Decisions, Decisions

Twelve years ago, we decided to put it up. The wallpaper, that is.

We carefully picked it out of a big book and debated over which one would look the best in the family room.

Two walls with dark blue wallpaper, with tiny gold "lines". Two walls with border that had different colored diamonds, one of them, the same color blue as the wallpaper. I loved it.

Fast forward, and now, we have to take it down. Why did we ever put wallpaper up? Oh yeah, I loved it.

We steamed and scraped until we felt like our arms would fall off.

We even had lots of little helpers. Who begged to be able to scrape it off the walls.


Such a fun job to strip the wallpaper off! At first anyway.
Then, we got to the paste. The icky, gooey, sticky paste.

Paste coated the bottoms of our feet, making our shower later that night like a slip-n-slide.

The helpers are now tired of helping. It's not fun anymore.

Globs of wet wallpaper covered the floor. The floor I had just freshly steam cleaned. Not sure why I did that first.

Then, the moment comes, when all the wallpaper is gone, and the paint colors must be chosen. But, which ones?

Off to the store we went, to choose the paint colors. Hubs started getting frustrated with me. Let's just say that decision making of any kind is not my strong point. It takes me a sweet forever just to decide what to eat at a restaurant. That is just something temporary, unlike paint, which will be on the wall for a long time.

We finally have the two colors. Two colors which look beautiful in the store, on the teeny, tiny swatches. Cape Blue and Old Driftwood. Sounds soothing, right?

We got home, and started to paint the wall. WHAT?! This is so NOT the color that is on the swatch! I can't live with that color on my walls without wearing a pair of sunglasses!

The next day, I took my oldest daughter (a.k.a. the "Color Queen") with me to pick out different paint.

This time, I decided to stick with neutral tones. The oldest is not happy that, once again, it is a shade of "brown". I can't help it. I tried to branch out, and just look where it got me!

She told me that when SHE gets a house, every room is going to be painted in bright, vibrant colors. Red! Lime Green! Orange! Zebra stripes! My head hurts just thinking about it.

We got in the store, and once again, I tried to make a decision. So many different shades of brown. "Coco Rum", "Caramel Latte", "Hot Chocolate"....is anyone else getting hungry just reading this?

The people there are, of course, super helpful. When asked for her opinion, the lady at the counter informed me that, since she hasn't seen my couch, and she can't be sure of the lighting in my house, she can't possibly tell me which one would look better. Gee, thanks.

She told me that if I was unsure, I could buy a sample bottle and take it home. Sorry, lady. Sample bottles are for people who plan ahead, and don't just decide to re-paint their room on a whim. I just need the paint on the walls....today!

So, for a good hour, we agonized over which shade of brown would look nice in the family room. We decided on "Toffee Crunch" and "Brown Teepee".

The walls are now painted, and we think we picked a winner. Time to clean up all the mess.

And, steam clean the carpet....again.