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Only at Our House:: The Week Before Holidays

the new paint (Behr All in One Studio Taupe):: one less room with swine!

What?!

Am I the only insane person who tears apart her house to paint walls just before the holidays?

Only at Our House:: The Week Before Holidays

Kind of like the week before Thanksgiving in 2007 when I was preparing to have guests over for Thanksgiving at our house. Suddenly I had a desire to do a little mini-makeover on our bathroom (not to mention that a rat decided to die in our wall and my son was running around with undies on his head.)

Then of course two years ago, our Christmas looked like this. Moving during the holidays is always fun. Especially in a snowstorm.

Apparently we like our holidays CRAZY at our house.

Right about now most people are thinking about setting their Thanksgiving tables and decorating their Christmas mantel. Most normal people.

Me, I’m just hoping to put my house back together again. I must thrive on insanity. I’m sorry people, I know I’m always a mess before the holidays. Right when you really want to see something PRETTY.

But I am looking forward to decorating my freshly painted dining room. It will be worth it, right?

49 Comments

  1. Rebecca

    I’m dying to paint! Our house is new, and it’s all builder beige right now! It’s making me crazy!

    However, I’m trying to hold off on painting until we purchase a few key pieces of furniture and until we actually get around to hanging some things on the walls!

    We may actually end up painting the house on Christmas! ;)

    Reply
  2. Sarah

    You aren’t the only one! I am doing the same thing this week! Love the color you picked and can’t wait to see the after pictures.

    Reply
  3. Lindsay Lee

    This sounds like my house. I DO THE SAME THING! It drives my hubby crazy haha! :)

    Reply
  4. Jessica

    Of course it will be worth it. You will feel much better when it’s done I’m sure. And we can’t wait to see it :-)

    I’m about to paint the guest room. No planning, I think I’ll just go for it. No problem right?!

    Reply
  5. The Cottage Chick

    Oh wow- I feel so much better! I have a house with all the stuff stripped from my walls, because of the remodel, and I need to paint as I have plain drywall in my living room. Then I have no moldings on the windows and no baseboards. I am wondering what my house is going to look like for the holidays?

    Denise

    Reply
  6. Anita

    Hurray for one less room of swine! I do the last minute, crazy, gotta get it done by next week ideas too :)

    Reply
  7. Lisa

    And then there’s the year we decided to wallpaper the kitchen before we fed about 30 something people. My neighbor came over and she and my hubs papered til almost 3 am. Me? Making pies all around them! But it worked! I need events to get anything done!! Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!

    Reply
  8. Patricia Torres

    Oh.. thats lovely and it will give your house a whole new look and feel to it.. just before the holidays.. Making it all the more special!!

    I’m not become super lazy.. and have post poned all my DIYs and wall painting.. and anything else.. to after the holidays… :-)

    Reply
  9. Marla

    Only at your house, and you are the only one…NOT! LOL

    Excuse me for laughing (it’s either that or horrific sobbing), but this year Melissa, I just might have you beat. Our life is ‘holding’ in boxes a we were supposed to move a week. The ‘new’ house had a little corner of the ceiling sagging so we thought we’d have it fixed. Turned into a m-a-j-o-r asbestos ‘challenge’. So with permit, cleanup & inspection, we won’t be in until (earliest) 1st of Dec!

    Yes, Melissa, there really is a Santa Claus (i.e. it WILL be worth it to get rid of the swine. You will love embracing the holiday season in peaceful tobacco road!) After all, we both know it isn’t really about the surroundings, but the ones dwelling within those surroundings. Who have been graciously given to us by the One dwelling within.:)

    You go Girl! Too bad no one’s figured out how to do a virtual painting party. LOL

    Reply
  10. teresa

    Oh I love seeing your lovely house so REAL and LOVED!
    You’ll stay up late and pull it all together!
    It will be LOVELY!
    And I know everyone at your Thanksgiving table will be ooooooohing and aaawwwwwing at the LOVELY~ness of it all!
    Happy Holidays Sweet Melissa!
    xo

    Reply
  11. Marti

    You are not alone. Not only is my laundry room torn up, but I am trying to get rid of my dining chairs right now so I can get more. We’ll be sitting on a blanket in an empty room on Thanksgiving Day at this rate.

    Reply
  12. Marilyn

    I don’t know why but I paint, paper or recover something only on the holidays! On the 4th of July I was painting a living room. On Labor Day I was painting a bedroom. This year I got a jump start and painted another bedroom and bathroom just a week or so before Thanksgiving. Does it bother me that I’m refinishing a coffee table before Christmas? Not at all. Holidays inspire me to redecorate. Even on Valentine’s Day I was painting a fireplace. It works for me.

