder's house, we'll be living in OUR house. A few hundred dollars, while a BIG number in my budget, is worth it to have a sunny, bright kitchen that will make me smile every morning when I stumble into it for my morning cuppa joe. :-) While I could never be a person who would do a full renovation now and then another one in five years (even if I had the $$), I now feel I don't have to feel guilty for spending a relatively small amount to bring us some joy.

murraysmom, I'm embracing the change! <grin> Don't tell Joy, haha, but for her birthday next month, if I can swing it financially, I'm plotting to update her room. She has been such a trooper and has worked so hard on this house! And atm, her room is the storage room for everything we can't yet find a place for. Right now three walls in her room have a very thin coat of white that doesn't even cover the fake wood paneling and the fourth wall is a horrific shade of dark, dark brown/purple. The two nice-sized windows are covered by thick white vertical blinds that don't open and black and white panel curtains that are kind of cute but don't go with anything. And one of the rods is broken almost in half and hangs down, actually touching the foot of her bed!

Her favorite color scheme is lavender and gray. So I'm going to paint three walls lavender and the current brown/purple one a beautiful medium gray. I'm going to get her new bedding in those colors, and replace her window treatments with lavender miniblinds (if I can find some) and soft gray short curtains. What I'd really like to do, but don't know if I can afford it, is to get a big area rug in her colors. Her carpet is just disgusting with so much urine from the previous owners' cats and do. AND, I'm going to get all the storage bins out of there! It's mostly holiday decor and family picture albums. She deserves a nice, uncluttered room!

THANKS EVERYONE for all the support! It means a lot to me :-)

OH I bet Joy will be thrilled to have her room also updated. I am another one that revolves around color. One house we bought had white painted walls but it was not a bright white it had a lot of gray in it. Now it if was meant to be gray fine but this was a dingy looking white and very depressing. I repainted with our favorite light mint green. And BTW the mint green gets lighter every next house I painted through the years. Still hubby loves the mint green and actually I do too.

Happy for Joy to get her new makeover. And for you to be able to do it for her. Your ideas sound fun. Great color combo.

I think it's a great idea! you need it to be fairly decent and nice to be in there cooking and cleaning up every day.

I bought curtain rods at GW for 1.00 each. might be less if on 50% off day.

I also bought very nice drapes there for about 10.00 a pr. think the antique satin pinched pleat kind. had 'em up for 14 yrs. I had 3 HUGE windows in the LR of the old place. i wanted the kind i could open with the draw string. in Feb when Jed tore the old place down I just threw them out. they were too dusty and sun baked (that happens easily here in AZ). I'm lucky they lasted that long - but I wasn't living there the past 4 yrs either.

you'll feel so much better living there while waiting for the big update if it's prettied up a bit. Same with Joy's BDRM. sounds depressing now. I know - I have boxes everywhere still with a path to the kitchen and 1 from the patio door to the front door.

Your multi-year renovation plan is totally sensible, but I'm glad you have found a way to do a refresh to enjoy your new home as you go along. Putting your own "stamp" on the place will make you and Joy enjoy the place even more after all your hard work cleaning it up. Very much looking forward your pic's!

I totally agree, color is everything! It will make a vast, vast difference!

So, can I make a suggestion? Since the carpet in Joy's room is ruined anyway, why not strip it out and put a sealer on the plywood? This will keep the smell from coming back. Then you can paint the plywood in whatever color you like. This will give you a "finished" floor that will hold up for a good long time.

In New England, peeps do this all the time on the old pine floors, and it gets charmingly scuffed-looking. You can "spatter paint" on top of your base coat, of course, which is super easy and hides dirt. Maybe grey with lavender and white speckles? :)

LOVE the idea of painting the floor. I considered doing it here. Hubby was too conventional and wanted the vinyl. I do love the vinyl and no more carpet for me. Area rugs can come and go.

Scone911, I LOVE that idea!! Financially speaking, I'll have to wait until September, but if Joy likes the idea (and I'm sure she will), I'm gonna go for it! Thanks! I wouldn't have thought of that in a million years.

