Pristine

When I sit in our newly-painted living room, I almost forget how much effort it took on Saturday to get it to look this way. Then I stand up, and my legs are so sore they almost give out, and I quickly remember: it was a very long Saturday.

We bought the Polar Bear paint on Friday night, but decided not to start in until Saturday morning. But, on Saturday, when we painted the first wall, we realized the paint was far far too white. Bluish, glow-in-the-dark white. Ghetto white, Bart said. So, after a regroup, which included much flipping through the Pottery Barn catalog, we decided we’d go for a darker white, and do the entry way the same red as the kitchen. We went BACK to Home Depot, offered up our first born child and came armed and ready! Bart went to the car place to get some work done on our car (80,000 mile tune up and some new tires and alignment), and I started painting. Bart came home and we painted, and painted, and painted. We finally ate dinner around eleven thirty p.m. and then finished cleaning up, pulling up tape, and touching up any spots we’d missed.

I was dead tired by the time we went to bed, and I woke up, hardly able to walk. Today, I can barely stand up. Bart wasn’t too sore because he mostly did all the high painting and so didn’t bend too much, but I did all the edging, the taping, and had to use a stool and chair to paint the higher edges. My legs are just thrashed.

Anyway, without further ado, here are the picture of how it looked before:
Looking at those pictures, I realize the wall paint doesn’t look as bad as it does in real life. Trust me, the real color looked like a cross between mustard and peanut butter. It was not the soft and subtle color it looks in these pictures; it was hideous. Both Bart and I felt like we had to apologize for it every time someone came into the house.

Here’s the new and improved living room (we also repainted the French doors and all the trim):
I am just so jazzed! I’m just completely thrilled. Now we just have to figure out what to do with the big blank wall behind our couch.