This is Fred. Have you ever wondered what those silly Net Abbreviations are? Just click here on Fred and you will be taken to a fairly comprehensive, yet not so long it's boring, list! It also includes the most common emoticons, which are a form of abbreviation if you think about it. Well, maybe you have to think really hard to make that connection, but you can.



Fred (or Phwed, as Jenni might say) was named after my father, whose name is John, but everyone calls him Jack.

For some quotes, just click on my dog, Job.

Finally! The before and after pictures of my living room are ready! I guess the best thing to do is take this chrononlogically. Unfortunately, I did not start taking pictures until I had already started testing paint colors.

So here were the first sets of colors I tested. I didn't like any of them. I went back and got 3 more colors. Sure, I found the color I wanted, but now what to do with 6 extra quarts of paint?? I'll have to think about it.

Meanwhile, here are shots of the set up before I did other things.

This is the western wall. Notice the lovely seating furniture I had available at the time? Yes, those are lawn chairs. OK, the one on the left is the world's greatest lawn chair, and friends 'call it' when they come over, but let's face it...they're lawn chairs.

This is the eastern wall, or as I call it, the front wall. You may be wondering why my computer is still there. Easy. There is no place else in the house for it to go (did I mention my house is very small? As in 770 sq ft?).

This is the northern wall, or as I call it, the TV wall. I look at that all evening and weekend long while I'm working at my computer.

Suddenly, I had a brilliant idea! I would pinstripe the walls with the leftover paint colors! So first we painted the base color...

This is Josh; here he is painting the second coat of the base color on the southern wall. He helped a lot, although I can't figure out why he was wearing a shirt that was about 2 sizes too big. It was so loose and floppy it dragged in the paint when he refilled his roller. Anyway, he'll try to tell you helping made him sad. He even pretended it did.

Don't believe him. He made a lot of money off of this project.

That's me, putting the second coat of the base color on the eastern wall.

Then we painted the trim... Once that was done on three of the four walls, it was time to put up chalk lines, and then tape them off:

There are 14 sets of pinstripes, and because we had to work around a window, that's 16 sets of tape lines. That was a REAL treat, getting the lines straight with a 4½ foot break in them!

Then the real monotony began...painting the stripes.

We called in a reinforcement, and I hired my pet sitter to help.

Her name is Liz. Liz just hates getting her picture taken, can't you tell?

It was a glorious day when we finished painting the stripes.

Of course, I made it harder on myself by getting picky about the details...as in pinstriping the thermostat cover, too!

I mentioned "three of the four walls" earlier. The fourth wall got a very special treatment. First, the wall was glazed with the paint matching the trim color...

(A quick note here...yes, I left my computer up during this entire process. Why, you might ask? Simple. I took on this project while I was working on my Masters in the evening (after work). Did I mention sometimes I just don't think things through clearly???)

Then I had shelves built along the entire wall, side to side, floor to ceiling...

After literally two weeks of staining and polyurethaning the shelves, finally they were ready for use, and two days later, my new couch was delivered.

Here is the front wall...

...here is the couch wall...

...and here is the TV wall...

The remaining wall isn't very exciting because it is the window wall...but I did make these sheers and the swag on my own!

No, that isn't a defect in the picture. That's a sun catcher that hangs there because that is my southern wall. I'm a lot more comfortable now, and even the youngest cat has found a special place.

Oh yeah—one last detail.

GO BROWNS!!!

and

GO INDIANS!!!

This is a template free zone. Amazing what you can do with a little studying, isn't it?

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