We are tackling Chickie's bedroom first. She doesn't realize it, but we are using that room as our experiment. It has been ages since my husband or I have painted, and we have never laid floors. My husband has helped with the flooring, so he knows what to do, so that is a bonus.

But people? The prep work nearly killed us. First, we ripped up the carpets. Then, we had to take the carpet strips up, which of course, left little indentations in the cement. Next, we removed the baseboards, and as we were doing so, we realized that before we put them back, we will need to sand and re-stain them. Not all that bad, but some added extra work we hadn't counted on. My husband patched up the holes in the wall as well as on the floor. In between times, there was much vacuuming to be done. But wait! We had to remove the blinds, and the rods, as well as all of the face plates. The masking came next (I HATE that part) and then we were ready to paint.

We covered what we needed with a drop cloth, and away we went. Chickie wanted to help paint, which was fine. She required very little tutelage before she got the hang of it. The dicey part came when Meelie wanted to help. Considering she is just nine years old, she didn't do too badly.

The two colors in Chickie's walls are Blue Heron and Duet Green (two walls each). We've finished off the blue, and now my husband and Chickie are doing the areas that require a small brush and they have kicked me out of the room. Which is totally understandable because there is not very much room left. I was kind of bummed though because I like to paint. Go figure.

We are all taking a bit of a break (they are done now) and when the blue dries, we will paint the remaining walls with green. The blue is beautiful! I'm looking forward to seeing what the green will turn out like. We decided to go with the really good quality paint, which, though more expensive, was worth every penny we paid. It's looking like we will only need one coat (original was contractor white). We'll check it in the morning to see how it looks, and make our decision then.

It's been a productive, yet slow moving day. It's hard when you are learning as you go. I'm guessing that the more experience we get under our belt, the easier it will be and it won't take nearly as long. The goal is to get the floor in tomorrow. I'm really hoping that goes as smoothly as the painting.

Now I'm going to kick back with the rest of the "workers" and in a little bit, work on the remaining walls.