WHITE to welcoming

“Home is not where you have to go but where you want to go; nor is it a place where you are sullenly admitted, but rather where you are welcomed – by the people, the walls, the tiles on the floor, the followers beside the door, the play of life, the very grass.”
― Scott Russell Sanders

So, on June 8, 2012, the small house became home.  And it was WHITE:

or ANGRY orange, pastel blue,  a touch of "limeish," plus retro fluorescent light fixtures:

But these were cosmetic, fixable things.  We were told 156 times during our home-buying process about "cosmetic fixes."  The salesman at Lowe's: "Oh, it's only a cosmetic fix." The Inspector: "It's only cosmetic, you aren't knocking out walls, or rewiring." Friends: "Oh, it's just cosmetic." But in reality, cosmetic fix or not, it still needs to be fixed.

So I scrubbed, Matt painted, scrubbed, painted, went to bed with sore arms, and scrubbed and painted some more.

Matt's brother changed 9 light fixtures in 1 day.  We were off, "fixing."

Fortunately, Benjamin Moore's Kingsport Gray and Elmira White (eggshell finish) worked to quickly warm up the vibe of the house.

However, choosing a third paint color posed problems.  For a time we had 5 colors painted on the walls of the upstairs bathroom, 5.  Stumped, I turned to Benjamin Moore's website:

http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/kingsportgray#ce_s=Kingsport

which puts together color pallets such as: "goes great with..."; "similar colors"; and "more shades." After 5 prior paint color attempts, this was helpful.  We ended up with Peanut Shell.

So that was our first step toward making the small house our home, coupled with high hopes for our small house to be a place that was warm and a welcoming, a place where people wanted to simply "be" and spend time enjoying life together, home.