Chris, I'm with you on the no carpets thing. Of course, I have to rip out all the carpets anyway, because of the previous owner having 3 dogs and 2 cats who all went potty in the house at times. Plus the years of accumulating fur/hair that was rarely vacuumed. We're lucky we don't have allergies!

I want to put the vinyl plank flooring in. It's so good now, it really does look like the real thing, but easier on the joints! Area rugs are easier/cheaper to replace if destroyed, or if I ever just want to update. Although, knowing me, I probably never will. Not at all judging others, but for me, I don't like to spend money to replace something that's still perfectly good just because I'm tired of it, or because the newest model just came out.

I'm a mint/spa green fan! And I like hunter green too. I'll most likely do my room in green, if I ever get to my room, haha!

Steph, I was surprised at how inexpensive curtains can be if you shop around. I got 2 sets of café curtains for under $20. I should have thought to check the thrifts for rods. I needed two, but still, only paid $14.99 each from Amazon.

Well, off to the pharmacy (story of my life, haha)! :-)

I think the vinyl plank flooring is lovely. With so many animals here and yes animals do have accidents. Mostly barfing ones. Every one is house/litter box broke. But that horrible usually staining yellow barf. UGH.

I do have two area rugs I used in the living room for years here. THEN I found this wonderful 8 by 10 area rug that fit the space as one rug for $50.00 It is not all that pretty but it is a good well made rug so I bought it. The dinning room rug I painted is a cheep area rug and I really do like it. The other rugs are up in the loft and cycle through to different areas of the house when I do feel the need for a change. So they will be worn out and used up well before they go to the dump. Finally their last place to live is on the front porch before they head to the dump. They were 20 dollars each. The area run in the master bathroom has been living in there 8 years now and still going strong.

All in with use it up wear it out before replacing.

^ You're welcome. :)

One more suggestion, you might be able to get paint for free. Our dump/recycling center has a "still good" shed, where they give away all sorts of stuff, and they often have paint.

Also, paint stores have "oops" sections where people have returned paint, when there is too much stock, they sometimes mark it down to a buck or two a gallon.

And I would ask around at work and church, almost everyone has sampled paint that was the wrong color, and I bet they'd be happy to get it out of the basement. Then you mix up the whole thing in a big bucket, it always comes out to some neutral color. I'd give you mine, but my paint guy says you need special permits to ship paints across state lines.

The problem with vinyl planks and squares is getting down on your hands and knees to install. With paint, you can screw a long handle to the roller and move it around like a mop. Joy could cut in the edges. I just had my handyman paint our porch floor, about 10'x 14', it took about half an hour per coat.

Hey Debbie,

Stop everything! Check out this "Please Help Me with Color" thread on the Decorating the Home forum:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/4034189/please-help-me-with-color?n=22

This woman has done a painted floor. Granted, it's the most beautiful, elegant, and artistically painted floor I've ever seen. She used stencils. You have to scroll down a long way to see the actuall photos.

When we ripped out the 35+ year-old carpet from our kitchen, it was because I could not bear the thought of just how nasty it could be. The former, very old, folks that lived here did not have pets or children; they did not smoke and were very neat and tidy...but just the thought of carpet, in a kitchen, for 35+ years made me want to puke. I know how dirty a kitchen floor can get in a couple of days.

I told Wes we could work together to get it out or I would get down on my belly and cut it out one inch at a time if need be.

There was only subfloor plywood under the carpet. He scraped and sanded it. I really wanted to paint it, but I was thinking of a bold, geometric (easy) Amish-quilt type design. That was just too much for his male brain to wrap around. So the "temporary" painted floor (which would have been beautiful even if not as jaw dropping as the one shown above) was not too be.

We bought the least expensive piece of sheet vinyl we could find and had a friend help install it. Boring, but "clean, dry, and serviceable" rules the day.

Flea Market Trixie stenciled/painted her floors, too, and they look great:

http://www.fleamarkettrixie.com/2010/11/painted-kitchen-floor.html

Wow! Thank you one and all! I'm just constantly amazed by people's creativity! Those stenciled floors are stunning! I honestly don't think I could ever do that, but I'm really tempted to try. Maybe I'll try it in my room. It's by far the smallest room, and if it turns out horribly no one has to live with it besides me.