    Reply
  13. Amy

    Ha! I have wet paint on my hands as I am typing this from repainting my kitchen.
    Happy Holidays!

    Reply
  14. Emily

    Love it! I am this same way when I have big stuff looming. The night before my son’s birthday party last year I emptied our living room, rearranged furniture all over the place and painted a table. I much prefer projects like that over cleaning :)

    Reply
  15. Alan Maddick

    Nice article & great photos, we are slowly working through our 80s house of beiges and pinks, we’re getting there but still have plenty of rooms to do.

    Reply
  16. Lori

    We go out of town for Thanksgiving but will be painting our dining room before a big Christmas party that we will be having 3 weeks after Thanksgiving.

    Could you please tell me what color you used? It is almost exactly what we are after for our dining room….please?

    Reply
  17. Kathy

    But projects always seem to get done that way, Melissa!

    Reply
  18. Melanie

    I have moved for the last two Novembers so I know exactly how you feel. Last November was from Florida to northern Kentucky and this November was from Kentucky to SC. Who can think about the holidays with all of that going on?

    Reply
  19. Tara

    it WILL be worth it!

    can’t wait to see the finished project…..

    yay to no more swine walls!

    Reply
  20. Christi {Jealous Hands}

    I’m doing the same thing! Last year, we moved the week before hosting Thanksgiving at our home. This year, I’m in the process of re-doing almost every wall in the house. It will be down to the wire, but it will be worth it!

    Reply
  21. Mary Jean

    Fresh paint trumps everything!!!

    Reply
  22. Spring

    I painted our foyer this week- and as far up the stairwell as the sheetrock is finished! :) Now I can clean and get ready for next weeks’ company!

    Reply
  23. Carmen

    Haha! Well it looks great!!!! And it’s not THAT close to Thanksgiving. You still have over a week. :)

    Reply
  24. Linda

    Not nuts at all….specials guests and holidays spur me on to both the start adn the finish! In fact I am going to the paint store today for my kitchen. Time for a new color! Don;t you just love paint! Hanging there…it will look fab!

    Reply
  25. Rose in Ohio

    Oh, dear—it’s an epidemic! What is it that makes us want to take on EXTRA projects at the busiest time of the year? There was the year we invited friends for Thanksgiving dinner and the week before I decided I needed to paint the living room and the foyer. Check! Then there was the year I decided to strip wallpaper and paint the powder room and dining room a couple weeks before Thanksgiving, but my brother-in-law and sister-in-law foiled my plans by calling to say they were coming to stay for the WEEK of Thanksgiving—I only barely got the powder room done before I had to put everything away and prerare for houseguests. Then just last year, my teen DD was housesitting for friends for a few days before T’giving, so I decided to have a big surprise when she came home for T’giving dinner, and stripped the dining room wallpaper and painted in there. Whew–got everything back in place on T’giving morning, just in time to start cooking! Looks lovely, by the way. So, yesterday I asked DH what I should paint this year. I think the master bedroom is calling me…..

    Reply
  26. Karen

    Are we twins separated at birth? The resemblance to craziness is uncanny!

    Reply
  27. Deana

    For 5 or 6 years in a row, the tradition became that a major appliance would choose to die while there were 8-10 extra people in the house for Thanksgiving or Christmas. The dishwasher one year. The washing machine the next. Then the furnace decided to go. I think the worst was the year our hot water heater died at Christmas time…I still shiver! After the third year, my dad began begging us to skip the holidays!

    Reply
  28. Shannon

    Totally not the only one! I am forever redoing something right before company comes…hubby thinks I’m crazy, but helps me anyway! Lol.
    Shannon
    http://www.akadesign.ca

    Reply
  29. beth

    Of course it will be worth it!! Your walls are going to look so much better, and you are going to be happy to have the “swine colored walls” gone.
    Can’t wait to see it all finished! :)
    Beth.

    Reply
  30. Stephanie

    Well the good thing is, you are consistent every year with your pre-holiday madness, I would say that makes you normal.

    Reply
  31. Karen

    Hey, it gets the adrenaline going…that will help you get things done for the big day AND you’ll have the satisfaction of making the room beautiful just in time! :-)
    Karen

    Reply
  32. teresa

    You are not alone- I tend to do the same thing….knowing that people are coming over…pushes me to get it done. =)
    Love your new color.

    Reply
  33. martha brady

    i see a lot of parallels w my life. am trying to clear out a bedroom that has been functioning almost as a craft closet, b/c my kids are coming for t’giving.
    we moved right after christmas one year (FL to TX). definitely not my favorite time of year to move:(
    i think my husband tho’t he married something of a freak b/c i was always changing the house around, painting walls new colors, etc. he was NOT familiar w that in the home he grew up in (where he lived his whole childhood…in the same house.)
    i’m hoping to get through this week w a cleared out house, ready for daughters and grands next wk. don’t know where i’ll put all this stuff that is now in my hall!

