Family, Friends & An April Fool's Surprise!

Well we pulled it off! For the last few months my mom's sister Chris, mom's friend Mona, and my sisters and me have been plotting a great April Fool's Surprise for my mom. The plan was hatched and developed by Chris and Mona, and since I moved home, I was in charge of implementing the details without giving too much away.

Since Dad's passing in December we all really wanted to redecorate and refresh mom's bedroom. It wasn't part of the house in the summer remodel and we really wanted it to be a sanctuary for her. Below are a few of the before pictures. They aren't great...not sure what was going on with my camera that day, but nevertheless it gives you a good idea of the before. And yes that is hot red carpet. As I liked to tell my mom, "the 70's called and they want their carpet back!" (she actually picked that carpet out in 1973!)

Before...


Like any bedroom...a bit of clutter



Old blinds...we have new ones but we are waiting to get them installed.

Red carpet with no padding.



All white walls 

So two weeks ago Mom and I pulled all the furniture out of the room. We donated a lot of items to the Boys & Girls Club (which after the amount of donations mom has given them they might name a wing after her!) and we donated the old mattresses to St. Vincent of DePaul. Mom moved upstairs for a few weeks and we told her that Shannon, Erin, me, and the fourth Schenk daughter Mary (my best friend since college) were coming down to help paint on April 2nd (a day after Fool's Day). Well the weekend before we were in Indianapolis for our cousin's baby shower and her sister Katrina hosted. Katrina is a wizard at refreshing furniture and distressing old antique furniture. Mom loved some of the pieces in her apartment so I asked if she could come down and distress mom's bed frame which was originally my Dad's bed frame as a boy.

Mom also wanted the ceiling to be texturized so you can't see any cracks in the ceiling (it is a very old farmhouse after all) and I pulled up all the old carpet so we could have new carpet and PADDING installed.




Room with no carpet...

 Originally the carpet wasn't going to go in until April 5th but they called on April 1st and said it came in early and they could put it in that day. Mom said no because we hadn't painted the room yet but she didn't know about Chris and Mona and that Chris was staying until Tuesday so she would be able to help us move the furniture back in. So I called the carpet guys back ASAP on Friday morning so the carpet would be in and we all just needed to be very careful while painting.

With all the pieces were coming together and mom still had no idea about Chris and Mona's involvement. She thought she would be around all day to help us paint but we had to trick her into taking a shower so she would be ready to go shopping with them. They arrived while she was in the shower and we had already started painting. Everything came together perfect! She was so surprised when she came out of the bathroom. Chris and Mona took her, along with Cole, (the 2 & 1/2 year old grandson with no business being around wet paint) to pick out some new wall hangings and bedding.

The weeks prior mom had selected the paint colors and she wanted to center everything off of her favorite picture of a stage coach which came from my grandfather who worked with the president of Wells Fargo in San Francisco and this picture hung in the office. As a result mom now has a fresh new bedroom which is all her own and makes her feel refreshed and relaxed. After going through so much no one deserves it more. We still have a few finishing touches. There are three new doors (two for the closets and one for the bedroom) which just need to be cut and hung. We also have new blinds for the window to put up. Here are the after pictures...enjoy!



In the corner is another antique piece of my great grandmothers. Her old sewing table is now my mom's bedside table.




Mom's beautiful new bed set with the wonderful distressed bed frame that Katrina did!




In the corner is an old antique desk that once belonged to my great grandmother.




Mom's antique dresser fits perfectly and the new carpet is wonderful to walk on!



Here you can see the lavender accent wall and the stage coach picture. We are still hanging more family photos on the other walls.

We had a wonderful weekend with all the friends and family that helped. It truly was great...we even had some beautiful weather. However, it is rather stressful keeping secrets from my Mom and minimizing the email screen every time she comes in the room. I'm glad this is over and now we are on to the office (so excited to rip up the GREEN carpet!)

We've also been busy the last few days on some other projects around the house. These are for everyone that was down last weekend.



A level towel rack in the old bathroom!




A new shelving unit for the garage so mom can access all her cleaning and gardening supplies easily.

 Thank you again to everyone that contributed. I know someone took pictures of us painting but I'm not sure who so send them along if you didWe are busy as ever and getting ready for some rough weather tonight but will hopefully have some days in the garden. A lot of cleaning up to do outside now! I'll have some new pictures soon.