And So It Begins

We were incredibly naive, and thought that we could knock out the painting--AND CARPET--in one weekend. It's a wonder, really, that no one told us we were idiots when we told them our plan. Because we were. Painting is never just painting. It's removing nails, filling holes and imperfections, waiting for the putty to dry, removing outlet and switch plates, sanding, wiping walls and baseboards, taping, pulling up old carpet so as to paint the baseboards correctly, vacuuming all the junk out of the crevices, removing doors and hardware, and then you get to paint. The first coat. Then you wait for about 4 hours before you can do it again. And that's for every single room to be painted. Then you have to remove the doors and take off the hardware so you can paint them. Needless to say, it was not done in two days. Here are the before pictures: Leiden's room was painted in gray, darker gray, even darker gray, and charcoal. Super. The charcoal was the color used for the trim, closet doors, and door. It takes about 4 coats of high gloss bright white to cover it up, and some spots could have used a 5th. The walls took 3 coats of paint. Seriously.



Mimi's room was also an exercise in patience. Remember the long laundry list of things you have to do before you can paint? In Mimi's room, someone thought it would be a good idea to add silica sand to the paint so as to give the walls texture. They had texture all right! The kind that removes your skin. So, add to the list scraping the ENTIRE room with a putty knife. Luckily the color was fairly light, so much easier to cover up than Leiden's room. It still looks unevenly textured, but it's not going to scratch you anymore.



Mac's room was a dark cream color, and nothing weird in the paint. A breath of fresh air in comparison.



Here's the open hallway on the top level. See the walls? They were seafoam. See the little patch of carpet in the room? Carpets were a darker turquoise color. This is actually what prompted the whole makeover. Seafoam has got to go. The light fixture is also going to go, someday, when we have money again after doubling Home Depot's revenue for the quarter. They asked for Leiden, but we've already signed her off to Wells Fargo.



But this. This paint. Beautiful. It was one of those times when you pick the perfect color and it looks just like you wanted. So pink it looks like white until you get the trim done. POTD 7/10/10:



Leiden helped us paint in both her room and Mac's. See the wall behind her? Barely pink.



Miriam 7/10/10: Mimi hung out while we painted. Translation: I painted when she would let me, generally for 30 minute stretches. Guaranteed as soon as I poured more paint into the tray, she'd start crying. Her little life has been very willy-nilly.



This is Mac's contribution to the first day's work. Not even sure where the scissors came from, but luckily they are kid ones.



A good first full day of work, and not nearly all of it!