Painted

It’s almost finished. The hallway still has bare sheetrock and unsanded mud to conquer before the final drops of paint are part of the walls. It took all day to do this job too, so I was rewarded for all my watching and finding things to do outside my small kingdom by dinner out at Painturo’s.

I love that place. I love Italian food in general. Painturo’s is on the very casual side of Italian so there aren’t a lot of decadent creamy pasta dishes, but it’s still all good. We started with cheesy pinwheels. Oh my, they were so good. It was like thin cinnamon rolls with four types of cheese and Italian spices rolled up in them instead of sugar and cinnamon. We dipped them in marinara sauce and licked our fingers a lot. Then I got a salad. I was trying to be good. Both financially and physically good. The small salad is only $4.99 and I didn’t know what to expect. I chose the Tuscan Vinaigrette and it was so tasty. Just full of yummy flavor and tangy fun. It was perfect. The boys love Painturo’s too and the great thing is that children under 7 eat free with an adult meal. So we only had to buy one meal for the kids…which we decided not to do and we all just shared stuff. So far the boys are still not big eaters on a consistent basis, so we can do things like that.

I’ve spent my morning taking things back into the kitchen. I had a lot of wiping off to do on all the kitchen clutter I display. I haven’t wiped off the tops of the counters…ever. Who wants to do that? Yuck. I rearranged the stuff I had up there and hopefully, though it’s still lacking, it looks a little more aesthetically pleasing. I put a few things away for good. Sometimes you just get tired of looking at things. And repurposed a few things. I decided to put the fish jar directly on my desk and I like that better. I can talk to Tim now when I’m board.

The color…is…subtle. Very, very subtle. It is in fact named, “subtle taupe,” so of course one would expect some subtlety in the final coat. At first I was a little disappointed in the lack of drama. I typically feel that the payoff for painting is that feeling of “good shock” I get when I come into the room for the 5th or 6th time and it still surprises me. This time…I can barely tell it’s different but it is different and it is nice. I find it much more finished, much more fresh and much cleaner looking. I do see a big difference in the contrast next to the molding and trim and I love that. It makes me feel warm inside. I even feel like it looks better against the view from the windows. The view that is still brimming with color here on the outskirts of Mt. Juliet, TN. From certain angles especially it seems that the windows are glowing with the peachy orange foliage. Yum. So…you may not see much in the pictures, but here are the pictures none the less.

First…my kitchen clutter all piled up in the dining room…

The next few are where things were about halfway through yesterday. The entry to the kitchen from the garage was still very unfinished but at least the studs are now covered.

The paint was in the cutting in stage here and you can see how similar the colors are from before and after. Not dramatic…not dramatic at all.

This is how it looked this morning. The mud is now dry on the edges of the drywall but it was still waiting to be sanded. You can see the paint has been finished up to the corners of this hallway and was cut in at least partially around the doorways in the hall.

And the rest of these are what is put back together. I still have so many little things I’d like to do in this kitchen. New lighting, glass mosaic tile back splash, window coverings, new chairs, new table and more. Some things need to wait until the boys are bigger. No sense replacing something just to have them kick, scratch and otherwise humiliate it. I consider my kids pretty well behaved in this area, but they are still kids and they spill, climb and are generally hard on furniture. All things will have to wait until there are more sufficient funds available. I’m realizing…waiting is half the fun.

This last one is the view looking into the living room. A room never needs paint/color so badly as when it’s neighbor has just been given a face lift. Ah…what was it I said…yes…waiting is half the fun.

The humorous and slightly annoying thing is that now Owen is getting in on the fun of decorating the house. He keeps asking when we are going to paint the living room now. He is also very enthused about painting the playroom upstairs. He wants it to have an ocean theme so he can display his recently wrought oceanic paper plate art. The red jellyfish with shimmering silver tendrils is especially high on his list of displayable work. I finally told him yesterday that he will not be allowed to pick the color for the room. He was disappointed and possibly a little hurt, but recovered nicely when I promised him the rights to color choice when we allow him his own room. He is very excited about the idea of having his own room. He doesn’t push it too far yet, because I think he really likes being with his brothers still. I hope that lasts a while yet.