This may actually be a creative solution to a practical problem. My home is a manufactured home, 1979. It's really falling apart from the neglect of the previous owners. I want, and need, all new floors and the subfloor has to be redone. So I think what has to happen is the joists have to be beefed up in all the "sunken" areas where there is water damage and under the bathtub. Then insulation will be put in. These old MHs were built with minimal insulation and homes actually lose more heat through the floors than through the roof. Then a good moisture barrier. Then all new 1/2" plywood, and finally, the new flooring.

Needless to say, this is an expensive project! But it has to be done. I'm never going to sell this house; when I die the house goes to Joy. She will never sell it either. Joy is the most amazing person I know. She is generous to a fault, really really smart, funny, kind to all, a lover of animals, and I could go on and on.

Sadly, she also has some mental health challenges that will prevent her from being able to support herself. Two nights ago I had to take her to the ER. She's now in a short term mental health facility, probably for a week or so. This happens every few months.

I will put far more money into this house than it will ever be worth. But I can't afford a newer, better home. What I can do is renovate this fixer upper, one project at a time, as I save up cash.

My goal is to have a comfortable space to write and research. and a cozy home that is welcoming, peaceful, and harmonious. A home that our friends and family and everyone who walks through the door will immediately be comfortable in. But most of all, I want to know that Joy will always have a roof over her head no matter what.

So...the floors are a disaster. When I say I'm renovating from the ground up, I'm not kidding. Thus, the floors are going to be a major project!

I'm thinking I probably should split this project into more manageable pieces. I had at first thought I'll save $$ until I have enough to do it all. But I'm pretty concerned about the sinking floor areas. And the walls and roof aren't far behind.

I can't do new siding until the floors are stable. And I can't replace the siding until the new roof goes on, due to how the roof has to be affixed to the siding. So it all has to be done in order.

So then I thought maybe I should do the floors up to the subfloor and then put off the actual floors until the siding and roof are done. But I thought it's going to be icky living in a house with just the subfloor for a couple of years.

BUT THEN...Scone911 to the rescue, along with Shades, Caroline, Steph, llucy, murraysmom, Imhappy, and writersblock! I now have an option I've never had. I can pull everything up (The bathroom & powder room will be done later, as part of the bathrooms remodel), do all the things right on up to the plywood subfloor...and then paint it!!! It will be unique and fun! Then I can do the roof and siding (pitched roof instead of the current flat roof, and new roof will have overhang; siding will be hardiplank), and circle back to the floors after that.

It's too bad that MHs lose value over time, with some exceptions. Because if I had a site built house that was ready to be condemned and I rehabbed every square inch of it--electrical, plumbing, floors, roof, walls, all new windows, and remodeled and updated the kitchens and bathrooms, and put a large three season enclosed deck on it...that house would make a ton of $$ if I flipped it. But being a manufactured home, it will be worth more than I paid for it, but not even close to what I put in. But I'm OK with that since the purpose is to make a nice home for Joy and me.

THANK YOU ALL!!!

Debby many times MH need to have their jacks adjusted. could have some thing to do with the sinking floors. My Mom had to have this done with her house and I winder if the hoard within added to the sinking situation. Even our house on a full foundation with a six foot wide slab up the center holding the jacks could need adjusting. As we walk over the floors for years the vibrations can cause then to shimmy down. I have heard dogs are even worse for that because of the cadence of their running down the ffloors. Not sure on that. Just heard it some where.

Since out MH is a 2008 it is well insulated all around and we added an arctic pack to it. We have the 6 inch walls all sheet rock. Even so it does have the crappy cabinets. We did have the kitchen re-done and I will reface the bathrooms with my mosaics when I get to it.

I know once you dig into a project it tends to escalate. I am so sorry Joy has these issues and so good of you to provide for her future. Must be heart breaking for you too so see her go through these spells. Just like my watching hubby become sicker as time goes on.

Hugs

I'm learning an awful lot from you ladies. Hugs to you both!!