We've pretty much finished up Chickie's room, with only a few minor details to take care of. Yes, it took us a while, but, we are both new to this, and we both work full time. Not only that, we need to taxi our children around to the various extracurricular activities. It makes it hard. We are slowly getting into a groove though, by deciding who does what. For example, I'll be doing most of the prepping for the rooms, and then painting. This is done after the carpets are ripped up, the carpet tacking is removed, and the floor is prepped. I paint, and then my husband follows up with the flooring. I'm sure most of you are asking why things are taking so long, but you just need to look above for your answers. We are new at this and learning as we go. We work full time and are busy taking our kids here and there. But it is getting better. By the time we are all done, I'm sure we will be pros.

Here are some of the things we have learned after doing the "first room."

1. If your room is small, empty it out of all the furniture. We didn't do that with Chickie's room and we paid for it. If you empty it out, there is a lot more room to move around and you don't have to shift the furniture around to accommodate. you


2. Two coats of paint, no matter what anyone tells you. One coat might look great for a day, but then some parts of the walls will soak up more paint and you are left with a lot of touch up work.


3. Masking: Take the time to do it right. It will save you quite a bit of time in the long run


4. Paint around the door casings first. Trust me on this one.


5. If you work in a shaded area, get work lights that go on stands.


6. Everything takes three times longer than they say on the home improvement shows. And if they say it's easy? Watch out.


7. Talk to the experts. If you have someone you know, or someone who lives near you, ask them for advice and what were some of the problems they ran in to.


8. Clean as you go. It takes some extra time, but clean up after every "job" you do. Get rid of the uneccesary tools. It makes a huge difference.

As we move forward, I'm sure we'll have many more tricks of the trade. We are learning, more by trial and error. It's all good. Once we are finished? I can honestly say I NEVER want to do this again.

Soon, we'll have some flooring tips up here so that you don't have to make the same mistakes we did.