Master Bed & Bath Makeover, Part 2

Scraping off the popcorn texture on the ceiling in both bed & bathroom were a huge task!

In March I posted about redoing the master bed & bath. {Read Part 1 here.} The previous post shows all the before photos of the two rooms. Now I will show you the 'during' of the main part of the makeover: painting! The painting part really didn't take too long to do. I tore out the old wall paper, got the popcorn ceilings scraped off, re-textured the walls and ceilings, and finally edged & painted.

This is what the floor in the bathroom looked like after the ceiling texture was removed.
It took lots of vacuuming to get it all clean again!

I moved everything out of the bathroom and the only things left in the bedroom were our dresser (which I moved around the room so I could texture and paint the ceiling easier) and the headboard & frame to our bed. I'm really glad I took everything else out since scraping popcorn ceiling off really gets awful dust everywhere! Not only that, but it's just tons easier to move around in an empty room!

This is what my hallway looked like for 4 days.

The painting part really went pretty fast. It took almost all of four days to tear out the wall paper, texture the walls, and then paint. I was SO glad when this project was finished because my whole house was torn apart! Not only was there one foot width of space in my hallway, but all of our stuff from the master bathroom was relocated to the front bathroom during those days too. That stuff ended up staying the the bathroom for several weeks, but the hallway returned to normal as soon as the painted had dried.

BATHROOM

This is the during & after of scraping off the popcorn texture on the ceiling and painting the walls. I did add one photo of some of the decor I already have in place at the very end of this post. The rest of the decor is still coming together (and may take me a few months) so I thought I'd share a sneak peek of what I have going now.

Demi, our cat, wondering what is going on and where all the stuff went!

The bathroom before we painted.

Another 'before' shot of the bathroom.

I decided to take the tank off the toilet.
That made it much easier for painting the wall behind it.

Walls and ceiling are painted!
Paint stuff is everywhere!
{That camo bucket is the trash can in LM's room!}

Getting the room cleaned up.

Unfortunately when I peeled off the tape, some areas messed up.
This had to be redone with a fine art brush.

Even though I put a sheet down over the floor I still got paint all over it! :(
Fortunately I do plan to eventually replace the flooring in here so it's not a completely lost cause.

BEDROOM

The room seemed to take forever to texture and paint. I was nervous about doing the walls and ceiling all the same color but I was brave and went for it. Result: I LOVE IT! I'm SO glad I did it all the same color and it makes our wood trim/doors and dark wood furniture stand out really nice too!

Bedroom without most of the furniture and previous decor.

Wallpaper has been removed! Yay!!

Edges have been painted. This was quite a chore, especially around the window!

More shots of the edges being worked on. Do you like my brush stroke poka dots there on the left wall? Lol.

This is me being nervous about painting the ceiling the same color as the walls.
I ended up putting a sheet over the frame and headboard to keep paint from splattering as I used the roller brush.

Walls & Ceiling are painted, all the gear is cleaned up, and the floor is vaccumed! I was feeling quite accomplished.
Demi was enjoying the view out the window.

Demi chillin' in the chair while I clean everything up.

I decided to go ahead and paint over the light switches and electrical outlet covers.
I'm really glad I did this. It makes them not stand out from the wall.

SOME OF THE DECOR

With this being the second and third room in our Country Home Makeover I have come to a conclusion: it's much easier to retexture and paint than it is to decorate!! Decorating requires a) finding exactly what you are wanting/looking for and then b) being able to afford to buy it! Thrift stores & yard sales are still my favorite places to look, but some things (new curtains and a new comforter) don't always show up at those places. At least not usually in decent shape. I have bits of decor up in both the bathroom and bedroom, but much is still needed before I can reveal the finished rooms. In the mean time, here are two sneak peek photos of what I do have up!

Dried roses in three separate Kerr jars on the shelf over the toilet.

