New Yeller.

No, not a sequel about a half-robot half-dog hellbent for revenge on the men who put him down, but rather the color of our "bonus room", which has been long in coming. And, as per usual, the color selection process was interesting, to say the least (see: http://archiblog208.blogspot.com/2009/07/our-house-is-feeling-blue.html). We ended up with a little bit more vibrant shade of mellow yellow than we had anticipated, but I think we like it. Painting is one of those things that most people think, "Hey, that's something I can do myself!" and is also one of the things you can notice that people have done themselves. I salute the men and women of the painting industry for being way, way better at it than I am. But this time turned out better than most, if I do say so myself.

Here are some tips I'd like to share about painting (file under "Stuff I Already Know"):

1. Hire someone to do it (this is my father's tip).
2. If #1 is impossible, rent a sprayer.
3. If #2 is impossible, too bad. And get ready for tons of fun.
4. I learned a new trick. I am not good at "cutting in" with a brush. "Cutting up", I can do. "Cutting cheese"--well, this is a family blog, so let's skip that. But, "cutting in" has always been a frustration of mine, trying to keep that line nice, straight, and even, and then trying to cut in far enough to make the transition to the rolled paint smooth. Enter the mini roller. I used my steady hand ("Yeah, but this is the hand I shoot with") to cut in, then used the mini roller to roll out another three inches or so. This made the transition so much easier. I almost didn't mind it.
5. Keep the paint roller loaded. Due to my Scottish heritage, I am horribly cheap (I remember trying to teach my freshmen the word "frugal" as part of their SAT vocabulary, and somehow "MacFrugal's"--now "Big Lots"--often came up. What other stores do you know that tie in some sort of ethnic stereotype into their name? There's a Chinese restaurant in Vegas called "Full Ho", but that's not quite the same), so I often push the roller for as far and as long as it will still squeeze out paint, which generally results in varying degrees of thickness and unsightly walls. Well, what would you know? The manufacturer's recommendation to paint roughly three feet square was relatively accurate. I'm used to major industries trying to help other ancillary industries ("Be sure to change your oil and buy new tires roughly every 6-8 miles"), that I thought that the recommendation was a means to sell more paint. See, I AM cheap. But, it turns out they weren't lying. (As I said before, file under "Stuff I Already Know").

Worst part? The ceiling. Best part? Being done with the ceiling. We've yet to paint the floor--hopefully that will be easy and straightforward. Knock on wood. More pictures to follow as we get done-er.