Shall I give you a tour?

Living room, check. Dark Teal. Yummy.

Dining room, before and after. Chelsea Gray. Cool and sophisticated. I love the way the two colors look together!

And this has been a great week at our house! We took a week off to travel to Paris and Reykjavik (so fun, we will post pictures another time) and while we were gone Chris's dad had finished the stairs to the basement, set the new kitchen cabinets beside the stove, fixed several drawers, moved an outlet in the bathroom, and then both of Chris's parents cleaned the house top to bottom. Sanding dust, cobwebs, more sanding dust--all gone.

Whoa. Was that a great present.

So we could start right in on painting! It seemed still like there was an overwhelming list and we would never get through it, but seven days has made all the difference.

Chris sanded the bathroom wall and painted it

and he also painted the first coat on the bedroom (benjamin moore sioux falls....I am madly in love)

It looks different at all times of the day. Sometimes it's very green, sometimes it's very blue. It's a deep, rich color.

Then we spent two days cutting in the kitchen, which has A LOT of trim. We put on a first coat on Friday and returned to cut in a second time on Saturday. Lyndsay made a first visit to the house with her cute Tristan--they got the grand tour. Then the troops arrived! Julie and Emma came to help, along with Erika and Amie. Emma and Erika painted a second coat in the kitchen, Julie cleaned the bathroom of all the paint splatters and grime, I worked on touching up ceilings and trim. Then Emma painted (for the third time!) the crown molding in the living room, while Erika and Amie cleaned and contact papered the upper cabinets in the kitchen. Amie scrubbed the sink for hours, Julie scrubbed the tub for hours, I made a trip to the hardware store for shades and supplies. When everyone had to go, Emma and I finished scrubbing and papering the kitchen and it was time for a break! Thanks to our amazing team--we could not have done this without you!

Today Chris and I packed up our Beach Court kitchen and moved the whole thing to Ipswich. And tonight, we have a kitchen in our house. Remember the before?

Here's the after:

As you can see, we still have some things to do in here, but doesn't our stuff look cute on the counters? And wait til I show you the contact paper and the work we did under the sink...it's so charming now. But that's for another time. By the way, in case you were wondering, this is what our dining room table looks like right now, which gives you a small picture of what our diets have been like these past few weeks...

One week til we live here!!!