Pictures below, story here

My last blog was about me putting the snowblower through Sean's window. No, not a rock through the window from the snowblower, but actually putting the snowblower through the window.

Since then we've window shopped....for windows. We had two options. One was to buy windows that cut into the budget, the other was to buy windows that amputated the budget and put it on life support. We chose the lesser option. There are a couple of things that come with new windows. One would be new woodwork for around the windows. The window company brought it over for me to sand, stain, and varnish. After all, it'd save a couple hundred and I like (possibly LIKED as in past tense) staining and varnishing. So I sanded, stained, varnished, sanded, varnished, etc many many many yards of boards. When I was done, I took one into the house to see how it looked. Pretty good...not an exact match but darn close. EXCEPT....the trim wasn't the same. What they supplied was a more modern look, ours is colonial. Maybe it would be close enough. After a restless night, I decided the difference would bother me too much. Off we went to find matching wood, better matching stain, then sand, stain, varnish, repeat. Anyone need some extra trim....will sell for cheap.

The windows went in with no problems. EXCEPT for the inches of dust that coated the house from cut sheetrock, etc. So we cleaned the house from top to bottom.

The new windows are about the same size, just about. Holding up the old blinds, they fit perfectly. Good....this will be a breeze. So I drilled into the new windows to hang the blinds in the office first. Perfect fit left to right. Troy....you are a genius, I thought. Notice the past tense used again. Ok, first blinds hung, let's let them down to see how they fit. Hmmmm, not the normal clunk you hear as the blinds drop. Hmmmm, well, not actually "Hmmmmm", more like "#*@&, $(#*, *@!^, they're not long enough.

Next step, order new blinds for almost all the windows. They arrived and went up ea$$$$$ily.

You know, as long as we've got new windows and new blinds. we might as well paint the kids' rooms. It's been 7-8 years.

Kaitlyn's room first: Kaitlyn had bought a new bedspread a few months back so wanted to paint her room to match. Kaitlyn is not a "decisive" person. Her bedspread has many colors on it. The most I'd paint the room was 2 colors and the ceiling must stay white. Did I mention that Kaitlyn is not a decisive person. Finally the 2 colors were picked - it wasn't that easy but I won't stress you with the story. I can't use Behr paint as something in it makes me sick. No problems with any other paint, just Behr. Kaitlyn's colors were Behr Disney paint. Yes, Scheels hardware can match the pink and the orange. Until it came time to pick it up the 4th of July weekend. They could match the pink. OK...it's the 4th of July weekend....only an official paint store can match the remaining orange....finally we found one that could do the orange. By the way, both places said we'd need colored primer to cover the sea foam green with the other colors.

The pink primer and pink paint covered the green in one coat each. The orange.....not such good luck. After THREE coats of primer I finally said, enough. The paint will have to cover what's still showing through. And, yes, green was still showing through. 2 coats of orange paint and we were done. Out of primer, out of paint, we are done. That room is now 24 square feet smaller because of all the coats of primer and paint. Honestly, it has taken a week for the room to dry. By the way, Kailyn went with white blinds. Miracle of miracles.

Sean's room: Sean IS a decider. Right or wrong, he's decided. "I want my room painted black. Black walls, black ceiling, black blinds". Sorry, Sean, that'd be too dark. "OK then, I want it dark brown and dark red". We not talking tan and a burnt orange/red. We're talking just lighter than black brown and just lighter than black red. Seeking Kaitlyn's input, we secretly asked her to talk to Sean about his choice of colors. Her reply "I'm not talking to him about it. I'm not his parents, you are".

Step #2, Sean's room. Reasoning. Won't bore you with the failed attempts.

Step #3 Sean's room. Bargaining. Finally we came up with a solution. Dark brown blinds, dark brown valances, dark brown bedspread, dark tan and DARK red walls. That didn't take as many coats.

During this time, I discovered a new drink - Southern Comfort.

We're all looking forward to the projects being done. Summer goes by too fast to spend all of it inside working. After all, we have all these projects waiting for us outside as well.

Finished Painting !!!!

We finally finished the kids' rooms. Sean's was little boy blue and is not teenager brown and red. Kaitlyn's was "sea foam" green and is now Disney orange and pink. One thing remains constant...the cleanliness of the rooms. No, there isn't garbage strewn about. But just about everything else.