The Only Thing You Can Count On Is Change...

We have lived in our house now for just over five years. We love this house, although we know that one day we'll have to move. We need another room (or study), a game room and another bathroom.

But because we like this house so much, we want to stay here as long as possible. Also, we have a ridiculously cheap mortgage that makes moving very, very hard.

Most of the stuff we love is downstairs -- hardwood floors, travertine backsplash in the kitchen, custom crown moulding, custom lighting, floor-to-ceiling windows, etc. The downstairs is very pretty (at least in our opinions), if not a little bit small.

The upstairs, though... Well, that's another story.

As you know, Todd is a fantastic artist and have given our kids some beautiful custom-painted room, like the girls' Tinkerbell room and Devin's Hot Wheels room. The kids' bathroom is a fun mix of pink flowers and blue bubbles and different hook for each of their towels, above which are their names. It even says, "It's Soapy Shower Time!" above the shower -- a favorite bathtime song in the Pruetz house.

The guestroom is in pretty good shape too. Done in pink and brown, it's a little bit retro and a little bit modern all together. It's not fabulous, but it's fun, and, heck...it's a guest room!

So really, all that leaves us is our bedroom.

When bought this house from the original owners, we fell in love with all of the custom work in the house, especially in the master bedroom. The female half of the couple who owned this house before us was quite the crafty one and she put a lot of work into the master suite.

The bedroom is done with a faux finish to look like stone, with an ornate, gothic-style red stenciling around the top. It's striking and beautiful. I'm not one for stencil, because I often associate it with "country" style homes, which just isn't my style, but this is so much different. I've really enjoyed it.

The stenciling in the bedroom


Close-up of bedroom stenciling


About two years into living here, as we were lying in bed, watching TV one night, Todd announced to me that there was a Devil's face in the stenciling, where the corners met. After sitting, staring at it for a moment or two, I saw what he saw. Since then, I've laid in bed every night, thinking, "Satan is watching me." It's the stuff nightmares are made of...
*Hint: Click on the picture to enlarge it -- it's easier to see the face*

The bathroom was spectacular, too. She'd used a similar stencil and stenciled a floor-to-ceiling pattern onto the walls. Now we have a 200-square-feet-plus bathroom with 12-foot-ceilings, so this was no easy task. After stencling hundreds of pieces over and over and over again, she antiqued it. The result was a pattern that looked like wallpaper, but was hand-done. A piece of work, although not exactly our style.


It's not a perfect view, but hopefully you can get the gist of how much work went into the paint treatment in our bathroom

For the first couple of years of living here, we really didn't want paint over this masterpiece, but as time wore on and the house started needing more and more work, we decided we'd just completely redo the bedroom and bathroom.

So, along with a few other projects around the house, this week will be home renovation week at the Pruetz residence. In the bathroom, we are pulling up the carpet (who the heck puts carpeting in a bathroom???), putting down mosaic tile, painting, framing the wall-to-wall mirror, adding new window treatments and new hardware.

We're not doing quite so much in the bedroom, as we pretty much like it the way it is. I am done with the stenciling, so we'll be painting in there and, eventually, adding in hardwood floors.

Both rooms will be a butter yellow color with black and red accents. Sounds a little garish, I know, but when done correctly (which I hope we're doing!), I think it will be very striking. We already have the red window treatments in the bedroom and will be investing in a couple of matching ones in the bathroom. We want both rooms to have similar decor so that they act together as a "suite" instead of as two separate rooms.

In order to pay homage to the previous owners' very hard work, I've taken some "before" photos of our bedroom and bathroom.

(Note: We are having some work done in our closet, too, for which we had to completely clear all of our clothes, shoes and other stuff out. Most of it is in our bathroom, on the floor. I tried to keep most of it out of the photos, but the stuff made it into a couple of pictures. Just didn't want you to think I'm a total slob. The truth is, I'm only a partial slob, than-you-very-much. :)


The bathroom, pre-priming


I'm not proud to admit this, but I'm the reason that our carpeting looks this way. Makeup, hair color (I don't mind telling people that I'm gray, but showing them is a whole other story), and other products have contributed to this carpet's demise.


The shower and the double doors leading into our bedroom


The double doors that lead into our closet

So yesterday was spent looking at paint samples, pricing tile, and purchasing the "stuff" we'll need to get the job done. We have a handyman doing our tile, but the rest we're doing ourselves. I don't like giving up control.

After we finally settled on what we wanted, we got everything purchased and came home. I started priming this morning, and here are the first in a series of "in the process" photos.


Not a fantastic photo, but you can see that the stenciling has been primed over


Wow...that's a lot of white

So it sounds like it's all going smoothly, right? Wrong.

Yesterday was not without incident. After putting the girls to bed at 5:30 p.m. Friday night (they were inconsolable and exhausted from missing their afternoon nap), I figured they'd be up early on Saturday morning.

Oddly, at 9:00, they were both asleep. I started to worry around 9:30, and went to check on them. Grace was quietly laying in her crib, eyes open, while Faith slept quietly on the other side of the room. I got Gracie up and dressed and took her downstairs. After she'd eaten, I decided that Faith really needed to get up.

When I went to her room, she was also lying quietly in her crib, wide awake.

But when I reached for her, I could feel her radiating heat. She was burning up.

Sure enough, 102.2 fever. We gave her Tylenol and breakfast and went on our merry way to Home Depot and tile stores (definitely contenders for "Parents of the Year."). Faith's fever was back by the time we returned and after she wouldn't eat lunch, I decided to take her to the after-hours pediatrician down the street.

Like clockwork, it's an ear infection. Tubes here we come.

Needless to say, the girls both went down early last night (6:30 ish) and before I went to bed, I decided to check on them. I never go into their room while they are sleeping, as they are such light sleepers that I risk waking one or both up. But I couldn't resist -- I really wanted to check on Faitharoo.

Boy am I glad I did.

I went into the room and peeked at Faith. In a deep sleep, snoring lightly.

Then to Grace, who was wide awake and lying on her back. When she saw me, she rolled over and stuck her little bare bottom up in the air.

WAIT A SECOND. Bare bottom?

The kid had taken off her diaper and thrown it over the side of the crib. Devin never did this and I was astounded to see such I sight. Todd was already asleep, but I woke him up to see it. He laughed and laughed and held Gracie Too while I changed her sheets (because, of course...she tinkled in her bed).

Give me strength...