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So the move went well, dear readers, but I still don’t have an Internet tube hooked up to my house, so I may be slow in blogging/responding to emails in the immediate future. In case you haven’t already noticed. ;)

Last weekend marked my first home improvement weekend in, literally, forever. On my own home, at least. I focused all of my mental and most of my physical energies (and quite a few of Danar’s energies, too) on the basement living room (henceforth referred to as the living room… I’m thinking about calling the upstairs one the library or parlor or something). The result being, it’s now a different color. Yay. :)

Two-thirds of my basement is now a really rich reddish-orange color called Tucson Red. The other third is an off-white called Timid White. Not the best names ever, really, but the colors are pretty. For your viewing pleasure, they’re available yonder. RGB approximations thereof, anyway. I happen to think it looks really good, but it did take a ton of work.

I woke up around 9:30am Saturday, got dressed, and headed out to the Woodsmith Store. One of the benefits of working at August Home is an employee discount at said store, so I figured they were a pretty good place to start. Especially considering they’re a Benjamin Moore carrier (which sounds very disease-like but is much happier in reality). $160 and 90 minutes later, I was on my way back home with two gallons of paint, a gallon of primer, accessories (such as plastic dropcloths) out the wazoo, and a new random orbital sander. That’s right… baby’s first power tool purchase! :)

Once I got home, I moved all of the furniture out of the living room and got to sanding. Dana got there around 1:30pm, and she starting wiping down the walls behind me as I sanded. Once all the sanding was done (which took a few hours and two pads of sandpaper), we started taping off the walls and laying drop cloths. Once ~that~ was done, it was time to prime. We each took turns, one with the roller while the other “cut in” (I’m told it’s called) the edges of things. Once the walls were prime, we headed to Menards (I bought a dozen compact fluorescent light bulbs for $12!) and Home Depot (two floor lamps and half a dozen wall outlets to replace the hodgepodge assortment in the basement). When we got back, it was time to start painting.

Two and a half hours later, the first coat of paint was on the walls, and we realized we were going to have to wait a few hours for the paint to dry before we could put on the second coat (four hours, according to the paint can, the resident expert on said matters). So, we went out to dinner at El Aguila Real (or as Amanda calls it, the Regal Eagle), stopped off for some beer and ice cream on the way home, and then watched a movie on Dana’s laptop. Four hours, three beers, and half a pint of ice cream later, it was time to start the second coat. Once that coat was completed, we staggered back upstairs and headed to bed. Lights were out around 4:30am Sunday.

So I learned this weekend that, with just one person helping, we can prep, sand, prime, and paint an entire room in just one day, as long as you’re comfortable with very large values of “day.” It was a great experience, all told, and I had a good time. I’ll post some pictures when I get them. Dana snagged a bunch of before and after shots. Next up: the library!

I was supposed to play paintball on Sunday. I was inexplicably not in the mood. ;)