Weekend Warriors: Unintended Project Complete!

Well, I never expected to paint anything before I painted the living room, but somehow the color spoke to me and I have completed painting the hallway and front entryway. I had been really uninterested in the way it looked when you walked into the house. The previous owners had just slapped cheap white paint on everything, so all the woodwork was the same color as the walls. In fact, I toyed with the idea of getting rid of the chair rail, because it wasn't doing a thing for me.

But I found a great color, and there was nothing else to do with it but use it in the front hallway. And then the wall facing you when you walked in continued up the stairs, and I couldn't let it go. Had to go all the way.

The white paint is so cheap that it came off when I pulled off the painters tape, after the painting was done, so now I'll have to paint all the baseboards and all that crap.

But the difference in the entryway and the way the woodwork stands out is amazing. I no longer hate the chair rail, I can see its purpose. The color is subtle, but the change is pretty dramatic.

I also managed to put the General's radio desk together this weekend, and we carted the old, falling apart desk to the dump. I also painted squares for the pictures in what will be my office, and hung some pictures up.

In the living room, I patched holes, sanded with my new power sander, and got ready to prime. I hope to work on it all this week and have it complete before Mike and Lesley come for President's Day!

An unintended but hilarious side effect of all this is that I discovered our bunny Tom Tom is a total paint sniffer!! He stuck his nose in the air near the paint tray and took a good whiff, and then laid down and passed out for about 30 minutes!! I wound up having to lock him up, since I'm sure that's not good for him. He's in his cage now due to his proclivity to nibble on the General's radio wires and scratch the football chair... Naughty!

Ya know, at some points over this work weekend, I felt somewhat sorry for myself--doing all this hard labor while Mike gets off scott-free (through no fault of his own). And tonight he did help where he could--holding the paint tray so I didn't have to go up and down the ladder which I had finally managed to figure out how to use on the stairs (gotta love Gorilla Ladder!). But when I finish, and I see what I accomplished on my own, I feel like the butt-kicking-est woman on Earth. I wouldn't hire someone to do this if I could afford it. It's so satisfying to really be making this place my own, through my own faults and my own mistakes and my own lessons learned and my own success!!! It really makes me feel like I can do anything, if I take my time and put my mind to it.

Colors used (Behr paint, go to www.behr.com and use their ColorSmart system--or whatever they're calling it!):

Walls in the hallway and entry: Silk Gown
Upper walls in living room (when complete): Manhattan Mist
All trim and lower walls in living room (when complete): Ultra Bright White