    Reply
  34. Sarah

    If you think that is bad, you need to come over to Oxford and see the catastrophe that is my house! We’re having our attic converted and today was the day they tool out the landing ceiling and OH MY but you would NOT BELIEVE the mess. My poor, dirty, freezing cold house!

    But in two week’s time I’ll have a whole new room, so I guess I can’t complain too much. But it *does* explain why I’ve been hiding in my nice warm office all day, uploading fabby new products to the shop and sending out emails as if my life depended on it!

    Reply
  35. Lindsey

    I desperately want to paint about three rooms in my home before thanksgiving! But, I’ see if I have time after i recover the dining room chairs, finish reupholstering the love seat, finish up the touches of the bathroom makeover…. Yeah, you’re not the only one.

    Reply
  36. Missy June

    It will totally be worth it! Sometimes we need the holiday “excuse” or deadline to motivate us to complete that project!

    Reply
  37. Abbie

    I don’t do it every year … but last year I spent the week before our Christmas open house removing wallpaper and painting in my girls’ bedroom. Oh, and THIS year? I will be removing six (SIX!) layers of old wallpaper in the living room and foyer so I can paint. Starting December 1. Yep, crazy. (But that’s when I have help.) :)

    Reply
  38. Fiona's Mosaic

    I have done this before!! About half way into it I say “Oh dear Lord what was I thinking??” and usually start to cry. About 3/4 of the way into it I get excited!! LOL

    Hang in there Melissa! Can’t wait to see the end of it!

    Reply
  39. Kelly

    On a completely random note: Your dining room has GORGEOUS ceilings!

    Reply
  40. Krystina Montemurro

    what insane person? ME! I am painting my bedroom and tired OF IT! We found mold in all our carpets so we’re also replacing the floors; fun! We are having guests for Thanksgiving, while I homeschool, make 150 cards for one order, and 10 sets of monogram stationery for another! I would really like to enjoy the holidays, but…

    You’re not the only crazy person Mel!

    Reply
  41. Becca

    I know what you mean. I decided to strip and restain my kitchen cabinets. Who does that this time of year!?! Wishing you luck.

    Becca

    Reply
  42. Amber

    Oh my gosh I’m so glad to know I’m not the only one! I have to say I’m probably more exicted to see the results of your labor than my own but I too am painting before out of state guests arrive for Thanksgiving.
    We bought a house, moved in on my b-day, missed trick or treating because we couldn’t find anything and the kids were pooped from helping move and I have little squares of paint up all over the house because I can’t decide on colors. But it WILL be done before Mom arrives from WA.
    So I’ll be looking forward to pics of your work and hoping that I actually get mine done!

    Reply
  43. Kelly

    I understand! we just redid our living room – new ceiling and lights new paint etc. and the whole house is a mess. So tonight and the rest of the evenings and the one weekend left before Thanksgiving we will be putting everything back………I hope.

    Reply
  44. Kristy

    I’m so glad you wrote this, because it makes me feel not so crazy for all the things I’m planning to do between now and the time my parents arrive for Thanksgiving next week.

    Reply
  45. Peg

    I do relate so well! :)
    Your paint color is beautiful– happy transforming! Bye bye swine; hello classy!
    I also note that you’ve done some “updating” on your header: less fall, Christmas is coming!
    Thanks for all your inspiration!

    Reply
  46. Lori R.

    I know the feeling well. We have my family coming in to celebrate our Christmas on the 27th right after Turkey Day. Mom will be here Monday. Beadboard wainscoat still needs to be installed in the bath, paint the living room tonight, new water line to frig for ice, repair broken bathroom faucet, install new light in guest bedroom, deep clean from contruction remodeling all summer, decorate for Christmas and wrap all the gifts. We both work full time. Do you think the hubs and I will accomplish all of this by Monday? I need some elves to help!

    Reply
  47. Candace

    You aren’t the only one… we decided now was the time to DIY a closet-turned-dry-bar. A week before guests arrive and there’s wood propped against every available wall, piles of Home Depot bags in the corners, tools on the dining table and my sitting room has been converted to a let-stain-dry-away-from-murderous-falling-leaves room!

    Fingers crossed for both our sakes!

    Reply
  48. SheilaP

    I gotta say, as a wife of a hog farmer, that color beats the color of swine any day! P.S. You are not the only one painting before the holidays – I have a date with Benjamin Moore tomorrow afternoon!!!

    Reply
  49. Beverly

    If it makes you feel any better, we are going to try to have new carpet installed in the living room and den before Thanksgiving–and definitely by Christmas. Yes, we are nuts, too.

    Reply

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