These yellow roses are very special to me. They are the first roses Autry ever gave me. I had them in a funky green vase I got at a yard sale back when we lived in the apartment. You can see the roses (and the vase) in all their glory in this post. I had them on the dresser in our bedroom at the apartment and one day I came home to find Emerald, our black cat, had knocked them over and 'played' with them. I was SO mad! I don't remember putting all the pieces in the vase, but last week when I went to attempt decorating I was delightfully surprised to find all the bits and pieces! I divided them up and now here they sit in fun jars!

Wedding photos are hung in antique gold frames on both sides of the dresser mirror.

As you can see, I am still working on the decor, but you already knew that from reading above. I did finally get photos for all the empty frames printed off and I have added candles to the dresser as well. I still have quite a bit left to do for the decor in the bedroom part since it involves more work and money than the small master bathroom. The photo arrangement on either side of the mirror was magazine inspired!

I will post 'after' pics as soon as I get everything pulled together. I might do those separately though since I have a feeling the bathroom will be finished long before I get the bedroom decor pulled together. We will see!

Related Posts

• Keeping Your Special Roses
• Master Bed & Bath Makeover, Part 1

Our Cat Demi Tom

Demi sleeping on the back of our recliner. One of his favorite spots.

Hubby says that 'Demi Tom' is a silly name, but my sister and I recently started calling him that because we think he looks so much like Tom from the Tom & Jerry cartoons. Not only does he look like Tom, but he acts crazy like him too! I think our cat chases ghosts around our living room. There is literally nothing there and he will run and jump from couch to chair to table to couch without stopping. It's quite entertaining to watch.

This photo is from October. Demi would climb on the bookcase and lay on my stacks of jeans & shirts to sew.

Demi is our only indoor pet now. We had some problems with Emerald and she had to go. Demi has become a completely different cat now that she is gone. He is much more playful and seeks out attention and loves snuggling and being petted. I think he is much more fun now than he was in some of the previous months. (We got him when he was about 6 weeks old and he was a friendly cat then, but at some point he changed and was more stuck up like Emerald vs. the fun playful cat he is now).

After Emerald was gone I was curious to see how Demi would react to the change and what his personality would be like. If he continued to be a stuck up, boring cat I was considering getting rid of him too. Obviously he is now quite entertaining and very much like Tom. I like him much better with his fun personality. Since he has changed for the better we went ahead and got him fixed and had his front claws removed.

Demi likes sitting in the kitchen chairs and he won't move if you go to sit down.
I've literally sat down on him and he doesn't move or make a sound. He is weird!

Getting him fixed was a necessity since he had started to pee in different rooms of our house. It was awful! It smelled musty and at first I wasn't sure where the smell was coming from, but after I caught him marking his territory we quickly made a vet appointment to get that taken care of. I haven't had any problems with him peeing on things now that he's been fixed.

Demi jumped in the laundry basket one day when I was doing laundry. He stayed in there for quite awhile too.

I was torn on whether or not to take out his front claws. Thanks to Emerald's influence in clawing on the ends of the couches he was bad about doing that too. He also kept trying to climb the curtains I had in our room (before the makeover) and in Little Man's room. He had poked a ton of little holes in the sheet and comforter on our bed from where he jumped up on it when he was really little and even now with him being around 8 months old he still got his claws caught up in my sheets. I wanted to get some new sheets, curtains, and a comforter for our new bedroom makeover but didn't want them torn up. This is where the waiting to see how his personality changed came into play. If he was boring I probably would've let him be an outside cat (he was an outside cat when we got him). But because he's not, I decided it would be best to have his claws taken out so for the rest of how ever long he is with us he at least wont be tearing up the furniture and linens.

Both surgery's were done at the same time. He was at the vets for two nights because I had to drop him off the night before his surgery and he had to stay over one night with his claws being done. When he got home he had to use a special type of litter for that first week. It was called Yesterdays News and was basically old newspapers turned into pellets. It was awful stuff (smelly) and I was SO glad when we were able to start using our regular litter again. That first afternoon when he got home he seem a little mad at me. He wouldn't have anything to do with me for several hours (I was the one who took him up to the vet and brought him home), but eventually he came around and now he is back to normal.

