Weekend Project Part 1

Thursday or Friday I had the bright idea that I should paint my living room.

That part of my house has an open layout with my kitchen. Which means, of course, I can't paint the living room without painting the kitchen.

Last year I painted my downstairs hallway. I had a friend help for a couple hours and one portion of it, but I did the majority of it solo. I figured the time commitment would be similar, and as a bonus, I didn't have any two-story walls to deal with in the living-kitchen-room.

So. I started the day with a legitimate breakfast - sauteed up some mushrooms and spinach with a slice of ham I snagged from PhillyGuy's lunch meat stash.

I also decided I wanted some bacon, but didn't want to deal with (i) the dishes or (ii) the house smelling like bacon all.freaking.day. So I did something I've never done before (and, frankly, will never do again): microwaved bacon.

I didn't know how long to cook it for, so I googled "how to microwave bacon." I found an EIGHT STEP TUTORIAL. Considering one of the steps was "find a microwave-safe plate. The plate will usually say in small print on the back of it whether or not it can go in the microwave," I guess it was designed for a different audience.

Verdict? Not so great. I mean, it satisfied my bacon craving, but I ended up feeding most of it to Cosmo. I'll stick with the frying pan from now on.

Scrambled eggwhites with the sauteed veggies were delicious, however.

I really needed that breakfast to get me through the next SEVEN FLIPPING HOURS. I severely underestimated some things - like the fact that it's been a thousand years since I've wiped down the baseboards in that room. And how much stuff I had on the walls. And how many outlet covers/switchplates/vent covers there are to be unscrewed from the walls. And how my dogs shed like mad and I had to clean the floors AGAIN. And how there are a WHOLE LOT OF EDGES IN THAT ROOM OH MY GOD THERE ARE A LOT OF EDGES. I went through a massive amount of blue painter's tape.

Before (pardon the awful state, I didn't think to take these pictures until I was halfway through the setup):

The prep took close to two hours. Then I went around with my trusty little angled brush and a hand-held bucket of paint and did all the cutting-in and edges. Yeah. There are a LOT of edges. That took an additional THREE AND A HALF HOURS. That means that, five and a half hours after I started, I was ready to pick up a roller. Thankfully, the walls went much faster than the edges, though I still really underestimated how much longer it takes when you don't have even a couple hours' worth of extra hands.

Sophie was unnerved by the whole process and went to hide down in the hallways. Cosmo was not bothered, and supervised by napping on my drop cloths.

Seven hours later (including a couple short breaks to take the dogs out), the first coat was on the walls, and I was more than ready to break for dinner. Coat number one:

I had spent the last 90 minutes or so dreaming about my dinner. I ordered delivery from the pizza place across the street from me, which also happens to have a great (for fast food) Middle Eastern menu. I ordered the chicken kabobs, with hummus, tabbouli, and garlic sauce, served over rice (which is only okay - I usually don't eat the rice):

and a "falafel and veggies platter," with more hummus and baba ghanoush.

Do you see any veggies? No? Neither do I. Unless stuffed grape leaves and a wilted piece of lettuce count as veggies. Whatever, though - the falafel was actually REALLY good tonight, even though it looked burnt. They must have changed their recipe.

When I was painting, I felt like I could have gone forever, and intended to do the second coat last night. But once I sat down and got some food in me, the exhaustion started to set in.

And so here I sit, ready to pick up a brush and put that second coat on. I am SO looking forward to this being done (and also to leftovers of last night's takeout for lunch). See you all later with "after" pictures.