start at the beginning, it's a very fine place to start

Since we have been in this house for more than ten years, we decided we'd start the process of freshening up the paint in the inside of the house.  King and I sat down and did the math. Although we would much rather hire a professional painter and never have to climb on a ladder or get down on the floor to paint baseboards again, it just isn't smart, financially speaking.  One room can be painted with a $30 gallon of paint, plus share the trim and door gallons with other rooms.  So our whole house should be able to be updated with a tiny fraction of what we'd spend otherwise.

We had two days to kick off the project (since we are trying hard to rest on Sunday), and decided that the two rooms that needed updating the most were the kids' rooms.  On the long list: ceilings, walls, crown, baseboards, and windows.  There was no way we could get it all done, so we did what we could.

Starting with the boys' room, we finished the ceiling, walls, and the two doors.  The walls are painted in Valspar's Evening Eclipse, a blueish gray.  It looks so nice.  They did have a pale yellow in there, which I loved, but it got smeared by one too many toddler boogers.  The antique beds they have look amazing against the color.  They are very proud of how their room looks.  I hope that translates into "we keep our room clean now."

The girls' room.... well, let's just say everybody makes mistakes, shall we?  Upside: waking in the morning should be a bit easier.  King has decided that Valspar's Aqua Quartz should be renamed Aquatic Nightmare.  Oy!  Is it ever bright!  Normally I would include a handy dandy little linky-poo, but since I have gotten spooked with this new level of security, Imma letcha Google the colors if you want.  It doesn't look terrib... hell, who am I kidding, yes it does.  But King did do a spectacular job painting.  Very professional.  If you are really good at the Pretend Game, you could convince yourself that you are a diamond ring inside a Tiffany & Co box.  But then, if you aren't that good at pretending, you try to focus on other things, like what a good job King did applying the paint to the walls.  And what straight lines those are along the ceiling.  Our juries are all still out on the color.  Their black furniture and black and white comforters complement it well.  I'm trying to like it....

Another thing we are doing to update the look of the house is to paint all the doors black.  Not the trim around the doors, just the doors themselves (look up "black door" on Pinterest.  You're welcome.)  It's a long process, as each door needs two coats of paint.  We've finished two doors.  No 1 is taking all the glass & brass doorknobs and brass keyhole thingamajiggers and boiling them in vinegar to soften the 100 year old paint and grime.  She then polishes them up with steel wool.  They look amazing.  Especially up against the black doors.  I oughtta take a picture and put it up h'yuh some day. Maybe I'll do that.  But just in case I get busy doing other things, don't hold your breath.

So in this whole painting thing, I have found yet another way to classify folks. Y'know, Movers/Shakers, Haves/Have Nots, etc.  So now we have the Rollers and the Cutters.
Some folk2s like to jump straight to the wall rolling first, rather than being patient and doing the "cut in" work.  I mean, get the instant gratification thing, that's exactly why we have a coffee pot that lets you sneak a cup in the middle of brewing.  But really, there are some things you just have to be patient and wait out.  If you are up late and think about it a lot, you could almost come up with a book title for the philosophy of it all:  The Tau of Paint.

But Imma take my tired arse to bed now.  I decided that offering up time on the elliptical machine for Lent isn't enough, so I have started getting lots of souls free from Purgatory by doing 30 second planks.  Was I really born with muscles in all those places?  Wow.  Ermazing.