Demi's "I've been caught" face. He likes roaming around in the bath tub.
He's even hopped in the shower a few times when the water was running!

Demi took a little time adjusting to not having his claws. He was used to using them to climb on the furniture (not that he needed them to jump on the back of the couch), or play with our feet so the first few days when he would do something and realize his claws weren't there he was confused. He would look around like, "what is going on? why isn't this working like it's supposed to?" Once he adjusted how he jumped on the furniture or played with things he was fine.

I have noticed that since Demi doesn't have his claws he seems to over compensate with his teeth. He doesn't actually bite down, but he does put his teeth on your hand or your foot (which ever he is playing with) so I've had to work with him so he won't do this. I was a little concerned about this habit when he started it up, but he isn't as bad about it now as he was at first. I was mostly concerned because of having Little Man around him, but I don't think I'll have to worry about Demi biting him.

Demi snuggling with LM.

That's another thing to bring up: Demi is great with Little Man! In the beginning he could care less about him, but I think he's figured out that LM is here to stay. Demi usually sniffs his head and walks on, but occasionally he will lay on the play mat with LM or come snuggle on the couch with us. I can't wait to see how they react together when LM gets older.

Sprawled out on the couch. Demi does this quite often.

I swear Demi is part dog. He sniffs EVERYTHING, drinks out of the toilet (also a habit of his I don't like and can't get him to break), tries to lick you, and lays sprawled out on the floor or the couch or the bed. He is the perfect cat for me because I would love a dog, but can't have one right now. Yes he is still a cat and still does mostly cat things, but he also does these odd dog-like things and it makes me laugh.

How-To Prepare To Get A Cat

In April of 2013 my hubby wanted to get me a cat. He knew how much I loved animals, and at the time we were in an apartment that only allowed cats. I have had many cats before, but never an indoor cat. The process of picking out a cat was really simple for us. At the time we lived in a town which had a Pet Smart store. On Saturdays they would have pets in from a local animal shelter who were ready for adoption. We ended up picking a cat (Emerald) and were able to get her a few days later after paperwork was filled out.

If you've never had an indoor cat, this post is for you. If you have had or do have an indoor cat, please feel free to share comments on things you do to care for your cat and what things you like most (types of litter, toys, etc.).

Things You Will Need or Want

Litter box & fresh litter

Poop scooper

5 gallon bucket with lid

Dry cat food and/or wet cat food

Water & food bowls

Hairbrush

Cat toys

The Breakdown

Litter box. Obviously if you’re going to have an indoor cat you will need somewhere for them to use the bathroom. You can purchase a traditional litter box, or you can shop the storage containers isle and find a container with higher sides. If you’re getting a small kitten the larger sides will cause a problem for them until they've grown big enough to get in and out of a larger box. There are LOTS of options in the litter box department. If you’re adopting a cat who has been under the care of a foster mom, ask what kind of litter box they use and perhaps get the same thing or something similar.

(The cat we adopted was almost full grown and was completely able to handle the large container we chose to use as her litter box. Part of that decision came from the fact that her foster mom had used a container with large sides so she was used to using that as her litter box. When we got Demi, or small grey cat, I had to use a small container for his litter box until he grew big enough to jump in and out of the large container).

Fresh Litter. Used litter is going to stink. Period. But that doesn't mean you don’t have to settle for something that doesn't help get rid of that smell. I must say that choosing a good litter was really hard for us. We went through four different types of litter before we found one that really kept the smell down, was easy to clean, and helped our cats paws not stink like poo. We are currently using Tidy Cats for Multiple Cats: 24/7 Performance (the red lid) and have been using it for more than 6 months. It is a clumping litter which really helps with the clean-up process.

Poop Scooper. This is highly important!! I just bought a large plastic scooper. If they came in something less flexible (like a metal scooper) I would totally prefer that since some of the stuff can be heavy when cleaning out the box.

