Making the farm new to us..and why I should call in the professionals

We bought our sweet farm almost four months ago and we've finally decided its time to renovate. It's time to make the farm "ours". With three daughters and a boat load of animals, I foresee a lot of renovations headed our way.. But, first.
Painting.

The wallpaper in our middle daughters room was beginning to peel from the walls, so her room was nominated first to be painted. We packed the kids in the car and drove to Lowes, excited to pick out new paint. Taking three children to pick out paint colors is quite the experience. Middle kiddo (Julie) wants a 'turquoise-purple', older daughter (Samantha) wants 'cotton candy colors-bright pink & bright blue' and our youngest (Anabella) wants.. Gold.

Heh.

We thankfully convinced each child to choose more...subtle...colors. Sam & Bella settled on pink & grey and Julie was happy with 'Purplicilous' & an accent wall of 'Midnight Purple'...and I convinced hubby Jon to get a few cans of a really pretty grey for our kitchen. While the poor paint mixer-guy was tinting our 354 gallons of paint, we set off to get brushes, pans, and more. We discovered there is actually glitter that can be mixed in paint... Who knew?!?! After Jon telling me the girls 'NO' to the glitter..several times..., $283.00, & a new Lowes credit account later, we were all set (and paint mixer-guy was exhausted)!

The paint and all of its equipment sat in the trunk if my van for a week. Shameful? Yes. Apparently, buying the supplies was enough to stress us out. Finally, I decided enough was enough and it was time to get these rollers rolling! HA! You see, my husband is apparently a painting expert. He's watched enough HGTV to know exactly how this needs to go down. 'First, we have to remove the wallpaper, then we have to sand the walls, then we have to prep the walls. Then, we wipe down the walls. Then. We paint.' Heeeeeeeeeerrreee we go.

The girls and I removed the wallpaper easily as it was painted over. There was one wall that needed some extra attention. By 'extra attention', I mean 'Sara has to sand wallpaper border off using a powerful power-tool sander thingy that causes three days of horrid pain to her body because she's out of shape.' So, there's that. After the pain subsided (seriously.. days after initial sanding started), it was time to paint. YES!! I climbed up the step-stool armed with a brush and Purplicious. I was prepared to start 'cutting the ceiling' when Jon walked in.

Clearly. I was doing this all wrong. Wrong brush. Wrong angle. Wrong stance. If you don't do it right-you'll hit the ceiling & if you hit the ceiling, we have to paint the WHOLE ceiling. Good grief. After being taught how to paint correctly (and caught rolling my eyes a few times), I was off to painting! I was free! YES!! Jon helped for awhile & eventually went to start supper. Free to perfect my painting expertise, I was left alone to my Purplicious thoughts. Deep in concentration (on my country music radio station on iTunes)... I was brushing and dipping. Dipping and brushing. Then. Hit happened.

To my horror. Purplicious hit the ceiling. It was a hard hit. One that stung deeper than the purple hues glisting on the popcorn textures above. Oh..my..goodness. Crap. He's obviously going to see the horrid, horrid spot. Think, Sara..THINK! I wracked my brain as to what to do. So.. I did what anyone would do. I kept painting. Hopefully, he won't notice. It's not 'too' noticeable. I mean, people make mistakes.

I did it again. I hit the friggin ceiling again!! This hit was in the corner, opposite of the last one. Like two Purplicious horns, just glaring at me. So.. I stopped painting and came down for supper. Hey. A girl works up an appetite making that many mistakes! *He still hasn't mentioned the marks..

A few days go by...again. While I was at work, Jon was at home and decided to get some of his own painting done. He called me about halfway through the accent wall and mentions how Bella's been admiring the pink paint is on Julie's wall. Wait. Pink. Julie.. He painted the wall the wrong friggin color. Face.Palm. He was so upset with himself, he set things down, shut the door, and walk away. When I came home, I thought I'd be productive & finally get this room done. Purplicious was finally on all three walls (and the ceiling).

Time to figure out the pink fourth wall. Julie mentioned it would be pretty in stripes.. soooooo creative me decided to Google 'How to paint stripes on walls'. Google makes it look so easy. I measured & taped the horizontal stripes & went to painting. Jamming to my music, I was feeling good about this project! Then.. Julie comes in & sweetly says 'I meant stripes going the other way'.

Oooooooooof course you did. I was so upset. I tried to ignore her comment and kept dipping & rolling..suddenly..we both heard it. The drip heard 'round the world'. I was literally pouring Midnight Purple all over the carpet. A puddle, in fact. Insert panic: here. I could hear Jon's voice echoing in my head 'should've used a drop cloth'. I wanted to cry. So, again, I did what anyone would do. I poured carpet cleaner on the puddle, cleaned it as best I could. I closed the door and walked away.