The basement wall colors were the first thing I noticed in the pictures of our house when I looked at them online for the first time. "Who would do that?!?" I wondered. Mustard yellow on top, ketchup red on bottom. I almost didn't come see the house because of those colors. Upon buying the house, painting the basement was going to be a first step. Then we got busy doing other things - dealing with kids, mostly - and we kept putting it off. Then we started telling ourselves it was perfect for a kid's play area anyway, and we abandoned the plan of painting it for a long, long time. Finally Peter came along and the need for another bedroom became our first priority. Kelly did a wonderful job putting in another room and of course, we couldn't paint that new room ketchup and mustard color, so it got nice new colors. That made our basement look even worse by comparison, so finally, we painted the whole thing! Yay! So happy. Well, Kelly painted it. I did some sanding and miniscule prepping so I would feel helpful. :) The final step will be getting new carpet, but that will likely take a while as well. It's our way, I guess.
I wish I were the type who takes before pictures, pictures all during the project, and then a beautifully staged after photo, but I'm not. So here's a couple before photos I found from waaaay before.
Here's a couple I just took now, complete with toy mess and tv reinstallation debris. You get the idea.
A couple funny things about Peter to end:
He loves his toy phones and his remote controls which he uses like phones. He sees all of us with our phones so he wants to have one too, obviously. The other day we were driving home after dark and he was "looking at his phone." "I looking at pictures" he told me. Only, it was dark in the car, so he asked me to "turn on light please." I tried to explain that a phone has a lit screen so you don't need light from outside to see it. He insisted the light needed to come on. "So, you need real light to see imaginary pictures on a fake phone?" I asked. "Yes. Turn light on please!" he responded emphatically. Needless to say, we rode home with the dome light on.
Kelly did all the painting downstairs and during the project, he needed to remove the tv wall mount to paint there. He left a sharp tool laying out and walked away. Not a great idea with a toddler in the house. Peter found it and thought it looked just right for banging on the wall. When Kelly returned, he found he wasn't as far along with his painting as he thought! Many more holes now needed patching and sanding and painting. He was his usual calm Kelly self, but he pulled Peter over and held up the tool.
Kelly: Did you play with this?
Peter: I don't know.
Kelly: Did you bang this on the wall here? (indicating the myriad holes in the wall)
Peter: I don't know.
Kelly: When you bang on the wall like that, it makes lots of holes and then Daddy has lots more work to do which means I don't have time to read books or play, so we don't want to bang on the wall and make holes.
Peter: (staring at the ceiling) I not listening. I not hear you.
He's been watching our teenagers far too closely, I fear.
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