Water + Color = Comfort

In Mid-March, we decided to take some time off of work to relax and spend some time with Liam, and to do some much needed painting in our house.

There is a place in Wisconsin, about three hours away called the Wisconsin Dells. We'd heard a lot about it, as many Chicagoans, as well as other Midwesterners escape to this destination-vacationland to get away from it all. A colleague of Joe's told him about a hotel there that had an indoor water area just for little ones. So, I did some research and reserved a room for us at the Polynesian Resort, which had an indoor water park and a splash area for the little ones. This might sound like a tiki-heaven of sorts, but I would not have used the term "resort" to describe it and the "restaurant" only served up microwave pizzas and junk food, but it was clean and the water area was warm and exactly what we were looking for. Liam had an okay time splashing around in the Water Works area for small 'uns, but it was a bit chilly for him. So, he found his true calling---sitting in the hot tubs. I wasn't going to complain! Joe and I had some fun taking turns going down the crazy, dark water slides and taking Liam around the "Lazy River" in an intertube. Liam especially liked it when daddy pushed mommy into the waterfalls.

We also drove around and got to know the Dells a lot better. I am sure at one point, the location with it's river and lake, was a fishing and camping, out-doorsy, sort of get away. Currently it is a pretty touristy water park/roller coaster destination. As it was still pretty chilly there, the outdoor water parks, roller coasters, and many of the restaurants were not open, but there were still a lot of people everywhere. One chilly morning, we got up and went over to Paul Bunyan's Cook Shanty, a restaurant that serves up hearty family-style meals and had a most delicious all-you-can-eat breakfast of fresh old-style sugared donuts, flapjacks, scrambled eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, potatoes, biscuits and gravy. (This was the best meal we had in the Dells; the rest of the food we had there was disappointing to say the least.) After that, we drove up to the Original Wisconsin Dells Ducks loading point and got ourselves three seats on an authentic Korean-war era duck, a boat/vehicle on wheels that drives you through the woods and then drives right into the water and turns into a boat. Liam was most amazed by this. I must say that I felt very uneasy when the duck drove into the river, but the tour was pretty interesting. After three days at the Dells soaking up that humid-indoor-heat at the water park and some sight seeing, we headed back home for some home improvements.

Our house has been our own for almost two years now, and we still had the previous family's (the Quinn's) couch in our living room, along with their dirty, hand-print- covered beige walls. We had been working hard over the last year to de-Quinn the house, as their handy work and style left a lot to be desired. This week, it was time to ditch the couch and paint those walls. In one weekend, we were able to sell the Quinn couch and loveseat for $300 on Craig's List and to pick up a nice dark blue microfiber full size futon for $50. The full size futon is temporarily serving as our living room couch until we can get something larger, more to our liking, and within our price range. We focused the painting on the main rooms in which we spent time, the front room, the living room, the foyer, and that little area in between our bedrooms. We caulked and cleaned and painted the moldings and got to work with some lovely bright colors. I am not afraid to have color in my house, after all, I have to live in it, and I want it to be comfortable and fun. We chose a "Japanese Fern" green and orangish/brown, "Apple Spice" for the living room, "River's Edge" blue and the "Apple Spice" for the front room, and "Chamomile" yellow for the foyer and space between our bedrooms. Joe had the brilliant idea to use the "Apple Spice" as accent on the bay windows to break up the blue, and it looks awesome. After a lot of hard work, we finally feel that the main part of our living space is actually ours!! Next, we're on to work on the upstairs guest room, then we've just got to redo the kitchen, paint the bedrooms, finish the basement....the list never ends! I hope that you enjoy the photos of the house. More to come...