Our New Old House

I LOVE paint.  I love looking at it, I love painting things with it, I love playing with it, I love smelling it, I love feeling a freshly painted surface slide under my fingertips.  If I thought that some of the tastey looking colors of paint I’ve seen tasted like the foods they remind me of, I’d probably eat paint.  (I’m sure some of you are suspecting I have eaten lead paint chips, but I haven’t!)

I love paint so much but I have a real hard time when it comes to picking the RIGHT paint color for a project.  I don’t know where the mental block comes from.  I pick up dozens of paint samples in the store, I look at them all in rooms with all different kinds of light, during the day, at night, under flourescent lamps, by candle light, through sunglasses, everything!  And when it comes time to go buy the paint I feel really really certain that I am going to LOVE the finished project.  But when I do get the paint on the walls and wait for that first layer to dry, I always end up having second thoughts, and the glorious color I had chosen so meticulously turns out to be too yellow, not bright enough, or look just plain weird once it’s on my wall!

This article has some good tips that may help me break my cycle of bad paint choices:

http://www.remodelingmyspace.com/living-areas/living-room-interior-decorating/interior-design-secrets-for-selling-houses.htm

 Here’s hoping!

But it needs to be fixed anyway. 

I’ve never patched holes in plaster before, so I’m hoping some of the websites and how-to videos I’ve been watching have adequately prepared me for the task.  I promise to take some video so you’ll get to see the funny bits!

Meanwhile I’m hoping these tips on fixing drywall holes will help when it comes to fixing my plaster-lath holes:

http://www.remodelingmyspace.com/how-to-videos/drywall-videos/how-to-repair-a-hole-damaged-drywall-video.htm

Yeah, the title of the post says it all. These are old paint cans. One thing I learned, though, is that the minty green color of the outside of our house was known as “Park Green.” Fascinating. (No, really.)

I love the little tagline on this one: “Superiority through research” accompanied by a little swirling electron icon. Very fifties/sixties!

So… the awful pink color of the kitchen door came from Sears.

Haven’t figured out what color’s in this one, but the fact that it is the Wards brand, as in Montgomery Wards, the now defunct department store chain, it’s probably from the seventies or eighties.

We bought a whole bunch of tools at Ace Hardware’s 20% off sale!

They came in a cool carrying bag.

We got a circular saw…

A work light…

A reciprocating saw…

A drill…

A jigsaw…

Two rechargeable batteries that fit all the tools, a charger, and a hand held vacuum cleaner.

While we were there we also bought a 16′ extending ladder, a cordless edger/trimmer, and a few odds and ends we’ve been meaning to get.  It was quite a haul!  I’m so excited to start using all our new tools!

My grandma gave me some used curtains that my aunt took down from her house, and they sort of complete the look of our functioning bedroom. We haven’t taken down the wallpaper in this room yet because it’s in moderately good condition. When it’s all put together I like to think it has a shabby-chic sort of look to it. It’s a little too dark, granted, but it works for now. (Don’t mind my demonic cat.)