Adventures in Painting

I'm not sure if I've explained our misguidance in buying a new construction home or not. Here's the deal... just because it's new, doesn't mean it needs less work. For example: Paint. Yes, our house was full of fresh, never-touched-before white (ick) paint. HOWEVER, the contractor used flat paint. For those of you that don't know... flat paint = unwashable!! And that means that anytime a dog knocks it's wet self against a wall, or your child touches the wall while in time-out... there will be evidence left behind for all of time. Or until you paint. And don't you for one minute think that I haven't attempted to be the exception to the rule and have washable flat paint... the paint and texture come off the wall wherever I've attempted a clean-up job. :(

The solution? Paint the entire downstairs. We thought we started this when we painted "Harvest Gold" 3 years ago. Turns out the fall/harvest decor didn't happen and we ended up with really bright goldy-yellow walls. Then last year, we decided to do some remodeling and build a den. So, for exactly 1 year we've had two unfinished walls (just textured) in our downstairs because I can't decide on a tan/beige paint color; yes, I take full responsibility for this one.

Thank you Sherwin Williams for having your 40% off paint sale the 20th-23rd! While we spent $303 on paint, it was high quality and SO MUCH less than what the same paint could have cost; 40% less to be exact! We decided on Resolute Blue and Kilim Beige, the perfect compliments to our warm-green kitchen!

So we being our painting weekend by sending Justin to the zoo with the children! Thankfully our neighbor needed to get his little guy (Jordan's "favorite prince") out of the house too, and that my parents were planning on surprising us by taking the kids to the zoo (LOL), too! So the dads, kids, grandparents and Auntie Jill all got to go to the zoo!

(Another thanks to Grammy, Pop-Pop, and Uncle Wessy for Jordan's wagon! It's well loved!)

 

And Justin's favorite part:

(hehehe)

And my Favorite parts:

(Apparently they held hands nearly the whole time! So adorable!)

(And my little man)

Okay- enough of the slackers! Just kidding... I'm SOOOOO grateful for the zoo trip! It was an amazing help to have the kiddos out of the house while it was destroyed and wet with paint!

Here's the before pictures we snapped:

(corner of living room with Harvest Gold and unfinished wall)

(Fireplace)

(TV's new location in the corner)

(Yet another round of color samples we considered- testing them against the painted kitchen color)

And HERE WE GO!!

During and After:

And the Dining room:

(I was surprised that it looked like we were moving when I saw the dining room in disarray!)

(The former time-out corner... Can you see all the hand-prints?!)

(Justin did a lot of the prep work on Sunday, Jimmy helped him and kept an eye on Joey!)

Some final photos:

(new location for our house star picture)

(see the new color??)

(Moved our sign from above the slider to above the pantry/laundry)

(Reorganized the star wall!! I'm SO in love with it!)

And now... the Detwiler-projectness shows... It wouldn't be one of our projects without SOMETHING going wrong... well, it did, and it was all my fault!! While touching up the ceiling in the living room, I went to move the ladder, but I had to fold it first. I grabbed the blue paint cup I was using and started to fold the ladder... I totally forgot I had the only quart of our white ceiling paint on the ladder shelf!! :(

(Paint ALL OVER the carpet!!)

Yep... while we're not in love with our carpet, we are stuck with it for another couple of years, so this was BAD news! :( And did I mention it was the only can of ceiling/original paint we had, and that it doesn't have a label or anything to suggest what white color it is?? I was able to save a lot of the paint... and Justin was able to salvage the carpet!!! :) Thank you to the internet suggesting that laundry detergent and water should do the trick! It's not all out, but after a lot of hands and knees scrubbing on Justin's part, we can still make it another couple years with the carpet!! :) He saved the day!