It’s been long overdue.  We have lived in our new house for a year and a half.  Up until last weekend there were exactly 2 DIY projects that we had completed.  One was done out of necessity – Matthew’s bedroom.  And the other was done because my father in law decided that he wanted to stain the deck.  I helped finish it off, but the majority of work was his blood, sweat and tears… well, really just sweat.  But there was lots of it.

We used to watch a lot of HGTV.  It was a go to on a Saturday or Sunday morning.  Sitting there watching all of the home improvement shows and thinking… when we have a house, we should definitely do this.  The thing is, as you may know, when you watch those shows they may it look SO EASY… well, of course it’s not – and we can be very lazy.  But after watching a half hour show, look what you feel you can accomplish.

• Laying wood floors – a day job
• Renovating a bathroom – just a quick weekend
• Creating a resort like landscape – grab some friends and make it a party weekend
• Painting a room – quicker than you can watch back to back episodes of Law & Order

Now painting a room seems so easy.  You can make a huge difference with minimal labor.  But is it minimal labor?  On many of these home improvement shows they make it seem like anyone can paint… and paint well… and the room is always completed by the next commercial break.

In many areas of my life, I am a complete slob.  OK – really in most areas of my life.  But for some reason when I get involved with painting a room, I become completely anal retentive.  Perfection becomes expected of myself.  Perhaps this stems from my youth and the inability to color outside the lines.  It still drives me nuts when I go into Matthew’s room and notice where the walls and ceiling meet and some of the lines aren’t level.  It has definitely eased over time, but it still does bug me.  So when Anne and I decided it really was time to start making our house a home and giving it some of our personality, we figured we would start with the “easy” stuff and paint some rooms.

Ready - Set - Paint

Part of the “deal” Anne and I made prior to moving into the house was that I could have a man cave, as long as she had a library.  Anyone who has been to the house would likely agree that I made out better on that arrangement.  However she does love her books.  No kindle for her… she is old school.

Check out the bland before pictures…

The Boring Corner

The other Boring Corner

Time to spice things up a bit.  Did somebody say Bloomsberry???

not so boring now

And Riley Too?

So the library is complete.  Unlike HGTV, we managed to stretch out painting a 10X12′ room over a weekend.

Granted, managing a 5 month old, along with a puppy who wants to sniff all the paint and rub up on wet walls makes things challenging.  Now, onto the next room….