About three years ago I got it into my head that I wanted to paint our kitchen. I was tired of the same old color that I'd looked at for almost 15 years and needed a change. After all, the kitchen is where I spend about 75 percent of my time so why not look at something new.
I looked at kitchen design magazines and made a pilgrimage to the local Home Depot where I spent about half an hour in front of what seemed like thousands of little tiny paint squares, trying to find the perfect shade of yellow that would go with my kitchen in Provence theme. I finally found my paint swatches and brought them home and taped them on the kitchen wall. I told my husband I wouldn't take them down until the kitchen was painted. I figured he'd get tired of looking at them and would jump on the project immediately.
After a year, the paint swatches were still there on the wall. Friends encouraged me to just paint the kitchen myself and not wait for Jack to get involved. That sounded reasonable but I couldn't bring myself to do it because Jack is a perfectionist and I would never be able to paint it to his satisfaction. So I continued to wait. In the following year, my color palette changed and I put up new swatches to go with my Tuscan kitchen theme. I dropped many hints about painting the kitchen, but I was ignored.
Finally, and much to my surprise, this year, four days before Christmas Jack asked me if I still wanted to have the kitchen painted and would I be happy if that were my Christmas present. I wanted to jump up and down with joy but I played it cool. "Sure, that would be great," I answered. "And wouldn't it be nice to put in a new floor too while we're at it?" He shot me a look that told me I was really pressing my luck, so I let that one drop. I'd like to think his sudden change of heart had to do with making me happy, but I personally think it had more to do with an impending Christmas visit from our son Jason and his wife Sarah and wanting the house to look its best. Either way, I was just happy it was happening.
We headed to Home Depot on Saturday afternoon and came home with some small sample cans of paint so we could get a true picture of what the paint would look like in the light of our kitchen. The color that I'd wanted for years didn't make the cut and I ended up with a color called "Apple Crisp" which was still in the orange family but not quite as "orange." I chose a "Chai Latte" color for the ceiling (who picks these color names, anyway?).
Our paint purchases finished, I wandered over to the flooring samples. Wood flooring was just not in the budget so I looked at laminates. The nice saleswoman directed us to a flooring product that is exclusive to Home Depot. It's like a laminate, but I goes down right over your existing flooring. She assured us it was so simple that she put down a new floor in no time at all (and with the help of her small grandchildren, no less). I thought perhaps it was just a sales pitch until some other Home Depot customer came along and told us that he'd put in the very same flooring and it was the best choice he'd ever made. I didn't see any winks or nudges between this guy and the saleswoman, so I figured his endorsement was legit. Much to my surprise, Jack decided that we could go ahead and get the new flooring.
Then the fun began. Jack stayed up all Saturday night and painted the ceiling and then worked his day shift at the police department. He came home at 5 pm and then started on the walls, working through the night again and putting in his work shift during the day. I was concerned about his lack of sleep but he assured me he was fine. After the painting was finished, he started in on the floor. We live in an old house, built in 1898, and one of the joys of owning an old home is the fact that nothing is ever square or level. Trying to find a starting point so things would come out square took him at least three hours. After that, the floor went down relatively quickly and by Wednesday afternoon, he was finished - just in time for Jason and Sarah's arrival on Thursday.
I love my new kitchen color and my new flooring - even if it took me three years to get it. Next comes the living room.....
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