Posted by Suzanne McMinn @ 5:04 am | Permalink
Daily Farmhouse Journal
Painting, Day One! Here it is, after the great paint debate–she chose Summer Pecan, a neutral but a little lighter than Mudpie. It’s hard to be 12. It’s a mixed bag at this age. Some childish sensibilities, some adult. In the end, she was swayed by her bedding and all the advice in your comments. She was impressed! It gave her a lot to think about, and I let her decide on her own.
She also used a color called Polished Maple (one shade darker on the same paint chip card) for her bathroom and for the nook in her window seat. I’ll get some pictures of that tomorrow. It was a long day…. I didn’t get back in there to take pictures later.
We started out early. The two boys were at the house late Friday night, cleaning up drywall dust. They came home, crashed, and I got them up early Saturday morning with egg sandwiches and sent them on their way to the farm while I waited for the paint to arrive with more troops. 52 brought the paint from the city and we headed out there. I followed in my car thinking I wanted my car out there in case us girlies needed to visit working facilities. The road out there was a slippery, muddy mess. My nerves were frayed by the time I got to the driveway, and when I started sliding crazily halfway up the driveway, sure I was going to end up going off the cliff on one side or in the ditch on the other, I hit the brake, ordered Princess to GET HELP, and by the time help arrived (52), I was sobbing hysterically. I am so tough!! He said, “Move over.” I said, “I can’t move over! If I take my foot off the brake, I’ll go off the cliff!” (Insert more hysteria.) He finally convinced me to move over and miraculously (because I had my hands over my eyes) he got us up the driveway without shooting my car over the cliff. Whew. I just need a man standing by anytime I drive up my driveway in bad weather, no problem.
I’m moving out there and not going anywhere till summer and the road is DRY. When my dad was a kid growing up and lived out there, he walked that road (two miles) every day over the hill to the farmhouse where I live now to get the school bus to the high school. I’m thinking, kids today are too soft! They can walk over the hill! They can bring groceries home on their backs! Okay, not really necessary because 16 has no trouble driving down that road. He can drive everybody to school when his mommy is too scared, and even drive his sobbing mommy to the store. What is it with boy-people?!
Look at all that beautiful paint!!
I’d like to say this was a purposeful re-purposing, but it was spur of the moment–yet genius! We got out there and I realized I hadn’t brought anything for a touch-up container for paint. I was doing edging and touch-up all day. I started in Princess’s room with her rolling, me doing edging and touch-up. Only no little paint container to carry around with me. I searched through everything Steve-the-Builder had and was ready to pour out containers or nails, LOL, but nothing really seemed like it would work right for what I wanted. And believe me, no way was I driving back to the farmhouse to get something. 52 came up with this empty milk jug out of nowhere, cut it off, and it was perfect! I loved having the handle to hold the jug by. So there you go, your frugal re-purposing tip of the day!
We were eating gourmet. This was our first meal in our new kitchen. And this is even in the kitchen!
I used the Darby Creek color I talked about earlier for the entire main floor. It really looks like a khaki to me, but I’m sure Darby Creek means something to somebody somewhere…. It’s a rich neutral–rich enough to make great color on the wall, but neutral enough to go with anything for decorating. If I was naming paint colors, I’d call it Gold Brocade. I like that better than Darby Creek, whatever that means. While I was helping Princess paint her room, everyone else was on the main floor priming then starting to roll the color. I got down there later and Princess joined the rolling party on the main floor while I started the picky edging job. 14 kept asking when we were leaving. I kept telling him, “When we are too worn out to go on.” He said, “I’m too worn out now.” He is a go-getter, LOL. Unlike 16, he has no car and no girlfriend to motivate him to work. (I was paying them for cleaning up and painting. Because I am a very tough mother.)
We found him here in this closet a few hours later. Maybe he was too worn out to go on!
About ten hours after we started, we finally packed it in for the night. We got a lot done and we think we can get close to finishing the entire house this weekend. When you’re trying to paint an entire house, so many hands working makes a huge difference. I made 16 drive my car down the driveway (then he had to run back up the hill to get his car) and we all headed home. And found a surprise on the table–brownies from Georgia. Could a day be better? We got a lot of painting done and came home and found brownies.
Today, we do it all over again. You? What are you doing this weekend? We have extra rollers, you know.
