Lucky Dorito

Yesterday morning – I whipped everyone into a frenzy of cleaning, which required some serious effort and a few stern looks. After we’d finished, a little voice in my head started whispering that I should paint the den. It was a great day to paint – I didn’t really have anything else planned and it really NEEDED it! I kept thinking about it for a while and finally couldn’t come up with any valid reason to NOT start painting. As soon as I suggested it out loud to the kids – they were THRILLED, believe it or not, I thought of the “folder”.

If you know me, you might know that I have a teensy weensy collection of paint swatch samples. Yep, that be them, all neatly tucked into one of Luby’s school folder I scarfed a long time ago from her room. When you open it, it looks like this:

Isn’t that just the most wonderful sight you’ve seen? lol Yes, I confess, I love to paint! I feel like it is something that requires minimal effort and makes such a huge difference! When we first bought this house a few years ago, I painted several rooms right off the bat

(because my sister Lina came to help me) and then she left and I ran out of steam (and money) and just sort of quit. With LOTS left to do! We’d removed all the carpet and installed Pergo laminate flooring throughout, new oak treads on the stairs which I stained and varnished to match, a slate-looking tile flooring in the kitchen, and assorted other things. And meanwhile, we worked and the kids had soccer and ballet and …. yada yada. It was exhausting! (By the way, those little text boxes that are to small to read – say that the green is our bedroom color and the kitchen is one of those reds.)

This past Friday afternoon I went to the movies with a friend and afterwards we stopped at their new house and as she showed me around, we talked about paint colors she had planned. That alone was enough to spark the “painting bug” in me and get my little internal voice to start spurring me into action!

So Saturday morning I went to get the folder from it’s top secret location and on the way I remembered – I HAD a gallon of paint already mixed that I had planned to use in the den! I grabbed it out of the garage (marveling over the fact that I could actually FIND it in the garage but that is another story!) and asked my hubby if he’d run over to Lowe’s and have them shake it up again since it had been sitting for …. umm…. quite a while. He said he would so I began to prep the room for painting.

He got back and said, “Honey? Did you realize that paint was purchased in 2005?”

“Really? Hmmm. No, I knew it was a while ago though,” thinking I am SOOO glad I didn’t go to Lowe’s because undoubtedly I would have felt the need to explain WHY I purchased the paint in 2005 and then never used it. Not that they would need to know that or even remotely care, but – chances are high I would have ran my mouth and told them anyway (while the little voice in my head would be screaming SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!) and yet, I would keep talking and have to stand there and suffer through the looks they would giving me because I was digging myself into a hole! I do that all the time. I know, I’m a weirdo. (As if you hadn’t noticed…)

He said that 3 different people at Lowe’s had questioned it – saying it might not go on smoothly, it might be too old, bottom line: it might be yucky.

Well…. guess what? It worked perfectly. The girls helped with all of the first coat, rolling it on while I did all the edges. I released them from their duties and did the second coat myself. I busted my hiney until well after midnight to finish up and the room is DONE and beautiful! All the furniture is back in place and I love love love it! Minimal effort, HUGE reward!

Any one want to guess what color I painted it?

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