what was i thinking?????

one of the projects we (my children and i) wanted to complete this summer was to paint their rooms.  so, the plan was to do the girls room first and then the boys room and i would impart all of my painting wisdom upon them and we would take a leisurely time getting them done.  you know, three or four days per room.  and perhaps take a break between rooms.  'cept, we arrived at the last week of their summer vacation and we still hadn't started.  but i'm a hopeful sort of person and so i suggest that we just go for it.  let's do both rooms at once.  what was i thinking?

i painted this room when we first moved in - fresh white with hot pink and florescent orange.  so many dots!   and i did such a thorough job.  two coats of paint on each dot with the dots covering the entire wall, even behind all of the furniture.  and on the back of the door too.  of course, an even number of pink vs. orange dots.  because pink was for my younger daughter and orange was for my older daughter.  what was i thinking?  you may be able to see in this picture that we spent a day lightly sanding each and every dot.  oh, and if you look real closely you'll see a sleeping teenager.  guess she's not ready to get started on the painting yet.

i painted the boys room that same florescent orange on top.  florescent orange!  and a kind of mellow medium blue on the bottom.  the top was for my older son and the bottom was for my younger son.  what was i thinking?  couldn't i just get them to agree on a color they both liked?  again, i did a nice thorough job, painting all of the molding orange and blue as well.  all of that nice molding.  really, what was i thinking?  

the first coat left me with a sinking feeling.  this is not going to go as smoothly as i thought.  this is good paint.  glidden paint and primer in one.  i used it in my own room several months ago and it covered really well on the first coat and i did a second coat just because i always do.  but i really underestimated those dots.  what was i thinking?  

this first coat left me with that same sinking feeling.  orange does not cover well.  maybe i should have primed the orange with a regular primer first?  too late.  what was i thinking?  and i noticed the paint seemed really dark compared to the colors we had chosen.  the green we (i) choose was a nice medium green called prairie sage, but that green looks more like olive green.  same with the grey.  they (i) chose a nice medium grey, but this really looks like charcoal grey.  what went wrong here?  i check the cans.  instead of mixing the paint with a light base as he should have, the  guy used a medium base, making the colors way darker.  like, really a lot darker.  the kids are happy about this mistake.  my plan of steering them towards lighter colors has backfired.  they are getting the colors they wanted to begin with.

the second coat is better, but still.  those dots.  plus, we have run out of paint.  

the second coat is looking better on the bottom, but that orange.  and we are almost out of paint here too.  what was i thinking?  of course we need two gallons.

we did all of this the first day.  two coats on each room.  pretty ambitious i think.  the kids really are helping out.  and i managed to make dinner.  real dinner.  because i always do.  steak and rice and veggies.  when hubby comes home, i'm tired, so i send him on a paint run so we can get back to it on day two.

and i'm out of pictures, because i am driven to get this done.  i'm not stopping for anything.  on day two we put down a third coat in each room.  the third coat is looking a bit better in the green room and i feel hopeful that coat number four will be it.  the third coat on the grey room looks really good, like we could be done.  but, oh no!  what was i thinking?  we've had some more paint issues.  i'm not going to go into all of the details, because that's just boring.  but let me just say, if you are going to buy your paint from walmart, just remember, walmart employees are not paint experts, they just plug it into the computer and the computer does the work.  you are the one responsible for making sure they are choosing the correct paint, the correct base, that the color is correct...and all that important stuff.  preferably before you open it up and use it.  i'm not really complaining.  i realize you get what you pay for.  and this paint is cheaper than getting it from a real paint store or even home depot.  

so, we're slowing down a bit.  i'm feeling a bit woozy from all these paint fumes.  but i just know day three is going to be it.  a nice finishing fourth coat of paint on each room.  stay tuned...  and cross your fingers.