More Progress

Hired Pablo from work to come help us primer and paint the house last night. Everything that needed primering now has at least one coat of primer on it (minus edges that rollers can't reach). Several of the items that needed primering are now completely ready for a fresh coat of paint. Half the bathroom is painted. And tonight... tonight I am taking Jamie to the roller skating rink with his friend Josh. The rink closes at 9. Maybe we can squeeze in a couple of hours of painting after skating. There's no school tomorrow, so Jamie can sleep in some. Yep, I think some painting is called for.

Progress

A bit of progress has been made on the house. My friend M.J. and her son Jack - who happens to be one of Jamie's best friends - came over last night and we primered the icky yellow bedroom. Well, we tried. See, the paint fumes got kind of thick, and we were trying to primer after dark, and the primer didn't coat very well, so it's going to need a second coat. We were some very giggly people last night, let me tell you! I laughed so much I almost peed on myself, and the stuff we were giggling at wasn't even that funny! I blame it on the fumes.

Tonight, it was back to just me and Jamie again, but we still made real progress. We bought a thicker primer designed especially to go over super-dark colors that eejits insist on putting on walls. (Oh, and it didn't really cost us anything. I had a can of ceiling paint left over that we never used, so I just returned the ceiling paint and used the $$ for returning it to buy the primer!) Then we got to the new place around 7 and immediately put one coat of primer on the fugly paneling in the breakfast nook and one wall in the living room. We had planned on doing second coats on those walls, but we ran out of time. But that's okay. We're still making progress.

Oh, and I made the executive decision that since all the other rooms are painted white, I'm only going to put primer on the patches where I had to fix holes in walls, or where obvious markings and such were on the walls. Since they are white, it will be easy to put a tan-ish color over top of them. This will save us lots of time.

I'm also mentally preparing myself for the fact that we're going to have to move in furniture before all the wall stuff is finished. At least we can kind of place the furnishings in the middle of the room away from the walls and I can try to paint around it. It isn't impossible - just frustrating. But if that's what it takes to get it done, so be it. I'm losing one night of improvement time because I promised Jamie I would take him and his friend Josh to the skate rink on the last night of school (this Thursday). But as hard as Jamie has worked, I think he deserves to have a night to play. Also, Josh's family has taken Jamie to the skating rink many times, especially at the end of last semester. They gave me important final exam alone-time many a night during those last couple of days of school. I figure it's about time I return the favor.

Oh, I almost forgot. Jamie picked out an end of the year "thank you" present for his teacher. She recently bought her first house, and has been having fun buying plants and decorating her first real "grown up" home (she's about 8 years younger than me). So he thought it would be nice to get her a Home Depot gift card so that she could buy plants, or paint, or tools, or whatever she might need to do what she wants with her house. He's going to make her a card to go with it, and he wants to present it to her on the last day of school. I've also been informed by him that he is going to walk up to the elementary school and help her move her classroom and decorate it for next year, when the time comes. Next time I start grousing about how selfish and "gimmee gimmee" he can be, remind me of his generous and caring heart, as evidenced by his offer to her, okay?

Postponed

I have very heavy living room furniture. The loveseat is a dual recliner, the couch is a sleeper sofa. This means that one grown woman and two tween boys cannot move them alone. One of the techs at work had said he would help us move, but I had forgotten he was going to be out of town this weekend and couldn't help us until next weekend... S0, the move is postponed a week. But this actually works out better for me, as it gives me longer to pack and longer to paint. Last night was spent in taping around the tops of the walls. I haven't gotten to actually touch paint to ceilings or walls yet. Part of the reason for that is the fact that people keep scheduling times in the late evening to come look at furniture, then they don't even bother to show up. If I hadn't had to come back here last night so early, I could have started on the ceilings. But, neither person who had scheduled to be here showed up. Grr! Inconsiderate people really hack me off! If you make a stinkin' appointment, KEEP IT. Especially when the person selling the furniture tells the prospective buyer that she will drop everything she's doing at the new house to come back to the old house to show the furniture. If they had called to say they weren't coming, at least then I could have stayed and painted. But no... didn't even have the decency to call. Twerps!

Anyway, I have to tape off the bedrooms and bathroom still tonight, but they are small rooms, so I fully expect to at least get the ceiling painted tonight. While I'm painting the ceiling, I'm going to have Jamie tape off the trim. That way, tomorrow night, when the ceilings are dry, all I'll have to do is tape off the ceilings and I can start priming the walls. Hope to have the whole house painted by Sunday, so then we can spend the rest of the week packing. Friday night, the tech will come over for us to load the truck of all but the air mattress and cot, then Saturday early we'll throw the last little bit in the car and truck and head out.

I'll be glad when this is all over with!

ETA:

FYI - tomorrow is Jamie's 5th grade graduation. I'll be sure to post pics tomorrow if I get a chance. If I don't have time tomorrow, I promise to post them soon.

400th POST! and Paint Angst

According to Blogger, this is my 400th post! Woot! Can't believe it! Although, content importance wise, this is probably only about my 100th post. I'm not the most relevant writer to the world - most of my writing has to do with me and mine, rather than the state of affairs in the world or rants about the frickin' media being so yakity-yak about Michelle Obama's fashion sense, but practically ignore the fact that she's one smart cookie and has made many decisions and changes at the White House that are soooooo relevant to the financial mess we're in right now (my favorite: the White House vegetable garden)! But don't get me started on that. I'll blow a gasket. I have to turn off the stupid news anytime someone starts gushing about her clothes and acts like that's all there is to her.....ARRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH! Now I'm all batty thinking about it. I'll just stop now.

