The Finished Product...

Before my parents and Rachel got to Texas, Paul and I (but mostly Paul) put up old/weathered and some new wood on the hallway walls and the half-wall that separates the living room from our kitchen. The wall behind the tv and piano still wasn't painted or primed, and there weren't any pictures on the other walls that were already painted.

So when my parents and Rachel arrived, after hanging out in Austin for a day, the first project they helped with was hanging pictures on the walls that were actually finished.

(They also hung pictures in the guest room, but those walls weren’t painted, so I’m not posting pictures.)

Dad and Paul picked up stain for the weathered wood, and stained it a cedar color to match the existing trim in the rest of the house.

Then we all participated in priming and painting the chair rail that was put up around the living room and hallway.

After that, Rachel and I started priming and painting the wall behind the piano and tv. While we were painting, Paul and Dad used the router to make the decorative chair rail.

While the girls watched some episodes of the Cosby Show, the men put up the chair rail around the living room.

Then we hung pictures. We had originally put our meadows collage pictures on the green hallway wall. But the picture that my grandma gave me last Christmas looked better on the green wall than on the peanut butter wall. So we moved it around.

So here’s the semi-finished product. We haven’t gone around to do touch up paint yet. And eventually we want to pull up the carpet and put laminate wood flooring down. Maybe we can convince Paul’s parents to help with that project while they’re here this week. :)

Our friend Courtney painted these 4 pictures - Faith, Hope, Love, and then the verse from 1 Corinthians 13:13. She's the person that helped us pick out paint colors and got this whole project started for us in the first place. (She also decorated all of our new rooms at the camp, and if you've seen any of those rooms, you'll know that she's super talented).

These pictures are hung above our dining room table, but at the time the table was cluttered and I'm not going to post evidence of a messy house on the world wide web. :)
Paul's mom brought this painting back from Tanzania (I think). It wasn't in a frame originally - that came from Hobby Lobby. I believe the napkin rings (on the ledge) were also from there, but I'm not 100% certain.