{Dream} Home

I suspect it had to do with Hip House Girl's post about a church house, but I had a strange dream last night.

I dreamt I had, let's say, come into possession of a house. I don't know how. That's one of those irrelevant details in dreams. The house was a split level, with a few bedrooms. One of them was at the very top of the house, completely staged by the previous owner and never used.

What I recall most about this house was the basement bedroom. In my dream, it was my parents'  basement, but in this house that now belonged to me. You know how those things happen in dreams. It had the exact same cement steps as my parents' basement. It also had the cold feeling typical of farmhouse basements. Instead of the stone and plastered foundation, also typical of farmhouses, my dream basement bedroom had a brick-like stone wall.

It sort of looked like this:

Courtesy of Country Living via Candace Rose

But a little rougher, like this:

Courtesy of GREAT INTERIOR DESIGN

Or this:

Courtesy of TripAdvisor - yes, TripAdvisor

In one corner, next to the bed, there was a fireplace and across from the bed, there was a TV. It was actually quite similar to a hotel room; perhaps, reflective of the too much time spent in them?

The floor was old cement, except for the more recently poured steps, which I previously mentioned. I'd decided in my dream to tile the floor and steps with ceramic tile. I imagined in my dream, it would turn out like this: 

Courtesy Aerials Home Construction

There you have it. Not enough time spent in my house lately, reading blogs before bed, and I'm dreaming about renovating a basement room in a home I don't own. It gave me a great excuse to blog today though! Does anyone else have dreams about renovating that are this vivid?

Farmhouse Bedroom Makeover Update

Remember when I said I was determined to finish my farmhouse bedroom makeover, because my mom hates when I leave my 'make-work projects' for her to complete. It is taking a few months, because I only get to the farm every couple of weeks, but I am slowly transforming my bedroom into a more grown up, country bedroom.

Here are a few pictures to show you how it's coming along.

So far, it's cost me about $170.

• White paint and supplies - $65 (Actual cost is less because we used the paint at my brother's house too)
• Wallpaper, partial roll from a wallpaper store - $10
• Bedding picked up on sale at Zellars after Christmas - $50
• Throw pillows - $30
• Curtains bought for $6.88 each at local market store - $15

I bought the bedding on sale on a whim. It incorporated the purple I wanted to bring into the room, but several other colours, including the existing yellow and green on my walls. I lucked out last weekend, finding the sheer curtains, which matched the bedding perfectly.

Originally, I planned to get a bold, patterned wallpaper for the shelf backs, but after putting the bedding in the room, I knew this wasn't going to work. After ordering wallpaper samples from Lowes and combing through rolls at a wallpaper store, I found this purple flower and vine pattern.

This is where I've left this project. Hanging wallpaper on the shelf backs has proved to be a little challenging. It will not stick to the wall by just wetting the paper, so I'm going to have to try conditioning the wall and using a wallpaper glue. To say I was frustrated after cutting the pieces to fit exactly (old houses result in measurements never lining up exactly) and having the paper peel back repeatedly, I decided to leave the shelves for my next trip home. Until then, I'm going to keep my eyes open for some trinkets to enhance my personal items and dress up the shelves.

All in all, I think my mom is quite happy with how this project is coming along. For myself, it's been a good opportunity to learn some decorating basics (painting panelling and wallpapering), while updating a room in which I've spent the better part of my life so far.