Okay, most of these photos are terrible, so bear with me and we’ll get through this post together.  Here, hold my hand and I’ll guide you through the darkness.  Everybody grab a buddy and lets go….

We decided to paint the floors upstairs.  I really wanted to refinish them, but Ellen’s floor was not in good shape and we had to use some serious amounts of wood filler in a large area, so painting was our best choice.  This photo shows the first coat and my daughter wearing one of her favorite shirts that immediately causes me to violently dry heave when I see it.  WHY DID SHE MAKE HER T-SHIRT INTO A MUSCLE SHIRT??!  Is she a wrestler?

Whenever I see that shirt I roll my eyes and say, “This is the last time I want to see that shirt.  Throw it away already.  GOOD LORD, JUST LET IT GO!”  then she smiles and says, “Mom, you’re just jealous of my supreme awesomeness.  You know you want a shirt just like this, you know you do.”  Then I pretend to barf all over her shirt wishing I really could.

I left the measuring of the squares to the architect, because it only seemed fair.  Ellen taped the whole thing by herself because by the time we got to this point in the project I was done.  Which usually happens, remember, I’m a good starter…bad finisher.

And then this happened.  Half a gallon of paint that Ellen used to paint her furniture got tipped over when her mattress fell over on it.  This spill happened in the hallway right outside my bedroom door.  Every time I  heard the kids coming up the stairs I’d start yelling, “DON’T STEP IN THE PAINT!!!  LOOK OUT FOR THE PAINT!!!  THE PAINT!  REMEMBER THE PAINT!”  Needless to say my family was a bit sick of me by the end of that day.  And remember, I was totally over the floor project by that point and sinking into a pit of despair that it would never be finished and I’d have to live with a big paint glob on the floor for the rest of my days.  Because, I couldn’t possibly clean up that paint or assist with this project anymore with the paralysis that was happening to me with each moment that the project was delayed.

As always Clay, the finisher, has to come to my rescue.  Should I tell you that we got the wrong paint for the dark squares?  It was an oil base.  Should I tell you that when Ellen was pulling up the tape it pulled up the paint too?  Clay and Ellen had to go back over all the light colored squares and touch up the edges.

You’ll notice in all the following photos we are stepping only on the dark squares because the light squares are still a bit wet, but we were determined to get Ellen back in her room because all her furniture was in the little boys’ room and they were having to crawl over it to get to their beds.  Not to mention the mattress that was in the hall that now has a big paint blob on one corner.

We still need to fix a few squares, replace the quarter round on the base boards, fix and paint the walls, make curtains, find a cute over stuffed chair and a rug.  I was so disappointed when I discovered we had the wrong paint, but as it turns out I really like the high gloss and low sheen together.  So far the colors hide dirt quite well.

See the squares in the lower right?  Those might stay like that for the next twenty years.

Ellen had a friend over one day and they worked really hard painting her furniture.  I bought the glass knobs on ebay.  I love the way the furniture looks with the floor.

And I’m really happy that the furniture is done!!  Especially since it’s been on my to-do list for 16 years!

Okay, now we just need to finish the hall floor.  Uh, Clay?  Honey?  I’m done with this project, soooooo, that would mean you’ll need to paint that hall floor.  Clay?  Hon?  Hello?