Things are pretty quiet right now, so I thought I'd share my little painting fiasco with you. If you're not familiar with my history, I moved six times in four years after I graduated from college. That's right - packed, moved, unpacked...packed, moved, unpacked...you get the picture. Why so restless? Frankly, I just get bored. In each apartment/condo/home, I would be happy for awhile, and then one day, I'd look around and think YUCK. I'm tired of looking at the same ol' walls; it's time to move on.

This was kind of an issue when Felix and I started looking to buy a place. Before we signed the papers, he stated quite firmly and clearly that I would have to be willing to stay put for at least five years. At least. And I assured him that it wouldn't be a problem. The issue with my previous abodes was that I didn't own them; even if I was sick of my home, I couldn't change anything without the landlord's permission. Besides, who wants to spend time and money on something that you eventually walk away from?

Our new home was different. A completely blank canvas on which I could have fun and satisfy my limited attention span, which of course leads us to the painting fiasco. The first thing I wanted to do was repaint our walls. Everything was white, white, white, and I wanted vibrant color. Of course, I also thought it would be easier to get these changes out of the way before we filled our place with furnishings.

First, we painted a big accent wall. The living room/dining room area and entry way went from white to a darkly dramatic red. It's really stunning. After this long project, Felix was pretty much pooped. So on my own, I painted our bedroom a golden yellow and our half-bathroom a minty green. We were up to three different colors, and at this point, my honey put his foot down and suggested that I slow down before our house became a rainbow. I agreed.

A few months went by, and the minty bathroom started getting on my nerves. Everytime I went in there, I felt annoyed. No biggie; it's my house, right? Another gallon and a few hours later, the bathroom's grey. Felix's comments ran something along the lines of, "Huh, our paint colors seem awfully dark. Can't you pick shades that are lighter?" I retorted that dramatic change required dramatic color.

I should have known that I'd stew over his input.

A few more months went by, and I found myself staring at our bedroom walls. Golden yellow...golden yellow...huh. It was pretty dark. In the meantime, I prepared to paint our downstairs bedroom, which is currently our guest room/home office but will eventually be our guest room/nursery. While I was sifting through paint chips, Felix joked about how we should move downstairs because our room looks more like a kid's room than the future nursery. What? Who says grown-ups can't have patchwork quilts and Winnie-the-Pooh pictures on the walls?! The more I thought about it, the grouchier I felt.

Home Depot to the rescue again. I picked up a gallon of very light sage green for the downstairs and a gallon of very light lemon-yellow for upstairs. Struggling around all the furniture that now resides in our home, I painted one full wall in our room. Painted one full wall downstairs. Uh-oh...

The light sage green looked like our formerly minty bathroom's twin. Even as I was rolling it on, I hated it. The lemony yellow, however, was quite lovely, and I stockpiled all of the Winnie-the-Pooh frames to take downstairs. Felix remarked positively on the lighter color (hurrah!!! he likes it!!!), although he was equally dismayed by our minty sage green. I tossed the green gallon in the garage and painted three more lemony yellow walls, as well as finished most of the trim. One night, Felix and I were getting ready to go to sleep, when he suddenly turned to me and said, "You know, I don't like this as much as I thought. The lighter color makes the room feel cold. What was wrong with the original color?" ARGH!!!!!!!!! What happened to the dislike for dark colors? What happened to asking me to choose paler shades? What about living in a kid's room rather than an adult's? What, what, WHAT?!

Tossed lemon yellow gallon in the garage. Bought another golden yellow gallon from Home Depot. I repainted everything only to discover that my new golden yellow was just a touch darker than the original.

So here we are. It's July 3rd, and I'm practically ready to be shipped to the funny farm. I've still got my one minty sage wall downstairs rubbing me the wrong way, and everytime I go in our bedroom, I'm plagued by two ever-so-slightly different shades of yellow. Thank goodness for the four-day weekend. I've got a few more trips to Home Depot and few more days of painting to make everything soothing again. It's that or move!