the porch project...

So... the porch.

Here's the progress so far, and I'm kicking myself for not taking daytime pictures of the finished floor, because it's pretty. Hopefully you can imagine based on the paint color above.

BRICK: That brick was a mofo to paint. We started with a $6.00 VERY ROUGH surface roller, which our brick promptly ate up and spit out thankyouverymuch.

Then we used those small sponges on sticks to googe the paint in the grout. That lasted for about 15 minutes until we poked our eyes out with the sponge sticks.

Then... the wheels started turning and out came the spraypaint. 7 cans later, we (I) had sprayed into every stinking crevice possible. AGAIN. and AGAIN.

Seriously-- my nose hairs were white-- and I wore a mask...

The brick wasn't only rough, it was... sucky. See the pic below-- we painted 3 more cans after this because it was still absorbing paint... it's a more solid, normal ivory now.

RUGS: the bain of my existence right now. WHY WHY WHY do I always see what I want when I don't need it, and the exact second I decide I want to buy something, it becomes completely elusive and disappears from the face of the Earth. This is my luck with rugs.

And, AND... I can't even find one of the runners-up that we bought at Target online, so I'll have to describe.

RUG 1: Braided/basketweave indoor/outdoor fabric. Pretty, but plain. Could probably find something similar elsewhere for $20 less, but who wants to deal with searching more. Would be great to compliment with the summer-y and SO "in" green apple/lime/fern colors I'd like to use in there. ALSO great for all seasons because it's neutral-- could be accessorized/swapped out with different colors for Fall, Winter, etc.

RUG 2: $40 more expensive than Rug 1. Colors of putty, gold, cream and slate blue. Matches the floor really well. Sets off the ceiling really well. Good color match. More expensive, but worth it if we like it. Not technically indoor/outdoor, but is bristlier feeling than most indoor rugs. 100% cotton. Would be great if we wanted to take the room into a slightly blue/wheat/ivory theme, which isn't what I was intending, but would look really good.

Hopefully I'll have pics tomorrow.