Painting

My sister came into town for a visit a couple of weeks ago, and we decided that it was high time to put some paint on these white walls.

White, white, white. Everywhere ya look, new-construction white.

Well, almost everywhere. It is white everywhere except for the smudged spots and in the not-so-settling, so-called "settling cracks." I hate the settling cracks. They make me very nervous. They make my palms sweat.

Our neighbors have cracks so big that they have named them. Seriously. Poor construction? Bad materials? Poor soil? We live on a fault line? Ehm, yes. Probably, I'm guessing "yes" is the answer to all of it. Even as I am telling you about these cracks, my heart is racing and my head is throbbing.

But, *sigh* and fiddle-dee-dee, what can I do? This is the home the good Lord gave me, and last night, I painfully thanked Him for the cracks too. 

Anyhoo, back to the painting.

After hours and hours and hours of paint chip searching and comparing at Lowe's, my sister and I sat down in the patio furniture department and read a Soup & Stews magazine cover to cover. We got really hungry, bought the magazine, and came home without paint.

We had a pretty decent paint chip collection started though.

Anybody else have a really hard time picking paint colors? We hand-picked and deliberated over each and every one of these.

Experts say that you are suppose to consider your paint colors at different times of day and in different lighting. So we did that.

Evening light.

 Daylight.

Natural light. Lights on. Lights off. Help!

That's supposed to make it easier?

Pretty much just increases my confusion.

The paint color picking hours one day turned into hours a second and a third day, and then, all those days turned into lots of days. We taped just about every one of those chips, one-at-a-time, to a wall and stared at 'em. Moved 'em to another wall and stared at 'em some more. I just could not decide which color should go where.

My sister stayed for a week, and then she left. She left me with a pile of paint chips and a "You're on your own. I'm outta here." This also made my palms sweat and my head pound.

I can't say that I blame her. We were getting no where, and her two-year-old was seriously starting to loose his patience.


I carried on as best I could, but truly, I was beaten. Beaten by my own indecision.


That is when Handsome stepped in and picked a color. That's right, he just picked. In about five minutes flat, he just said, "Go with that one."

Not for the whole house, mind you. He decided that we should just focus on one, contained room - the guest room - and paint it.

Barley. He picked Barley.

How could he be sure? I am not sure. I wasn't sure, but I was tired... so tired of staring at the walls.


So, here is the guest bedroom before...

And this is after...

What do you think?

Three things I've learned:

One - My sister, nephew and my husband all really love me. (Thank you for your patience, you wonderful yous)
Two - I might make decision making a teeny bit harder than it has to be.
Three - I like Barley.

Oh, also, those edging/painter/gadget-y thingys don't work.

AND - this magazine is full of yummy recipes! If you find a copy, snatch it up, and we will make soup together when the weather turns cold and blustery.