Painting.........

So, here I am with pictures to prove why we needed to paint this place. It has splotches of paint colors I was testing before we went out and bought 8 gallons.

Item 1:

When I finally figured out why I hated the color that every room in our house was painted (demonstrated by the wall on the left), it was because it was flesh colored. Think about it. Ew. Floor to ceiling in every room--and the carpet and tile were the exact same color.

Mark said it was more like "zombie flesh", and when I asked Madelyn to describe the color, she said (without knowing what we had already said), "It's like skin with no freckles on it." So there you have it folks! Skin walls!

Over time, we had painted the bedrooms and bathrooms, the laundry room, the garage and a couple of accent walls with better colors. But the beige beast had yet to be totally vanquished.

Item 2:

Almost two years ago, in a desperate effort to do something different with at least one of the walls, we got this darker paint. I really wanted Flagstone (a Martha Stewart color), but couldn't afford it, and we found a gallon of this "oops" paint at Home Depot for $5. It was close to the color I wanted, so we went with it. However.....in certain times of the day, it looked forest green--not the gray/brown I was going for.

 

Plus, that wall is right next to where we eat, and it was kind of a disaster. Luke (especially when he was a baby) is known for leaving 9-foot swaths of pudding and noodle splatter when he eats, and even though the paint we got was Martha Stewart brand and semi gloss, the paint would rub right off when we had to scrub the wall! You'd THINK it would be high quality paint!! It totally wasn't. The only good thing I could say about it was it had low VOC (no fumes when we painted with it).

 

Oh, you noticed the pathetic looking baseboards?? Yeah....so Mark took them all off when he ripped out the tile in the kitchen and put in the laminate floor. Then he put them back on and caulked them, but never repainted them. That was 2 1/2 years ago. Pretty classy. Also:

Item 3:

 Our front door (ever since we moved in) has been badly scratched by the St. Bernard dog that used to live here.

The reason we hadn't painted everything sooner was because every time we'd get a little time/money, it would go straight into the back yard. But now that it is finally finished, it is MY TURN! (The back yard was Mark's project--the inside is more mine.)

So, after waffling over paint colors for literally 3 1/2 years, I decided on Sandpiper MSL257 and Flagstone MSL247 (Martha Stewart paint colors) although all the paint is Behr Premium Plus Ultra paint. Home Depot can color match--just give them the paint chip you want of any brand. Premium Plus Ultra has primer in it and is really thick so you only need one coat. It does stink, though. Sort of like pickles. Pew pew.

And it turns out that we bought about 2-3 gallons too many of the Sandpiper color, so if you want to buy the extra from us, let me know!

Every time the ladder comes out, the kids are all over it. Those little monkeys!!

 Painting the front door

 I just love the mess.

Just kidding I don't. 

By the way, if you ever come over and we have our Led Zeppelin concert DVDs playing (or any of their albums), there's like a 70% chance that we're painting. It's necessary for a good result.

 I got put in charge of painting all the doors and trim, and I decided to go for Ultra Pure White in high gloss.

Because whoever originally painted the trim decided to go for dingy blah off white. (WHY?!)

The doors take forever because you have to use a small brush to paint inside the grooves and borders, and then roll with one of those little no-nap sponge paint rollers. Doorways with all their trim and casings take like an hour a piece. Mark and I have put in approximately 14 hours into them already, and still have 8 more doors to go!

To save time, instead of taping off the baseboards, I use a stiff folder to push the carpet down as I'm painting. On the top border, I just have to be deliberate and careful not to get it on the wall. I still do tape around the door frames where they meet the wall, and in places hard to reach, like behind toilets and such.

So this has been going for a couple of months now. Like I said, I am still not technically done, but have taken a break to focus on the holidays. Tune in for the carpet extravaganza and the big reveal!