A couple weeks ago, Jim was in Texas taking a class... he was gone all week. I had been wanting to paint our kitchen for months, and I decided it'd be fun to see if I could get it done with Jim gone and surprise him! Was I ever in for a treat! The only walls I wanted to paint were the backsplash (behind the stove and between the counter-top and cupboards) and the part over the sink (which is mostly taken up by more cupboards and a window). So I wouldn't even say that space was enough to cover a regular wall. But it's a bit of a cramped space. Those two walls were that "country kitchen blue" that was fashionable about ten years ago. I've never liked it, but it worked in this kitchen... the floor has some of that same blue in about 1 out of every 5 tiles, plus the formica on our conter-top is flecked with that blue, as well. But, as I said, I've never liked that blue, and I've always wanted a sunny yellow kitchen. So I set about buying paint (something I've never done before... I got so lucky--and the lady at the hardware store was extremely helpful!), sanding the walls as I was instructed to do, taping up all the edges, and I was ready to go. Well, since that blue was on the darker side, I had to do primer first. No problem (except it stinks worse than regular paint)... except that I could still see the blue through the primer! Fine, I just put a second coat of primer on. Now I was ready to do the fun part--the color!!! It went on a little brighter than I'd really expected, but I figured it was going to be okay. However, it didn't seem that two coats of paint were enough. So I put on a third coat of paint (on top of the two coats of primer). This took me through the whole week, up to Thursday morning. By Thursday morning, I was ready to remove the tape, clean up the newspapers and debris, and hang my curtain up--get everything back to the way it was. What happened, though, was that I started taking down the tape... and ripping the paint off with it!!! It pulled away like rubber! In some spots, it went all the way down to the dry-wall! I called my friend, Anita (always my hero!), bawling and absolutely freaking OUT! She pointed out that none of those home-improvement shows ever let you see the "touch-up phase", and she said she'd be right over. And a bit later, here she came, with a specially made cookie from Eileen's to cheer me up (with a huge rainbow on it in, I swear, about two inches of frosting)! She picked up one of the craft paintbrushes I'd set out and started fixing up my little problem areas. (In the meantime, I'd decided that home-improvement tip #27 is: when the tape doesn't pull away easily, cut it with an exacto knife!) I only had a few areas that were bad, and in about 20 minutes, you couldn't even see them! Yay! Anita to the rescue! Later that evening, I went back over to put a second coat on the touch-ups, and you really can't notice them at all, unless you come close with a flashlight and magnifying glass, looking for them. So I finally got to put away all the mess from my painting. I spent Friday sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, and basically cleaning up any clutter around the rest of the house. I decided that it'd be cool for Jim to come home, not just to a newly painted kitchen, but to a freshly cleaned house with a newly painted kitchen! I'm pleased to say he reacted exactly the way the girls and I wanted him to, spending a good 10 minutes fawning over the whole project, exclaiming all kinds of kind things about what a great job we did, etc. I had let each of the girls do a bit of painting, on the first coat of color, with the roller. They each were excited to point out "their wall". I think I'm done nesting for a few weeks. Will write about any further work I feel it's necessary to do!