Tired!

Today has been a long, long day. I really haven't stopped going since getting up at eight this morning. We're not quite done, but we're almost done with the painting. The only thing left to paint is the smaller window and the door trim. And.. maybe the door, I guess. Crap, forgot about that. We also bought molding to go around the walls at the ceiling, and it's downstairs drying now and will be ready to be cut and hung up, but.. tomorrow on that one. Then we can rehang the closet doors, clean up the floors.. there's plenty of paint to scrape up, although most of it was there before because the people who used to live here were terribly clumsy with the paint. I hate scraping at dried paint. Also, we can finally put furniture back in place. It's looking majorly stupid right at the moment, with our desks back-to-back in the center of the room. This is the one room that the furniture cannot leave without major, time-consuming work., so we've been doing all this work with only about two or three feet of margin at the edges of the room. Does that even make sense? I'll probably be posting pictures soon, but I can't be bothered with that tonight.

When we got back from Lowe's, I saw that I had a missed call from my parents, so I called them back. It had been Mom who called, but Dad answered the phone so I talked to him first. He asked what was going on here.

"Well, we painted the computer room," I said.

"Oh, really?" he asked. Or something similar.. a non-committal response so that I could continue with my story, anyway.

"Yeah. Well, we taped everything on Thursday night and put the first coat on last night. We put a second coat on this morning, and now all that's left is the trim.. not sure when we're going to do that."

"Ahh. So, what color tape did you use?"

Tape! He didn't ask me about what color we painted the WALLS, he asked what color TAPE we used to mask with! That is so totally something my dad would do. If anyone out there in internet-land is dying to know the important stuff like our tape color, it was the regular old masking tape color. And by the way, our new walls? That's about what color they are, too. I know this because it was actually hard to see when you put it on the walls. (And if you're wondering why he cared about our tape preferences.. I think he was wondering if we bought the expensive blue painter's tape. And, of course not. Stupid stuff costs three times as much as the regular!

Anyway. We almost got too lazy to paint all the baseboards and windows, and I am so glad that we didn't. It made a big difference. It is looking so, so pretty in here. I can't believe it's the same room! We also picked up new outlet and light switch covers. I must confess that I told M that I was very cross with reebert because she keeps posting all these lovely pictures of the fantastic things that she has painted and I think "OH! I should paint something like that!" and it occurred to me while looking at these things that it would be so much fun to paint something all us-ish and personal on a light switch cover. And then I remember that dude, I CAN'T PAINT, so I am all jealous. :) (Just teasing, of course! I don't think I needed to clarify that but you never know.) Which, this is totally the wrong room for a hand-painted light switch cover anyway, as it is all brushed nickel and maple and techie-looking. But still!

So, we've been working hard but it hasn't been too bad, really.. it's mainly just made us want to paint the rest of the house. Not sure if that's good or bad at this point! And now it's bedtime, as the boy is walking around turning out lights. I suppose that's my cue...

Ha!

M has just informed me that Swedish victory in the men's Olympic hockey is by definition a day of celebration and victory, and under no circumstances should actual work (such as installing molding) take place.

Ha. Ha. Ha.

(Yay, Sweden! Good job!)

Stats - Computer Room Repainting

Trips to WalMart: 5.
Trips to Lowes: 1.5 (does going back in to get more string to tie the molding on top of the car count?)
Trips to Home Depot: 1.
Items purchased at Home Depot: 0.
Gallons of paint purchased, in total: 3.
Number of times that we cursed the ceiling for not being flat: 2,382.
Number of tubes of spackle applied to crack above molding: 2.
Number of different pimp-the-ceiling-fan solutions we've come up with: 87.
Number of things we've actually changed about the ceiling fan: 1 -- and that was just turning the blades over.
Number of times the blades on the fan were removed: 2.
Number of times M put the same ceiling fan blade on upside down: 2. In a row.
Number of times we discussed painting the other rooms of the house on Saturday: 104.
Number of times we discussed painting the other rooms of the house on Sunday: 2.
Total number of hours that K spent cross-legged on hardwood floor: 4. Can barely stand up right now.
Body parts that are in serious protest: M's neck, K's back and hips, and both sets of arms and shoulders from being held up to the ceiling all day.
Number of paintbrushes and rollers used: 7.
Number of things hanging on the walls: 0. ARE YOU CRAZY? PUT HOLES IN THE WALLS?!
Total number of hours we spent standing on chairs: 4-6
Total amount of time we planned to spend on chairs: approximately 20 minutes.
Total number of hours spent on project in total: I don't want to think about it.
Number of times we said "Oh, this looks SO GOOD.": 6,538. Oops, 6,539.

The walls are painted, the molding is up and painted, the ceiling is painted and the furniture is back in place--or actually, in different, better places. I had intended to put before and after pictures here, but we still have some junk to put away and we don't have time tonight because it's already past our bedtime. We didn't start painting molding until after nine! We were leaning towards waiting until tomorrow but I decided that there was a definite risk that I won't be able to lift my arms over my head for that long tomorrow so it would be better to get it done with tonight. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm looking forward to going to work tomorrow to rest, but I am rather looking forward to wearing clothes that aren't streaked with paint...

p.s. This room belonged to at least one of the daughters of the former owners. The walls were apparently painted an obnoxious pink color in here with a revolting hot pink trim on the windows--I believe I have made reference to how badly the former occupants of this house painted.. a good part of that time I spent on the floor was scraping up paint from their remodeling projects, not ours. So.. with that in mind.. does it disturb anyone else that the lock on this door is in the hallway and not inside the room? Why was it necessary to be able to lock the door from the outside? Questions to ponder...