Painting!

Well, as you know we bought our house.  Which means it's time for projects. Well, I guess it's always a good time for projects, but now I can do the serious ones. So the first thing that this house needs is a good paint job.  I told Darren I wasn't going to paint it.  Sorry, I've done it enough, and I have 4 kids, and just not the time or energy to live in a mess for months while I attempt to paint with a two year old in a monster costume trying to help me.  So I told him we should see if his dad would come help him do it.  Darren's dad is a retired school counselor who paints during the summers.  He has been doing it since he was a teenager and is very good at it.  He knows what he is doing.  He has pretty much helped us paint something at every house we have lived in.  In our Provo house he re-stained the outside boards.  In Rigby he painted our chicken coop.  In Tennessee he painted the kitchen, basement floor, and back deck.    So I said to Darren, "Lets ask your dad if we buy him a plane ticket if he will come out and help us paint the house when you have a week off."  Darren

said, "no, no, no, he doesn't want to come out here and spend his whole vacation working!"  I said, "just ask him."  To which he said, "no."  I said, "ok".  

So I got a bid from a local painter.  It was $4,000.  He could do the whole house in a week.  I thought that was very reasonable to paint my whole entire house and all my bathroom and kitchen cabinets.  But Darren about had a heart attack.  Suddenly calling his dad seemed like a great idea!  So he did!  Ray couldn't come out when Darren had his week off, but he came the week after and I painted with him.  

We had a great time!  We painted, and visited, and listened to music, and just worked hard.  Darren's dad can WORK! He was insane!  He probably painted 8-10 hours a day.  We both like working really hard, so It was really fun to hang out together.  We ended up painting 4 days straight.  We painted 2 rooms a day- so we got my entire main floor painted- plus my the master bathroom.  Gabe watched TV for 4 days straight, and the kids were wearing rags- but the house was painted!  After Ray left it took about 2 days to get everything back together.  Curtains hung, laundry done, pictures re-hung, light switch covers put back, etc. Now the house is put back together and it looks great.  It looks so fresh and clean.  The walls and trim were this same dirty pink color.  It was awful.  Now it is a beautiful light blue.  It isn't finished yet, I have lots of projects to go.  But it's getting there.    I am going to have a lot of fun blogging about my house projects.

Here is Ray painting.  He cut in everything and I rolled.  He is GOOD.  It looks way better than taping.  And way faster.  Before I painted with him, a room would typically take me 2 days.  We did 2 rooms every day. We even painted on his birthday!

  So Ray is a HARD worker.  One morning he sat down for a minute to take a break.  Darren texted me and asked what we are doing and I took this picture of his dad sitting down.  I pretty much threw him under the bus, and I knew it would get to him.  But I just couldn't help it!  We got a good laugh out of it. LOL

My kitchen- the "during". 

Here is my stair way.  This is a before picture, but I wanted to throw it in there.  I painted this area all white.  Well, Ray and Darren and I painted this area white.  I love it.  I feel like Harry Potter walking up the stairs.  Maybe they will start moving!

Here is Ray risking his life for aesthetics. 

Here I am painting my laundry room with Gabe "helping".

Painting selfie! I hadn't showered in 3 days.  Seriously.

Well Ray, thanks so much for coming!  We really appreciate you taking the time to come help us.  We had a great time.  The best part... he is coming back in January to do the upstairs and the kitchen and bathroom cabinets!  I can't wait! (I'd better have Darren buy his ticket before he changes his mind;)