A Case of the Chicken Pox

Yes, our family recently underwent a severe case of the chicken pox -- fortunately neither Pablo nor I were affected. The victim, in fact, was our guest room.



That's because the previous owners had painted that poor room the most hideous shade of pale toothpaste green. Not to mention the strange yellowish tint that extended about two inches onto the ceiling. And they had also been rather careless in their shelf-fastening techniques (seriously, five stripped screws in two shelves?).

Pablo and I finally decided that it was time to clear out the mountian of book boxes, the spare bed, and all of the other various things that had wandered into the room, and give it a fresh coat of paint. I was put in charge of patching holes while Pablo took down the ugly cheapo shelves and prepped the rest of the room. By the time I was done -- well, you can see the results below! How on earth does a single room (and a small one, at that) acquire so many dents? And please tell me that most people are smart enough to take off their switchplates and outlet plates before painting?



Fortunately, Pablo and I have almost identical tastes in paint colors, so it was not difficult to find a color that we liked -- in our case, "Drawbridge" for the walls and "Creamy White" for the trim. Eventually all of the trim will be the same color, but we're only tackling this room for the present.



I must confess that I *love* to paint! When my dad was building our house when I was 13, I had a blast getting to paint my own room (and several others, as well!). Pablo touched up the ceiling with spray paint, and we set to work on the walls -- to our surprise, our paint smelled like Tootsie Rolls! *smile* We used Olympic from Lowe's -- no VOCs in the paint itself (though there are some in the coloring additives).



Some leftover khaki paint in the garage did very nicely for the closet (which was in even worse shape than the room), and once we finish painting the doors, the room will be complete. Home, Sweet Home -- and it's much sweeter now!