While You Were Out - Benton City Style

I dropped Shelby off to camp yesterday morning. She will be gone until Friday. We are going to spend the week painting our old basement rec room and redecorating it as a bedroom for her 14th birthday.

I am typing with hands covered in paint! We are going to paint the panelled walls a pale blue, that is, if we can ever finish primering them. I just ran out of the second can of primer, and have to head to the store for MORE. We’ve done 2-3 solid coats, but I can still see some bleed through on the wood and I don’t want to take any chances on the look of the final color. I had a friend who painted over paneling and it looked nice, but you could definitely tell where she skimped on primer. Her advice was, do extra coats of primer for the best result.

The kids have been really into helping, and have actually been helpful, too! Thats a new one for me. The last time I let them help me paint, Clint was really mad because there were so many dried on drips on the walls that the room was pretty much ruined. Gillian and Tamzin helped me all day yesterday, and still had the energy and enthusiasm to go at it again this morning.

I am hoping to not only paint the walls, but also buy a larger bed, repaint some of her furniture, and even strip and refinish the piano(which will be in her room), paint the stove(also a permenant fixture in the room, and I have to find high temp paint for that), and figure out cool bedding and window coverings without spending any $$$ on it.

It's been a long time since I've tackled a project this size. Of course, while I was out getting paint, I managed to sprain my thumb, slowing me down before I had even gotten started! At least it's my right thumb, so I can keep on painting. It's surprising to me how much I use my non dominant thumb, though. I'm keeping it taped becaues I'm too tempted to use it, and then it hurts!