I finally did it.

We painted my living room last weekend. Wow - what a lot of work! I'd forgotten just how much work it really was... I have a lot of trim, and panel doors that I wanted to do two-tone. Not to mention that the BBE had sprained his ankle really badly a couple of days before.

I went to Home Depot on Friday night and picked out the paint colors.

Two gallons of the second green on the card for the walls

One gallon of the lightest green for the ceiling

And the blue that my thumb is resting on for the trim, I bought a gallon just to be on the safe side - remember, I have a lot of trim.

I told you I was going to do my living room the same colors as so much of my work, and my blog template.

Saturday morning we started clearing the room. Of course I didn't think to grab the camera until the room was partly cleared... But this does give you some idea of how bad it was.

This was taken from the front doorway. In the left corner you can see where the door next door was put in - they tore out a closet to get to that area for the door - oh, about 3 years ago. I waited for a very long time for the landlord to make it right, but he finally said that he didn't really want to do anything to my place until he could come and redo the whole entire place. And I've been talking about getting it painted for a very very long time, but couldn't really afford to do it, and it was just sooo much work.

Lately though, the kids have been treating my place like a closet - just come home, dump stuff, and leave again. Been driving me nuts. I figured that I needed to really make a statement - draw my lines in the sand, and make a stand. So I bought paint. Worked my butt off for two straight days! 12 hours both days. Oh my back!

I had a few moments of panic, and many second thoughts about my color choices throughout the experience. The unremitting greenness of it all, was a bit overwhelming until I started getting the trim color on. Thank the gourds for my lovely wonderful boyfriend - he worked with me throughout it all. Stevie helped for hours and hours on Saturday - and back to work on Sunday. Gwen? Well, not so much. She'd show up, do a little bit - and then leave again. She says it's because her boyfriend didn't like how my boyfriend was going about doing things. Alpha males.

Anyway - here you can see the front of the living room. My front door didn't get painted at all - it's metal, and I couldn't see having to prime it, and do a bunch of work on it - I also thought that some white accents in the room would work out OK. I have my Netflix envelopes on the door, so I don't forget to grab them on the way out - metal doors are nice that way - a handful of strong magnets, and you're good.



These are the doors to the bathroom and Stevie's room. For some reason the trim on Boo's door just starts right at the wall - for some reason that freaks me the heck out.

I did the bathroom door - all 5 panels - all cut in by hand. I will put my hand up right now and say that I seriously suck at painting. Kind of funny when you think of how much time I spend dyeing and knitting and spinning, all very repetitive activities. Knitting a sweater can seem like a marathon project, with all kinds of trials and tribulations. Of course I usually decide that I hate the color when I'm halfway through my project. Just like I did with the living room. I'm always very glad when I carry on, and finish even though I think and know in my heart that it's all going to be a disaster. Usually it's all fine, and good - but we are our own worst critics.

After that bathroom door, and all those damn straight lines, and the slow painstaking mistake ridden adventure with the bathroom door, I decided to go ahead and have a bit of fun - so I went a bit artistic on my bedroom door, which has no panelling. I had thought I was going to go blue, everyone else thought green would be theway to go. So I compromised. It was fun - basically I just painted the door green, then dipped some saran wrap in the blue paint and started scrubbing it on. I worked fast, and stopped at just the right time. It actually looks a lot cooler in real life than in the pictures. But I'm happy with it!

So yeah - the furniture all made it back in the house before the rain hit, and last night I hung pictures. We also put up new shelves - and I managed to get three whole pieces of furniture out of the room in the process. It was all busting at the seams - and now it's so much more restful, peaceful, calm - and best of all... Clean!

Finished pics in the next installment.

Oh - and the new job? Fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it so far - even though I feel like a total idiot, and I have no idea what I'm doing yet. Everyone is really nice, and I'm thinking that I'm going to be there for a very long time.