The rest of this post will be dedicated to the bedrooms of the new house, and the heart attack I had over the weekend regarding the price of paint. Ai yi yi! Yes, the landlord is going to reimburse me, but DAMN paint is expensive! I'm looking at about a $200-$300 investment, and that's just for the low end stuff. But paint is a necessity. This house is ugly, and I will go batshit insane (to steal a phrase from Suze) if I have to sit in my living room and stare at shit-brown walls. (Upon close inspection of the walls over the weekend, I've decided they aren't pretty enough to be chocolate brown. Instead, it looks like shiny poo has been smeared all over the place. I refuse to sit and look at poo all day!) So, since the investment is more than I thought it would be, instead I'm painting the whole house one color and all the trim a bright white, then as I have money I'll add the accent walls in one room at a time. It won't be as pretty in the meantime, but I'll be there two years. I think I'll live. Besides, even the one color I choose to paint it will be soooo much better than poo. I don't like feeling like I'm sitting on the inside of a dirty diaper.

Anyhoo, here's pics of the smallest bedroom, which will act as our office/music room/playroom/guest room, as the need arises. Normally, I would like this pretty shade of yellow; however, it is too yellow for the tone of the rest of the house, so it will be painted over, as well.

Bathroom & Hallway

Here's the teensy little hallway area and pics of the teeny tiny bathroom. At least the floor in here is ceramic tile put in within the last year, and it matches the color scheme I'm going for in the whole house. My shower curtain is beige with itty bitty little palm trees on it (and the occassional monkey), and my bath rug is a light beige. Since the palm trees have a nice neutral green in them, the bathroom will have green accents to make the beige/tan/whatever neutral color I pick walls and white trim "pop". Oh, and in the picture where Jamie is lurking outside the door, you can see what pitiful shape the bathroom door is in. All the interior doors in the house are like that. They all need to be replaced.

The hallway will probably be a slightly lighter shade of whatever color goes in the bathroom, (since the hallway is so small), well.... maybe. That one wall between the doors to my room and Jamie's room is crying out for some artwork, pictures of Jamie, maybe a tall bookshelf, SOMETHING right there. It's such a natural focal point that I want to take advantage of it. I only have the one picture of the hallway; it was so teensy, I didn't see much point in getting it from several angles. It's basically just big enough to turn around in and decide which door you want to enter.

Kitchen/Dining Room

So, the kitchen/dining room has a lot of potential, but it also needs some work. Luckily, the creamy yellow countertops will work with my "theme" for the kitchen (blue/white plates, yellow and beige accents). Also luckily, my side-by-side frige will fit in the designated frige space (whew!). Paint and putting drawer pulls and door knobs on the cabinets will help a bunch in this room. And that paneled wall has got to be painted! I'll be taking down the lateral blinds from the back sliding glass door and the blinds from the window above the sink. I'm torn between my light blocking curtains or installing some of that super-duper dark window film and not putting any curtains up at all back there. I know for a fact that, even at night, you can't see inside that tint stuff, and it does a great job of keeping out the heat and UV rays. I've also got an insulated doggie door panel and brace I'll be installing on the back door. I'm SOOOOO tired of having to let the dogs in and out! Also, you can't tell very well in the pictures, but at some point in time they apparently had a leak under the bathroom sink, so they had to cut out a large square from the paneled wall. It's being held in place with packing tape! That definitely needs fixing! Also, if I can find some cheap, the whole house would look better with some plain crown molding up by the ceiling. Don't you think so?

The Living Room

We begin with the living room. Note that the walls currently look like they've been Hersheyed. Great in your food; awful on your living room walls.

Note how the high gloss (supposed-to-be-exterior) paint reflects the light on the walls. Not only does the dark color make the room feel tinier than it already is, but the high gloss makes every single imperfection and nail hole stand out. It also shows the fine layer of dust and dirt on the walls, and where other people have swiped their fingers through it. Furthermore, the warm undertones of the paint do not really go well with the cool undertones of the carpet. At least, I don't think so.

My couch and reclining loveseat set is oatmeal colored, maybe only a couple of shades lighter than the carpet. The other furniture (TV stand, media tower, end table) is black. The light-blocking curtains (a necessity with South Texas sunshine) are a dark red. I have accent pillows and a throw afghan on the couch that pick up the deep red color. I'm also planning to get a large floor carpet that picks up the red and black with various shades of browns in it, as well. I'm thinking the walls in here should be a creme color to make the room lighter and seem bigger. Should I do an accent wall in this room, since it's so small, or would the red curtains and pillows/accessories be enough to make it "pop" in such a small room. It's so tiny, I'm afraid an accent wall (or two) might overwhelm the room a bit.

I appreciate the comments on the last post. Really. Please don't be afraid to tell me your opinion. I don't expect expert advice, just gut feelings would be great. So please, give me your "two cents worth" on this room. Accent wall, yea or nay? Would it overwhelm the room or make it look fantastic? Opinions on wall colors, throw rugs, and your great Aunt Myrtle's secret recipe you had last night for dinner would all be welcome. Thanks!

Makin' Pretties (and Reader Opinion Poll)

The realty company gave me the key code to the house and have agreed to let me start painting the interior of the house before we move in, and will pay for 1/2 the cost of the paint. I took a bunch of "before" pictures when we went by the house today. Tomorrow we go look at paint and make final selections. When I get the opportunity, I'll post the pics we took tonight. I can't post them now, because I don't have a card reader here at home. I'll try to go to work early tomorrow so I can post them.

Now, here's a question for all my faithful readers:

I'm leaning toward natural tones, like beiges, cremes, sage, brown, etc. Jamie and I have a debate going right now on whether we should paint each room in different colors that complement each other(which looks really lovely but can get expensive), or if we should paint the whole house all the same wall and trim colors, then paint two walls in each room an accent color (which all happen to complement each other and look really lovely, but winds up being less expensive). So tell me your thoughts. What do you think we should do?