Slowly But Surely

Well, I've been painting my office after work this week. It is WORK! It is hard WORK! Can you tell I've never painted a wall in my life? Well, I put down the tape and tried to protect all the surfaces. I got out the paintbrush and painted around the window. I poured the lovely Orange Blossom, got out the roller and went for it! Oh the stretching! Good thing I'm tall, that's all I know. It helps.

So it took a while at first but I'm getting the hang of it. I did 2 walls the first night. I started about 7ish and wanted to leave before 9 but it was about 5 after 9 when I finished cleaning out the brushes as I stretched my back. It took forever to get that paint out of the roller, though. Last night I did the other 2 walls. I started at 7 and was done about 8:30. Getting better. Now I have to do a second coat and I'm still trying to figure out the best way to apply it to get those corners and such.

In the meanwhile, the carpet finally made it into Son's room and our room. Looks OK. Empty rooms you don't mind taking your shoes off in. The carpet guy is going to pull up the family room carpet next to help air out that funky cat smell but I'm not sure how long before we carpet that one and Daughter's room. With the $4,000 tax bill we just got hit with - you read it right - I don't know what will happen. First I have to go argue with the tax preparer because I just don't see how it got to be that high with me declaring 0 and Mr. T declaring 0, though he's NOT declaring 0 on his second job. Hopefully, there is a screwup somewhere because I was looking around next for the desk to put in my office. I'm going to be none too pleased if I have to wait to get my desk because we have to take care of this looming, unexpected debt first.

But I digress. When my new blog template is in place (it is AWESOME! Thanks Liz!), I promise to start pulling out the digital camera to take some better photos for you all. These I took using my cell phone and it would probably be OK if the rooms weren't so darn dark right now with the poor lighting. But hey, this weekend will be all about putting on that 2nd coat of paint and hopefully moving over some kitchen stuff too.

We're getting there - slowly but surely!

This is Son's room with a dark grey carpet. We're thinking he will repaint one day so the grey is neutral and should work with anything. Can you see the rocket on the wall? I did that! 4 times! So he's got the stars and moons and suns above and rockets floating in the middle. The lights I bought are in the closet right now but with the carpet down I can at least put them together and see how they light. Too soon to hang them. Need furniture placed first.

Now this is my room. Also a little hard to see with the poor light. Mr. T. picked out the carpet - Dark Earth - and it it is dark but plush too. Green walls, antique white trim. I just have to find some different plates for the outlets and lightswitch because the white ones are too stark and boring. Still not sure what to paint out bathroom and I have to figure out what the exact color scheme will be but green is actually a pretty versatile color so we'll see.

This is my office/guest room as I started painting. You can see the orange as it creeps over the white walls. I decided suddenly to do a really non-involved stencil of puzzle pieces to inspire me as I do business stuff in there. So I cut out painter's tape in puzzle piece shapes and just placed 4 on the wall, one overlapping the other wall and they just flow down. It will hopefully be a little surprise - a pleasant one - when you enter the room. "Orange wall, orange wall, hey! Puzzle pieces! Cool!"

This is the office/guestroom after I painted that same wall. See how the puzzle pieces are covered up? Floating beneath the surface of their ocean of orange paint. I'm so tempted to pull up the tape because I'm dying to see how it turned out but I can't until the second coat goes on. The room is so much warmer now. As much as I hate the painting, it really is a sense of accomplishment. I'm actually looking forward to getting the family room and foyer done.