Race Against the Clock

I don't remember how long ago it was that Troy mentioned that he thought we might not actually finish the room before Chase got home. I thought that was silly - we had ages and ages left! Of course, I'm also the dumbdumb who told Romney that there was a pretty good chance we would have the room ready for her when she came home from college. In May. (Cue hysterical laughter.)

Troy also mentioned something about the time counting down to Chase's return speeding up - the closer it got, the faster the time would go. He was correct as usual. As each day ticked by, we knew time was slipping away for us to reach a finished room. But what else could we do but just soldier on?

The next step was painting. We could not have been more excited to cover up all the drywall and dusty joint compound with a nice fresh coat of primer. Only one problem stood before us. Picking the color. Why is choosing paint color so dang hard? Could someone explain this to me please? I feel like I'm pretty good at color, but when it comes to wall paint, it turns out I'm horrible. I spent SO LONG roaming through the paint aisle at the Home Depot, carefully picking out paint chips, all basically the same color of light tanish-greyish. Finally I ended up with two samples to bring home and try out on the walls. One was called "Dove" and the other was depressingly named "Shoelace." Who names a paint color shoelace? Dirty yellow grey? Isn't that what the word shoelace reminds you of? Well, I guess it was named well then.

I put the paint samples on the wall and Troy and I immediately started cracking up. Both colors were basically the same color as the drywall. Why even paint? I guess I just like drywall gray! So silly. But hey, we needed a nice light neutral color for our tiny little room, and these were both exactly that. Light, neutral, grayish. So exciting.

Getting started on priming the ceiling:

And here are our lovely sample colors of drywall and drywall:

Here is the room all primed:

Getting started on the actual wall color - we went with dove. Shoelace was a little too dingy, and not close enough to drywall color for me I guess. What was frustrating was getting the paint up on the wall and instantly it looked way warmer to us than the sample did. Another example of the frustration of painting your walls. It looks a little more tan than I thought it would. But since it's so light and will have lovely wooden shelves on the walls, it will not be noticeable. We just went with it. 

Next, Troy put in the light fixtures. That is always a majorly gratifying step - so visibly different and so much progress with not a ton of effort. I mean, there's effort in getting ready for the lights, but just connecting them and putting them in place doesn't take too much and then there's a huge reward. You flip on the switch and there is light!!

 

Here's something that's delightful about construction projects: making all the necessary electrical connections of heavy gauge romex wire and shoving them all inside the electrical boxes, which are puny, even though you bought the largest boxes possible. On paper the wiring sounded easy. In practicality it was a massive pain in the neck. Poor Troy's fingers get so beat up while he's working on the wiring.

 

Look at that nightmare! But Troy got it to all fit, much to his fingers' chagrin. And now this room is unbelievably well-equipped with outlets and light switches.