Labor Of Love Day

Ouch.

Every ache aches.

Who knew marathon painting would be such a good workout?

Saturday we were busy.  My daughter had a playdate at the playground with a friend in the morning and my son went over to his friend's house in the afternoon for a birthday party.

Saturday afternoon, my parents came to our house and picked up the kids for a weekend sleepover.

My husband and I had decided earlier in the week that we would be painting the upstairs hallway.

In the interest of being honest, we haven't painted it since we moved in 7 years ago.  The urgency to paint it comes from my obsession with Pinterest.  I saw an idea of  hanging old frames up but removing the glass and replacing it with cork.  My kids have always loved having their artwork on display and this idea seemed genius for my household.  This way they can change it up and I love the idea of having a little museum in our home.

We live in a condo that has lots of continuing walls and open space, so we were lucky that we had already made the grueling color choice years ago when we painted our foyer which included part of our wall to the stairs.

We were unlucky in the fact that our color had been discontinued.  Luckily the associate at the paint store did a great job getting us the closest possible match.

When we went to pick up the paint we had a few minutes to look around.  That's when I started looking at swatches.  I found a color gray that I thought would look really great in my son's room.

The kids' rooms were the first thing we painted when we moved in.  For some crazy reason, we painted their rooms in a flat paint.  Something about the builder saying the house would settle, it would be easier to touch up, it was all hooey and the kids rooms are just completely marked up and in need of some eggshell paint.

A quick call to the boy to see if gray was still his favorite choice for his room, it was, so we told him that we would probably pick up the paint since they were offering a rebate and then at some point in the near future we would repaint his room.

Cut to finishing the hallway, having a few drinks to celebrate and deciding that we can indeed go ahead and surprise our son and paint his room for him.  This is why alcohol and paint fumes don't mix.

We managed to get through it.  I was only slightly panicked when I realized that we had packed our daughter's room with all the furniture from the hallway and her brother's room and that our kids would indeed, need to have access to their rooms in order to sleep and get ready for school and the week ahead.

A quick call to my parents begging them to bring the kids to us instead of us going to get them, every minute was precious and necessary, and we were in a race against time to get things done.  We managed to get enough done so that we could function and I now have the lovely task of getting the rest of it done today.

Let me say this, painting is hard work.  Every room that is painted in our house has been done by us.(the only exception being a wall that was repaired through our insurance company and repainted by painters)  I think in the back of my mind, it's going to be all overalls, painters hats and some sort of crazy paint fight. It's patching, sanding, taping , trimming and dismantling.  Despite my begging, my husband refuses to buy matching overalls and a paint fight?  That's just insanely messy and only  fun if I'm not the one who has to clean it up.  It is usually really fun and exciting adding the new color, but the second coat, come on, there's just no thrill in that.

      My vision of painting may or may not be influenced by this scene in "She's Having A Baby."

In the wind-up.  I am really glad we did it.  Everything hurts, I am so sore and exhausted and I feel bad that after two days away, my kids came home to tired and grumpy parents instead of refreshed ones.   Luckily a weekend of getting spoiled by my parents took the sting out of it.