Top Porch

So, we continued the painting adventure in earnest on Sunday after a quick post-church lunch at Arby's (I always carry my Arby's coupons for just such occasions). Christina came home late that evening and was very impressed, but that quickly turned to distress when I didn't stop painting again till 1 AM. Apparently she was having trouble falling asleep and needed me by her side to conk out. Sorry, babe!

What was keeping me? Well, she wanted a red accent wall in the library/office (the middle room) downstairs. I picked up a gallon of the closest color I could find to the one she specified. However, the first coat looked like crap and the second coat didn't do much to help. I ended up waking up this morning (painting day 3) to put a third coat on and then put a fourth on this evening. I used the entire gallon, but it looks awesome! Pics to follow soon at the new Szrama Clan website.

While I continued to work on the accent wall, my step-dad was making awesome headway in the kitchen. The whole thing is taped and primed, leaving me with a much shorter weekend of painting to finish the job. It's been fun to take care of little annoyances around the house as we paint. I fixed a picture frame and a cabinet shelf, and we finally scraped the stickers off the windows that pre-dated our purchase of the house. I think next I'm going to have to clean all the windows downstairs, because they're straight nasty.

Today was probably the best "painting" day yet, because it included a trip to the movies, Moe's for dinner, and Dairy Queen for a late night "we finished two rooms, hooray!" snack. We saw X-men Origins and Terminator Salvation. Both flicks were awesome, but I was definitely more excited about and impressed by X-men. Watching Wolverine and Gambit in action just rocked. If you have to pick between these movies, go get some X-men.

Now it's past midnight and I'm continuing my trend of working all day and working all night. I'm hoping to hit the sack soon, because I have to get up to prepare for a business trip to Chicago where I'll be teaching Ubercart to a room full of learners. I can't wait! Christina's in Toronto for a couple weeks, so she won't miss me being at home. Here's hoping the garden doesn't dry up while I'm gone!

So, this Memorial Day weekend, Christina drove off to visit with family in Nashville while my step-dad drove up from Atlanta to help paint the downstairs of Top Porch. For those just tuning into my life, that's the name of my house, and he's the one who made us the sign that proves it. Painting downstairs is quite the task, as our ceilings are 11' tall. However, after a yummy breakfast at Denny's and a trip to Lowe's for paint and supplies, we dove in undaunted by the long weekend ahead of us.

I'm happy to report that things went quite well and possibly better than expected! We managed to paint and trim the living room and half of the library/office. We had to leave a few sections unfinished, because we didn't have the sandpaper necessary to smooth out some patched spots. We'll take care of those tomorrow and finish at least the library/office tomorrow. Who knows, we might even make some headway on the kitchen.

I don't have the color cards on hand, but I'll be sure to post the colors tomorrow. They're earthy and quite appealing, and even just the work we've done so far feels like it's transformed the house. Our walls thus far have been a dirty, scuffed white with small trails of stain and running down them here and there. We inherited them in this state and meant to paint them but never really had the opportunity. However, with baby Eowyn on the way and a pregnant momma able to leave the premises for a weekend, it was now or never!