We’ve had a BUSY few months here in Bryson City, North Carolina transforming our once gray house into a crisp, fresh coat of marshmallow white. It’s been our fist real effort of changing things up and man, was it laborious!

There is a surprising presence that comes with this type of manual work. I’m a writer and most of my hobbies are in my head. I’ve always focused more on the mind versus the body, so when I get to connect with my body, i’m always surprised to find that using it brings me to the present moment. We are meant to connect the mind, body and spirit… and weirdly enough, painting reminded me of that. Ah, the joys of being an enlightened homeowner.

On this first go around we:

Painted the exterior of the house

This is biggest WIN by far! Painting stone is no easy feat. While we didn’t hate the gray, we did feel it was too dark and heavy a color for us. We want a fresh farmhouse look with a lighter overall feeling.

Paint color: Marshmallow by Sherwin Williams for exterior.

Painted the interior of the house: living room, dining room, kitchen and hallway

We still get to paint the bathrooms and bedrooms, but the bulk of the arduous labor is done. These rooms were a dark shade of gray on the walls and ceiling. It was a nice shade of gray, however, it did shrink the appearance of the spacious rooms. With white ceiling and walls, the place feels much bigger. In fact, now our furniture doesn’t fill it the same way. Oh well, baby steps!

Paint color: ceiling paint matte white and Marshmallow White by Sherwin Williams for interior.

Appreciate Where You Are

We’re a long was from being finished and my instinct when I look at all the progress is to feel stressed because of all that’s still left to do. But a very close, wise friend told me to appreciate every milestone and revel where I am. So here’s to celebrating our phase 1 milestone. Cheers ya’ll 💚