2.22.16 Painting

This weekend we painted a lot of our house! I bought the paint over three years ago on one of the holiday sales. I have had big ambition but the reality of lots of not so helpful helpers and too many other things being higher on the priority list made it a far off dream. But I decided the time had come and we could accomplish this task if everyone was on deck helping. It was also motivating that when cleaning the walls we were down to dry wall and texture in many places. After 9 years of living here the paint had just been scrubbed/rubbed or chipped off by so many people and so much use!

I got paint testers earlier in the week and picked a color but then forgot to take the right can back with me to get that color, so we guessed. I gave instructions to the kids as to who was responsible for what for the weekend and we got into the prepping. That is the worst part I think because you just want to see what the paint will look like on the wall but if the walls are ready then it will look bad. We scrubbed, patched, caulked, sanded, and cleaned some more. Anna and Harold were my assistants. They taped and sanded and washed. It was so great to work with them. I found they work for a song. We listened to hours of Pandora this weekend. Which really was ok. I like music and I love being able to select the kind of music I want to listen to. I listen to Oklahoma Broadway musical type stuff with a mix of 1950-1960 era songs, and some Adele thrown in. Fun to sing along and hear them getting a taste of some different songs than are currently on the radio. They like Lindsey Sterling radio but I can only take that for so long.

We finally got down to painting and man were they awesome!!! We started with the white ceiling and trim. My arms are still quivery from all the rolling but it was nice to switch off. It looks so nice. The next day we did the walls. I'm so thankful for all the instruction cousin Garrett gave those 9 years ago on how to paint. I'm definitely not as good as him but we got a good look going and now I just have some more wall to patch- our house has some structural issues I'm not ready to dive into but will have to be addressed in the not too distant future.

My eager beaver. She wanted to paint so badly. On the second day I had some big wall areas I let her do, along with all the floor board she could handle. While I was talking to my sister she took it upon herself to do some of the upper walls between the windows and the ceiling. This got a lot of brown paint on our new white painted trim...I got the brown off along with a fair measure of not cured white paint.  I sure wish this tiger would just do what is assigned and not roar ahead to what should clearly be out of her reach.

Our house went to pot but it was put mostly back in order as the walls had sufficient drying time. It was a nice weekend and Aliza graciously and willingly played and played outside with the little girls. The middle boys washed dishes, pulled posts, and stayed out doors lest they too be put to work on house stuff. It worked well that everyone had a task and could do so many different task. Monday is such a bittersweet day. Nice to rest from the busy weekend and sad to see my team disperse.

Finished project. Mark and Reed replaced covers while we made dinner that night. It was so great to see each kid step in and do a part. When we moved in I did a lot of this myself and I know how much work this is. This time while I am sore I am mostly just grateful for all the helpers in my home. Now to scrub the paint off the floor and windows but that sounds like a good consequence for poor choices these next few weeks. Best to you today.