Painting Marathon

Saturday Bryan and I agreed it was finally time to paint Brenna's bedroom. We originally painted this room in yellow with green trim and pink curtains for Cameron (then age 2) in late December 2001. We moved both girls into the room on Dec. 28, 2004.




Last year Cameron moved out of this room and into the "guest" room leaving Brenna in the yellow bedroom. (Photo was taken before we evacuated during Hurricane Ike.)



When Cameron moved out, Brenna wanted to know when we would re-do her bedroom. To be fair, we did pick out the paint a few months ago. She chose "Bridal Blue" with white trim.



I invited Lisa & Leah to come over and paint with us because both of them LOVE to paint. Not only are they good at it, they're fabulous at picking out colors and getting motivated. They spent the last week at SBR painting the new enclosed porch room and kitchen and playroom. The suggested colors for my house included Behr's "Baked Scone" and "Cup of Cocoa" for an accent wall.

Leah couldn't make it (sickies in her house), but Lisa came over pretty early, and Mom and Dad came out for the rest of the day too. It turned into a fairly intense painting marathon.

Since they were coming over, we agreed to also paint the kitchen. When we bought the house I liked the busy wallpaper, but now it's finally gotten annoying. We tried pulling some down and surprise - more paper and behind that is wood paneling. So we gave up pulling it off and taped it up for the primer and textured paint.

Before (above) and After (below)

That's sort of where it all exploded. I'm not really sure of events, but I helped tape Brenna's room and the kitchen, then Lisa rollered the wall while I cut in the edges, corners, etc. While I was finishing that, a whole bunch of things just sort of happened. Dad helped Bryan repair some places in the wall, and we couldn't paint the kitchen until those spots were dry.

Next thing I know, Lisa has taped and is painting the foyer. I start cutting in that area and she starts an accent wall in the dining room.

To be honest, I think she would have taped the living/dining areas and painted those too except we had moved all of Brenna's furniture in there so we could paint and rearrange her room. Lisa did paint the bookcase white in the middle of the living room.

Meanwhile, Dad and Bryan fixed a crack in the hallway and the next thing I know, there is paint going up in there too!

Before photo - white walls and off-white trim and doors, possibly original? (the trim and doors)

After photo. Now in a warm cookie color and white trim. Actually, I should confess that at the present it's very odd-looking as the walls match the doors and trim since I only managed to paint this one doorway trim. There are nine doorways in this hallway.

By the time everyone had left, Bryan and I realized we had been working on the house for 17 hours only stopping to eat. Sunday we felt hungover but still had to finish a second coat here, trim work, bookcase, put Brenna's room back together, etc.


However, all in all - in the end - we have some really updated looking rooms. As bad as I felt yesterday, I do love the clean look that comes from new paint, and nothing on the walls. (But what to do with all of the frames we took down?) I also am faced with the daunting task of all that door and trim work in the hallway. If you know me, you know how much I hate to start a project I can't finish within my time frame.


Perhaps this summer we'll finish the hallway.




ps - THANK YOU LISA, MOM, & DAD!!!

36 hours with no children

What would you do if you had 36 hours home alone with your husband without the children?

We cleaned the house!!

Bryan washed the outside shutters with bleach. I put away all of Brenna's winter clothes and brought out the summer shorts. (Naturally, the high this morning was 52 and dropped all day, after yesterday's 83F). We dusted, did laundry, put away the clutter, vacuumed, cleaned the bathrooms (ick), cleaned the kitchen, and went to the grocery store. All of this is in preparation for the family to be here tomorrow for Easter Sunday lunch.

Meanwhile Cameron & Brenna are at Nana & Papa's house for two nights. This morning we actually slept until 9 a.m. I can't remember the last time we slept that late. Tonight we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Market Seafood, and we're watching a movie, in our sweats (because it's about 37 outside and we're not turning on the heater). Tomorrow we'll finish last minute details like making iced tea, a dessert and a veggie, setting out all the plates, and oh - hiding Easter eggs for the girls.