Extreme Makeover: Company's Coming Edition.

This week has been pretty hectic, as we prepare for our Engagement Party this weekend, and for the many, many friends we have coming in town for the occasion. There's nothing like fifteen of your closest friends coming to stay the weekend to really make you spruce things up around the house! I realized that Mark has really only been using about one third of his house - his room, bathroom, living room and kitchen. The two guest rooms, guest bathroom, dining room and second living area have been sadly neglected. He has a roommate in one of the extra bedrooms, but the other one is just shut up with a bare mattress and a dresser in it, never touched unless someone actually is going to sleepover, in which case he puts his old high school bedding on the bed. Booooring.

We finally finished painting the kitchen last week, and then I brought up my (much nicer than Mark's) desk and set up his computer in one corner of it. The old desk? Off to Goodwill! Or, just the garbage. It's pretty bad. Next we tackled the guestroom. We painted it and even sanded and repainted the baseboards. I hit up Ikea, where for a whopping $35 I got a comforter, duvet set and new sheets. Ten bucks at Stein Mart for a bed skirt and the pillows from my couch at my place finished off the bed. When I officially move in, I'll bring my bed frame for it as well. I snagged some stuff from around Mark's house for a few decorative touches, and we've got a guest room!

Next up, hallway. Sounds boring, but we really wanted to use a burnt orange in the house somewhere, but couldn't bear to paint an entire bedroom that color, and the great room/kitchen-living areas-dining room are all pretty open, so any wall in that section of the house would be visible from everywhere, and would have to match everything. So we painted the little hallway that goes off to the two guest rooms and second bathroom an almost-UT burnt orange. I LOVE it. You can just see it peeping out from the main part of the house, and it looks fabulous.

So now we're down to the guest bath. I went to stare at the 3,000 paint swatches at Home Depot last night (sans Mark - he told me he trusted me to pick out ANY color) and came back with a sample of a nice golden tan. Harvest Wheat I think it was called. I put some up on the wall and we both agreed it looks good enough! So that's the last of the rooms we need to paint before Friday. Whew! So far all the colors we've picked are warm, earthy tones and I am just loving how they are all coming together. I can see myself living in this house.. it feels like it's transforming into our home. Mark commented as we labored over all the paint this week, "we're making this house a home." It's amazing what a little color on the walls and some strategic rearranging can do!