A Little Color in Life
Posted in Family, Firsts, Food, Kids, Project, True Story on Jun 2nd, 2008
Note: Photos in this post by Benjamin, with his Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera (generation one model).
It’s strange, having nine days off work in a row and nowhere to go. We could have gone to Spain, England, France, or all of the above. Heck, we live in a border state; we could have gone to Mexico.
But, this site is called Regular Life, not Fancy Life or Extravagant Life or even We Saved Up a Long Time for This and Now We Can Do It Life.
Instead, this week we could re-title it We’re Not Going Anywhere, So We Might As Well Finally Paint Some Walls Life. Yes, after nearly three years living in the same house (a new record for us!) we’re leaving behind the off-white flat latex paint. Or covering it up, rather.
When my lovely wife took a break from slathering the paint all over herself, that is.
The great thing about this week is that we don’t have any trips planned. Invariably, the days I take off are for a specific purpose — a minimum of 4.5-hours in the car, one way, up to about 6.5 hours, depending which family we’re visiting.
I’m sure you’ve noticed that these days that’s a rather expensive proposition in fuel cost alone, not to mention the sanity lost to the mind-numbing drive of either trip. Lately it’s a toss-up which one is more valuable to us. But the pay-off is extended family time, and that’s quite a reward.
This time we threw our money at a cashier at The Home Depot instead. Before that, the lady behind the paint counter let Benjamin set his hand against the shaking machine, and then handed him a mallet to whack the lid back on after she sampled the color. Apparently it was earthy, with a hint of grapefruit and a strong peat finish.
To me it just looked green.
Sunday night at about 10 o’clock, after we had agreed on a Sirius digital music channel (The Pulse) on the DishNetwork receiver, we started painting the dining nook and kitchen. We were maskin’ and a-rollin’.
Then Shannon dropped a paint roller tray. As our impeccable preparation would have it (luck gets no credit here, because it let her drop the tray), the spill was contained on the drop “cloth” and Shannon’s legs. While she scrubbed herself clean in the nearest bathtub, which happened to be one of ours, I sneaked into the computer/guest room and posted on Twitter.
Did I mention that I installed a ceiling fan in the computer/guest room — finally? Hottest room in the house, and we’ve had the fan as long as we’ve had the one I installed in Benjamin’s room — you guessed it — nearly three years ago.
Painting? Fan installation? Before you ask, no, we have not been watching a lot of TLC. We just got a hair up our collective… no, that was going to sound gross… we got motivated. Okay, so Shannon watches quite a bit of TLC, but that’s not the point. Nobody can inspire you to do your own home improvement projects, and the first step is admitting you have a problem.
In other news, on Monday afternoon, once the temperature had reached about 95 and we had a morning of outside play behind us, Benjamin and I blew roughly half of the $20 worth of Chuck E. Cheese tokens that went missing about two years ago. There are some great games there for kids and adults (who like to play video games). A few of them I had seen at Dave and Buster’s.
I’ve spent lots of quality time with Benjamin outdoors, but that’s not unusual for a weekend. Here’s hoping the rest of the weekdays go as well as Monday.
(I stopped writing this to go try my first-ever batch of homemade chili. Oddly, I plucked the recipe off the back of a Williams Chili Seasoning container. No relation, so I take no blame for the concoction’s mediocrity.)
Hey, was that “Fancy Life or Extravagant Life” crack about me????
Oh, and I have a fantastic chili recipe here:
http://home.comcast.net/~d.champagne/recipes/Jamaican_Jerk_Chili/jamaican_jerk_chili.htm
Feel free to try it, it’s really great! We always make a double batch, and freeze half in containers we can take to work.
I to have a home improvement problem…but have yet to get that hair up my….motivation. Just ask my wife, she’ll list for you all the projects I’m currently not doing ;)
I love the images from Ben and can’t wait til Norah can join in that kind of fun. The instant feedback of digital has got to be a wonderful treat for the youngster set.
Enjoy your down time, sir. Or , at least your home time.
You tell that paint lady at the Home Despot that she was sampling it wrong. Probably stained her tongue. Much like Shan’s legs. (Which I’m sure are very nice and you totally should have taken a picture either either just after the spill or during the clean-up process. I’m disappointed.)
We did pretty much our whole house the first winter we moved in, while Amy was noticeably pregnant with our older boy. The only room we didn’t do was the master bedroom, which had (and still has, obviously) a neat sort of sponge effect that vaguely resembles Moksha’s brown bag living room effect.
Enjoy the time at home. Even when you don’t go away anywhere, just the down time off work is highly invigorating.
Dave - No, no, never. I wasn’t aiming that at you. But it sounds like you named yourself my primary target.
I would love to try that chili recipe. Thanks!
Moksha - Good luck on the home projects.
Also, I’ll bet the little one will love taking pictures (and drawing her own).
Simon - I’m glad I’m not the only one to use “Home Despot.”
After I wrote this and read it back to check for errors, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t picked up my camera during all of the fun. That was way out of character for me.
We, too, have undertaken big house painting projects in the past, but as you know, once kids are on the scene, that kind of thing becomes tougher logistically.
What a great blog entry! I too am on vacation but have so far managed to avoid any true productivity aside from a mowing of the lawn!
My hats off to you….get ‘er done!