Straw

This weekend we finally painted the front bedroom. It went from shabby white to a pleasant pale gold color called “Straw.”

The hardest part of painting was getting ready to paint. It took us three hours just to empty out the bedroom, a project we finished at about 9:30 on Friday night. A lot of our furniture is really big and heavy—way too heavy to lift—so we had to slide it into the living room (our designated storage spot) on towels. Gradually the living room became a crazy jumble of chests, tables, chairs, lamps, picture books, and miscellaneous decorations. In the end it was packed to the gills and we had to leave a bunch of stuff in the hall. We spent the night on the hide-a-bed in the Little House because our usual bed was in pieces and the mattress was lying on its side against the front door.

It’s always fun to spend the night in the Little House because it kind of feels like camping . . . or sleeping in a playhouse. (The “Little House” is what we call the old detached kitchen in the backyard.) We made popcorn and watched Parks and Recreation on Netflix. The cats loved the hide-a-bed—because what’s not to love, if you’re a cat, about a surprising, instant bed in a room that’s usually sadly bereft of cuddle spots?

We painted pretty much all day on Saturday. We listened to Serial while we worked so we wouldn’t have to try to make conversation. Rob started up Serial after I said, “So, um, do you like painting?” He really didn’t need to do this. I had lots of other great conversation starters in mind. I’d planned to ask him what his favorite part of painting was. Then I was going to ask him about his least favorite. Then I was probably going to start singing.

I’m happy to report that we finished all our painting (including touch-ups with an artist’s brush) in a single day. We even got all the furniture back into place on Saturday night. We celebrated with more popcorn and more Parks and Recreation, and then all day on Sunday we stood around admiring our new golden room.