"you know what you gotta do when life gets you down?

just keep painting.
just keep painting.
just keep painting, painting, painting.
what do we do? we paint, paint, paint.
OH HO HO, how i love to paint.
when you WAAAAAANNTTT to paint you want to paint..."

okay, so those aren't the EXACT lyrics, but pretty damned close.

gina's lease is up on the 1st - so how did we spend the the beginning of this week? painting until it hurt. literally. i have taken more advil this week than i did when i thought i had the swine flu!

the floor guys were scheduled for wednesday morning, so we had precious little time to use those foul carpets as built-in drop cloths. and, by god, we were going to take advantage!

so monday night, with the help of super sarah and kate the great, we knocked out the office and the upstairs hallway, including the ceiling (but minus the area under the chair rail, where i will be installing anaglypta or lincrusta - is there a difference?!).

tuesday we took a half day and headed to home depot - and lunch at in-n out to fortify us - to buy 15 (!) more gallons of paint and planned to knock out the rest of the house. ha! well, a girl can dream...

nom nom nom

with the addition of maggie & melissa the magnificents, we managed to put a dent in things (and i made a great game-time decision on the color for the guest bedroom). we completed the master bedroom, the guest bedroom (including ceiling - ugh), and started on the stairwell and living room. neglected the dining room altogether because, by the time i could finish cleaning, i knew i'd be stuck at the house past 2am again.

gina, kate the great, and magnificent maggie

melissa works on the 24-foot stairwell ceiling

bathrooms we can save for later - just a fresh coat of "super white" should do. kitchen will require some strategy - want to paint the ikea cabinets but have to figure out if i can do that without ruining the birch veneer. (suggestions, please!)

here are a few before and after shots for you. colors look a bit ish-y as i was using the camera phone.

what do you think??

master bedroom in "solana beach" from ace hardware - a gorgeous grey-blue

guest bedroom in "beach water" by ralph lauren. it's like a mint chip milkshake - so pretty!

office in "super white" by benjamin moore

half-baked upstairs hallway in "marilyn's dress" by benjamin moore (waiting for textured wallpaper and molding) - this is the most lovely gray i have ever seen

ugh. living room, peppered with "blue shale" by behr

and a sorely neglected dining room