Your cat’s litter box will need to be scooped every other day at the very least if you’re unable to scoop it every day. Scooping litter regularly really helps keep the smell down. At least once a month you will need to get rid of ALL the litter in the box and pour in fresh litter. This will greatly help with keeping the smell down.

5 gallon bucket with lid. Cat food comes in both large and small bags, but the larger bag is generally a better amount for your money. We have two cats and go through about __ oz. of cat food in 2 or 3 months. In order to help keep the food from becoming stale I like to store it in a 5 gallon bucket close to where the cats are fed every day. You can find 5 gallon buckets at Walmart in the hardware section, or if your Walmart has the ingredients for making your own laundry soap in one place they usually have the large 5 gallon bucket and lids there as well. I think this costs around $3-$4 for the bucket and lid.

Cat Food. As mentioned just above, sometimes buying a larger bag of cat food is the better choice when considering the amount you get for your money. I usually feed each cat about 1 cup of dry cat food per day, occasionally it’s more but they seem to do fine on this amount.

Wet cat food can be quite a bit more expensive. We were given a case of wet cat food when we got Emerald. Apparently she really liked it…but every time I've fixed it for her it will sit there most of the day before she touches it. I eventually stopped fixing it for her since she wouldn't eat it all and it was going to waste. The wet cat food came in handy when we rescued Demi (who was around 6 weeks old). He was unable to eat dry cat food for about a week and a half when we got him so it came in handy at that point. (I still kept a small bowl of dry food with him so he would be able to eat that if he wanted to. Eventually he started eating dry food and we stopped feeding him wet food altogether.)

Water & food bowls. We bought the small metal cat bowls from Walmart. I think they were a dollar each. If I could go back and do it again I wouldn't buy metal bowls for the cat’s water. They don’t seem to like drinking out of the metal bowls and we found them drinking from the toilet more than their bowls (so obviously we changed to a plastic water bowl and now keep the toilet lids down). The metal bowl works great for dry cat food though!

Hairbrush. We got a brush for Emerald with both the soft bristles and the metal ones. She is a shedder and I thought having a brush would help her not shed so much, but it really doesn't. In fact we pretty much never use the brush on her. I still have it and on occasion, when she’s having a really bad shedding day, I will brush her fur with it which helps temporarily. Both of our cats are short haired so their fur does not get matted or tangled and they do a good job at keeping themselves clean so a brush really isn't necessary for either one of them. If you have a long haired cat (which I've had in the past) their fur can get mats in it so brushing them regularly really decreases that problem.

Cat toys. We have had quite the adventure in the cat toy department. It’s been almost as crazy as trying to find a good litter. One toy that has just been marvelous are the original toys we bought when we got Emerald (and bought again not long after we got Demi since the original mice were old and ‘dying’ aka falling apart due to so much play). The Skitter Critters Catnip Mice are wonderful! I actually wrote a whole post on them if you would like more info. They can be purchased at Walmart for around $3.

Something we bought not long after we got Emerald was a red laser light. She goes nuts over it, and will come running any time it jingles when it’s picked up. Demi could care less about the laser when he was really little, but since he’s gotten bigger he loves it almost as much Emerald does. This was a great toy investment and something I’d really recommend. Our cats love chasing the laser across the floor, on furniture, and occasionally on the wall (Demi will play with the laser if it’s on the wall, Emerald wont). You can find one of these in the checkout section at Walmart for about $3.

At one point we purchased a Cardboard Claw Scratcher and it was a complete fail which you can read about here. Of course we bought it for Emerald in hopes that she would use that to sharpen her claws vs. our furniture, but she pretty much just looked at it and went on. I think if we had kept it (had we known we were getting another cat) that Demi might have used it when he was little and would probably still use it. I don’t think he would use it now though since he has already picked up on Emerald’s bad habit of using the couch to sharpen his claws (we do discourage them from doing this, but occasionally they are sneaky and get to the couch before we can get to them). The Claw Scratcher was about $5 at Walmart.

