My apologies for being offline for a few days, no, it’s not due to writer’s block, I was teaching my kids some handy skills and was it a heck of a good time!
My husband and I decided that it was time to start repainting the interior of the house and what better time than when the kids are off for summer! Heck yeah they’re old enough to learn to paint and the last thing I want them doing is spending their days in front of a screen playing Call of Duty or Minecraft.
On the first day, it was all about picking out paint colors. Let me tell you, if my family were in a life or death situation and we all had to agree on something, we’d be in deep do do! One kid can’t agree with another, my husband seems to have no opinion until I actually pick something I like and then he nixes it. After what seemed like hours at the paint store, mom put the hammer down and made an executive decision on the colors. Was everyone happy with my selections? I really don’t care.
Next step was to clear the walls, wipe down the molding and move some furniture. After days of the kids just laying around the house being vegetables, in a flash, they were no where in sight. After 20 minutes of trying to wrangle them up, we were finally moving forward laying down drop cloths, carrying the ladders up the stairs and applying blue tape where it was needed. Me and my smart idea to show them the proper way to move furniture by using their legs instead of their backs, left me with a pulled muscle most likely due to the lack of stretching, how it sucks getting old.
Let the fun begin, after I slowly explained and showed them how to cut in, I realized they didn’t listen to a darn thing I said. I had to bite my tongue as I wiped away the drips coming down from the ceiling and showed them once again how to dip the brush in the paint and remove the excess from side of the brush. I was a difficult time for mom as I tried to keep my cool and not rip the brushes out of their hands and do it myself! Within 15 minutes I was down to only two kids, I decided the other two would be much better rollers and they should take a break
Finally, it was time to roll and there was a changing of the guard with my helpers. Once again, I did my best to show them what they needed to do, lots of paint, light pressure and to roll slow. Well, they didn’t quite grasp that concept either. With paint splattering everywhere, my son rolled an area about 10 foot x 10 foot, and pushed about every ounce of paint out of the roller. He looked at me and said, “is that good?” After a few deep breaths, we went over it again and about 4 hours later, the upstairs hallway was done.
You may want to ask, how did it look? Aside from a few minor setbacks like the one below, the kids really put a great effort in and when I told them it would need a second coat, I think I burst their bubbles.
It’s certainly been a long few days, but we have had a ton of fun!
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