color-challenged

The color that looked *absolutely fabulous* in the dining room looked absolutely hideous in the living room when I painted it yesterday. I tried to like it, I really did - I tried to convince myself that maybe with the lampshades up, or with the pictures up, it really wouldn't be so bad. But the denial wore off and I was faced with the ugly truth that I would have to repaint. I had really wanted the living room and dining room to be the same color... but clearly that is not possible, if I want a dark dramatic color in the dining room and and I'm not willing to let the living room look like a dungeon.

So, off I went to Lowes today, and dropped another $86 (that paint is expensive!) on basically the same color I had in the living room before - It's Valspar Signature "Straw Hat". But I am leaving the far wall of the living room in "Wooden Spoon". Here you can see the two colors, although it's hard to tell on the computer. They are very close in tone, but Wooden Spoon is merely a darker shade of Straw Hat. You can see in the picture that the two colors are very different in intensity (the blotch to the left of the window is Straw Hat, the rest of that wall is Wooden Spoon). But to the right of the window, you can see how subtle the difference is when they are on adjacent walls.

and they said it couldn't be done

Here's the dining room - all finished! The total cost was $417. I used Valspar Signature "Wooden Spoon" (eggshell) on the walls above the wainscotting, and Behr "Creamy White" (semigloss) on the wainscotting and trim. Dave orginially predicted the project to cost $500. I thought he was way off and was figuring on just over $100, maybe $200 at the most. Boy was I off. Plus I will probably need to change the window treatments, so that will bring us up to his original projection.

Now on to the living room. I am undecided on the color. I really want the same color in the living room and dining room (wooden spoon), to join the rooms together and allow the two spaces to flow, especially since the dining room is so small. But it is a pretty strong color and I'm afraid it will be too dark. So I think I will try it on one wall and see how I like it. Normally I would say I could just repaint (heaven knows I do a lot of that), but with Easter fast approaching, I feel pressure to make up my mind quickly.

How it's going

In answer to Erica's question, here's how it's going. We got the chair rail up, which unfortunately was the easy part. I have some sheetrock repair to work on this week, patching up the hole where the old air conditioner went through the wall, and some various cracks at the corners of the thresholds. This weekend we should finish the molding - in between Ethan's championship basketball game, Ethan's 3 baseball practices for 2 different teams, a softball practice for me and Dave, and un umpire clinic for me and Dave. And Dan and Sara's tennis lessons. I think there's a free 20 minutes in there somewhere, when we should be about to bang out this molding project. Easy Peasy.

Don't worry - it will be done by Easter and you will be enjoying roast leg o' lamb (with Nonno's famous garlic infusion) in a beautiful diningroom. It will be so nice, in fact, that I may have to go out and buy a new set of dishes..

Dining Room Project

It snowed on Friday. My 9th grade science teacher told us it always snows on Saint Patrick's day, but this year it snowed a day early. Anyway, that forced us to cancel our first softball practice of the season (GO ROGUE WARRIORS!), so I decided to start a new project. I hope to finish it before Easter.

We're going to put up crown molding, chair rail and shadowbox molding in the dining room. Actually, Dave is going to put up the molding. I am going to paint when he's done.

So here are the the before pictures.

We spent $150 at Lowes yesterday on the crown and chair rail moldings. And we spent $217 today at the Home depot on the shadowbox molding, painting supplies, adhesive, and one can of paint for the lower half of the walls (Behr Creamy White, semi-gloss, which is the same paint we used on the built-in bookcase and trim in the living room). The top half of the dining room walls will be Cracker Bitz, same as the hallway. And, I'm thinking of painting the living room that color too.

Yes it's an awful lot of Cracker Bitz. It might be dark. We'll have to see..

say hello to my little friend..

Here's Dave holding the little gray mouse he caught in Sara's room. We managed to lure him out from behind Sara's dresser in the direction of TicTac, as it was our plan for her to take it from there. She stared at him as he sauntered past her. The mouse was not scared of TicTac and she was not the least bit interested in catching the mouse. So much for our huntress.

Then Dave got the little guy trapped under the radiator where we spent the better part of an hour chasing him from one end of the radiator to the other. We finally got him to come out and Dave trapped him with a plastic container. Sara and Dave took him down to the woods at the end of the road to let him go, but not before giving him a couple pieces of cheese... which he chose to stay and eat instead of running away.

I hope he doesn't find his way back to our house... and I hope he didn't leave a little mouse family behind...