The final ‘toy’ item we purchased was this multi-purpose toy. It has a scratching post (which Demi will use, but Emerald wont), two jingly balls hanging on strings on the two corner posts, and a place for the cat to climb inside and ‘hide’ from people or each other. I personally don’t think this is a really great toy or of great quality, but they do use it a few times a week (sometimes less, sometimes more) so we've kept it. This was about $20, and also from Walmart.

Summary of this Post

Well I think I got everything listed that we bought, used, didn't really use, liked, and didn't like. Hopefully this will help someone who is thinking about getting an indoor cat. Indoor cats can be fun, but they can also be highly annoying. Cats in general don’t listen very well, and are quite lazy (napping most of the day and awake most of the night). The big things are being consistent with what they’re not allowed to do (our cats aren't allowed on the kitchen counters or table, and they’re not supposed to scratch their claws on the furniture), keep their litter box scooped at least every other day, and show them lots of affection. I've tagged the posts where I’ve shared things about our cats under the label CATS so if you want to read more or see more about our cats click there and read on!
 

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Little Man's Room, Part 2

Not too long ago I shared with you all the remaking of Little Man's Room. We had a long process of tearing out wallpaper, scraping off pop corn ceiling, texturing the walls and ceiling, and then painting everything. It took quite a bit of time, but the end result was SO worth it!

I had everything in the living room the week we painted his room so I could get it all sorted.

As promised I'm back with photos of moving in the baby furniture & putting away Little Man's things in his closet and dresser. Sorting out all the clothes I had found over several months through yard sales and thrift stores was quite a task! Putting it all away wasn't too hard, but I did have trouble remembering which drawer I put what in.

Demi is checking out the baby changing table. He found it quite interesting & fun to play on as you will see below!

Emerald wasn't quite sure what to make of the new baby stuff. Notice my baby belly on the right? :)

We have a few stuffed animals for Little Man. They perched on the dresser until I could find a better place for them.

These are the blocks I found at a yard sale this fall. They sat on the dresser until I found a better place for them.

Demi LOVES the changing table! And he found a new way to play with the strings to the blinds.
Yes those are pink blinds, we hadn't changed them out for the new ones at this point.

I'm not really sure what Demi is doing here...

Again Demi is playing and it involves the changing table.

This is the view coming into the room. The bed isn't set up at this point because we had lost a few pieces in the move.

This is the view from where the baby bed is in the previous photo.

This changing table was found at a yard sale over the summer for $20 and it matches the bed perfectly!

Here we have the top shelf in Little Man's closet. I have yet to redo the closet the way I want, but for now it works.
On the shelf we have a box of MUCH bigger clothes (like 2T, 3T and so on), the diaper bag has a breast pump kit in it, the car seat covers are next, and finally we have our new diaper bags which were a gift from a good friend of mine.

All of these clothes are bigger than 0-3 months. I have them hanging since it'll be a few months before we need them.

I think his tiny shoes are adorable!
These probably wouldn't fit him for awhile, but I got them at deals that were too good to pass up!

In this drawer I have his bath towels and wash cloths.

In this drawer I have the little baby things, burp cloths, and teething rings.

These are all the newborn size clothes & the socks.

These are the 0-3 month onesies and pants.

These are all the sleepers, most of them are 0-3 months but I have one or two the next size up.

Because it's nearly impossible to fit shorts on the hangers
I just put them in the drawer instead of with the other too big clothes. 

The baby blankets!

It was fun to finally be able to put away all the things I'd spent months collecting for Little Man. I'm really glad the dresser has so many drawers. Two or three of them are still empty, but I'm sure they will fill up the older he gets.

Eventually I want to redo the closet, but that is for another time. The dresser probably needs to be sanded and refinished, but again...that's a project for another day! I'm quite pleased with how his room came along. I'm sure you saw the post where I made a pillow for the rocking chair. That was the first 'decor' item I had in his room. I still have to finish decorating. That is taking much longer that I thought it would, but I'll eventually have it done and then I'll share photos!

Related Posts

Little Man's Room Ideas
Little Man's Room, Part 1

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