Color Changes or The Room Redecorating Project from HELL

I am certainly aware that running into problems when embarking on any household improvement is not uncommon. But I would, every single time, rather hear/read about these situations than experience them.

We undertook one of the simplest of household improvement projects on a Friday. As in Friday, November 11. This simple little project--painting a bedroom--quickly turned into the nightmare from hell. Not one single aspect of this two day project went anything less than totally, completely, entirely, wholly, fully, utterly AWRY.

All we had to do is spackle, sand, prime and paint. Simple, right? WRONG.

I remember having difficulty with that dark green paint that DoodleBug picked for that room years ago---she wanted it to resemble something out of Harry Potter. So, because she loves green she chose a dark green for the wall color.

It was darker than that in real life---the picture makes it look brighter than it actually was.

That paint fought us every step of the way. It's almost like it wouldn't adhere to the walls. It was a royal pain in the rear to paint that room but we did it. And she LOVED it and kept it like that all through high school.

Since she's been away at college going on three years now, I decided it was time to redecorate the room. I wanted to keep it in the green family (you know, in case DoodleBug moves back home after college/before finding a job) but lighten it up a bit. I enlisted the aid of Deanie and her Architecture/Interior Design degree and she came up with the color scheme.

We were ready for action.

The room was not.

We busied ourselves with cleaning old paint off the window and door trim---we let the girls help us paint that room so you can imagine how the trim looked--and Hubs noticed that the paint surrounding the trim had become gummy. Tacky. Sticky. So I pulled at it, just a bit, with my finger and guess what? That freaking paint came off like damp wallpaper.

We spackled and sanded--you can see the yellow that Deanie painted the room when Breezy went to college.

See that?! Just like freaking wall paper.

No problem. It was just the area around the trim, right?

Wrong again.

I had to peel that paint off of THREE $#%^ WALLS! T.H.R.E.E.

Why not the fourth wall? Because the paint on that fourth wall won't come off with a dang jack hammer that's why.

That's the wall that held onto that paint like there was no tomorrow!

There might have been much speculation and cursing before I asked the wonderful acrossthestreet neighbor (a contractor and all around nice guy) WTF?!  Apparently, there was either no primer or very bad primer used when the original paint was put on the walls 15 years before we bought the house. And so, after 4 or 5 coats since we've lived here (because the lovelies who shared that room had changing tastes as they grew up) the coats just peel off.

Lovely. And that one wall that the paint won't peel? That was the wall that I painted to resemble water (blue and green sponging technique) when Breezy was in her marine biology phase and the paint I used made some sort of difference. So the paint on that wall wasn't coming off.

The discovery of the peeling situation occurred AFTER we had spackled and sanded all four walls. Which meant that after I peeled those three walls, we had to spackle and sand AGAIN. And then prime. And then paint. UGH.

But, finally, we have a newly painted room! And it only took us 12 days!

Paint off, spackle on (again) and sanding complete (again).

Primer on and dry!

Tucker was unimpressed with the entire process.

Though he did offer a hand every once in awhile!

WAIT! What's that under the drop cloths?!

It's just me Mom!

The walls were finally primed! It was time to paint!

Wet paint!

Since Deanie thought we should try a beachie atmosphere in the room, Hubs discovered this old head board in the garage at his mother's house. But it had to be stripped and painted. Thanksgiving week. Good grief.

I already had to strip and paint this piece AND the bedside table. Why not add the headboard?

This is what we have so far. Tucker has already claimed it as his room.

The curtains are not up yet and I'm changing those blinds. BUT, not too shabby for a couple of empty nesters who ran into a crap ton of problems and didn't finish until the day before Thanksgiving, eh?

What did I learn? Never, and I mean NEVER, begin a project anywhere NEAR the holiday season! NEVER.

N.E.V.E.R.