how to paint a room in a brand new house. part 1.

the before. and yes, that is a cabinet door on the counter. no we don't have a trap door in the island. chris ripped that off for us about 12 o clock one night, because it swings the wrong way. thanks cabinet guy.

step 1: suggest to your painter that you don't really know what color you want this room, so just leave it white.
step 2: realize after you moved in that white = this room ain't finished. then realize you paid a painter not to finish a room.
step 3: quit caring that the room isn't done because you have too many other projects to finish in your brand new house.
step 4: finish 37 other projects and realize you still don't like the white.
step 5: look online at other peoples' kitchens and realize you wish you had a different kitchen.
step 6: get cussed by your husband.
step 7: see a black kitchen you like.
step 8: google black room images about 45 times.
step 9: tell everybody you know you are going to paint your kitchen black.
step 10: get shot down by everybody you know, except your husband who surprisingly says this is a good idea.
step 11: go buy more paint.
step 12: wake up on a saturday and think you will knock this out in about 2 hours.
step 13:realize that its going to take more like 8 hours. painting a wall black, around stark white trim is not easy going.
step 14: take pictures of black kitchen. show them to everybody you know. tell them they were wrong.
step 15: take a night time picture. also be sure to get a good picture of your trash, because there is no door. which is convenient, but unsanitary.
step 16: take a daytime picture, but from the other direction. so you can't see directly into the trash.


step 17: take another picture from another angle. so you can't see the open air trash can at all. but you can see the cabinet door. now on the floor.step 18: be really happy you painted your kitchen black.
step 19: decide you really need to paint another room now.

it has been a while. obviously.

and since it has. we have accomplished a few things at the homestead. if i had done this post in a more timely fashion, i would have gone on and on about how much work it was. lucky for you i have the anesthetic of time, so you won't be subjected to all of that. just some nice pictures.

the yard no longer looks like this....
and looks more like this.
oh what a difference 100 bales of pine straw, 50 new plants, and about 170 plants from your old house can make.
this once, i am not exaggerating. we literally had at least that many plants. day lilies, iris, amaryllis, spirea, hydrangeas, some purple things that i am not sure of the name of and whose fate is yet to be determined, and a few other random things. my mom and i dug up all of these items, hauled them across the road to the new house. then my parents and i planted them. sounds fun, right?

this is about 1/25th of what we had going on....
somebody mentioned that i may be the worst tenant ever. basically because i moved out of a house we had lived in for 10 years. and then took everything in the yard too. this sounds like i am a gypsy or something, which may be true. but i took the plants because they were my great grandmother's, then my grandmother's, and some of my mother's. so i have a history with these plants. so i feel this is justified. plus i cleared it with the new residents beforehand. so fingers crossed everything blooms beautifully next spring. or i am moving it all back.

also if you think you don't see plants in those flower beds it is because we cut everything back before we planted it. so i am not faking that number.

stay tuned for more fun new house posts. like "how to repaint two rooms in your brand new house that just got painted 5 months ago".