Melandy Beginnings: Before and After Day 2: The Bedroom

This is where we started. Sorry for the blurry cell phone picture, but you can definitely get an idea of what we had to work with:
- Tulip wall paper? CHECK
- Tulip border? CHECK
- Faux wood grain, linoleum floor? CHECK
- Many holes in the wall? CHECK
- Old and ugly ceiling fan? CHECK
- Wood trim and doors? CHECK
Not to mention the endless clutter and heavy furniture. We're now making use of the furniture in our spare bedroom. The first thing we tackled was that never ending wall paper. For those tackling their own tulips, a mix of Downey and water in a squirt bottle works wonders!

See these classic, yet ugly, brown doors? Yeah - those are white now!

While we were cleaning up the house, my dad went to work on the 60+ year old furniture that Andy and I planned to use in our bedroom. It was given to my great-aunt, Clara, when she got married at 15. It's cherry wood, which, when sanded, gives everything (including my dad) an Oompa Loompa like orange glow! He refinished the chest of drawers, dresser, and full-sized bed.Here he is sanding the dresser in the basement of his house

The finished chest of drawers

This is an in-progress shot. Notice the freshly painted brown walls and white trim. This picture was taken while I was working in the house by myself after we had moved in. Andy was at work and I was trying to hang pictures, so I kept stepping back and taking pictures like this one to see if Heidi (via texts) thought they were even! I couldn't judge purely by exact measurements because of the widths of the frames. When I hung them exactly even, the one on the left looks a lot higher as it does in this picture.

This was my supervisor. As you can see, DaVinci wasn't much help!

AND DRUM ROLL PLEASE! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN - THE AFTER!

I fought tooth and nail for this bed spread set from Bed Bath and Beyond. It wasn't available, then it was supposed to be on a certain day, then it wasn't on that day. Blah blah blah. I ended up getting free shipping and 20% off on any other set I liked, but I was dead set on this one. All of a sudden, it was available on their website again, so I ordered it AND IT CAME! So...I moseyed my little self down to the local BB&B store with my receipt and my manager's 20% off/free shipping deal and they refunded me the difference! Yes - I'm a bargain shopper!
We have yet to find night stands, so Andy's got this handy, dandy bookshelf, and I'm using an old, faithful, three-legged table with the lamp I've had since middle school.

Speaking of bargain shopping - I got the metal thing above the bed at Hobby Lobby for $15 just two weeks ago. I liked it, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. That is, until Andy put it up and it looks PERFECT! Oh - I also need to mention the carpet! Our first major purchase as a couple. The chest of drawers sits just to the right of the table with the lamp on it. I just realized that it isn't in any of these pictures. Oops...