booandbunny

Alexandra’s post was in my head. And the truth in his words would have had me quaking in my shoes had I been wearing any. I had just scaled the biggest wall in our house (the one that has whispered to me for nearly six years: “Heehee. You can’t paint me!”) with a coffeeish, chocolaty smoothness Laura Ashley calls Sand 5. The wall reaches from the floor by the front door up through the staircase to the ceiling above Mr. 6’s bedroom door. With it scaled I have three smallish walls in the hallway upstairs remaining and the main areas of our house will finally be conquered … before the out-of-town guests arrive in just a few weeks.

But his words echoed in my ears. Perhaps it was all those moves … eight places in eight years! Once upon a time getting a place the way we wanted it meant actually hanging pictures on the walls. It meant no mysterious closed bedroom door with packed boxes stacked behind it.

This is different. All of those places had white walls, cheap mini blinds and white dishes. (After almost 14 years we just replaced the dishes we received for our wedding. Very exciting to the chef in me!) So this time “getting a place the way we want it” is something more.

We’ve colored our world. At last … we’ve colored our world. With the “Mock-me” wall newly tinted and the hallway done all that remains are the odd angles of the master bath. It will be dark blue with a splash of “Pumpkin 6” (Thanks again Laura Ashley.) that picks up our beloved Blue Dog in the next room.

The colors move through the house, the kitchen and family room share a hue, but feel different because of the way the light plays. Each of the kids chose the color for their walls (with a touch of parental restraint, of course!) so lavender, pale green and cornflower blue are splashed against the corners of our house. There’s the striped wall in the dining room, the product of a stormy January weekend a few years back. And the modern look of the black shelving against the chambray walls of our room, which I surprised him with after a business trip.

It’s more our house than ever … though the landscaping still exists only in our heads. That will be another few years more, but it’s OK. The place will be the way we want it on the first try.

// posted by HoBess @ 4/13/2006 01:23:00 PM