careful what you wish for

I have wished I could paint walls for awhile. Probably for like 5  years or so, I've thought about what I wanted to paint walls when we had our own house. I never actually picked out paint colors, but I had some general ideas. When we got to buy a house I was SO excited to paint! Picking paint colors is really hard for me though. I am sometimes very indecisive, and paint is one of those areas. We have 11 samples of different yellow paints, and I'm still not sure if I've found the right one.
We still have the boys sharing a room so we can shift kids around to paint all the bedrooms, but Reese is anxious to get his own room, so I've been trying to get their rooms done. We started with his-to-be room first, making some mistakes and learning along the way. All the walls in the house were really beat up, but particularly the bedrooms, so it took a lot of patching, priming, and painting.

The closet had holes too, and I wanted it white, so that was next.  I primed (1 coat) and painted (2 coats) with some leftover ceiling paint we didn't like we thought would be good enough for the closet, decided I cared that I hated the flat finish, and painted it again (2 coats), only to decide I wasn't really happy with how the white looked muddy/greenish, but didn't care enough to paint it a 6th time.  Then I washed, patched, sanded, wiped, primed and painted his bathroom. I had painted the samples on white paper and put them up in the bathroom and loved it, but when the walls were all painted it turned into a beautiful gray lavender. Which would be great if we wanted purple, but we didn't. So after another trip to the store and afternoon painting what was supposed to be a 'true grey', it now looks kinda greenish grey. Not great, but good enough. I am so tired of painting that room.
But we still have a whole house to paint, so next was the girls room. Their room was in a bit worse shape than Reese's. I spent 8 hours prepping the walls before I primed, washing, patching, sanding, wiping down. I now know that it is for sure way grosser to scrape some other kids snot-bombs off the wall than your own kids. And they were strewn all over the walls. We have kids, but I have no idea how you make so many holes and scrapes in walls, did they just poke nails in for fun? practice carving their name?
I was done with their room before I even primed it, but the transformation from polk-dot tan to fresh and clean was super motivating.

patched

primed

While I was priming, I came across more than a dozen dents/scrapes/holes I had missed while I was patching, but I was so done  I was not going to start over again. I just pretended the primer would help soften the difference. and told myself no one would scrutinize the walls like I was.
RD wanted to contribute, so he did the ceiling one night after work,which meant a lot since we have been so busy  in the evenings. I was very grateful to not have to do that part; it is hard, and hard work! But it makes such a huge difference.

ceiling done

barely blush pink walls!

And I finally got the paint right the first time. with one sample! What a relief!!!  I love the color of their room so much, I told RD I almost wanted it for our room. He said he'd be willing for me, but I wouldn't do it to him :) So now I go in there just to swoon over the smooth clean walls and gorgeous glow. And I haven't painted the closet. I think I have to move on to another room to keep me going. maybe in a year I'll come back to the closet. Paint ain't cheap, but it sure makes a huge difference. That is the only thing keeping me going with this painting! I wanted to paint, and now I have a whole lot of painting to do. I actually don't mind the painting, it's the prep work that really ruins it for me. That, and trying to squeeze in solid hours of work with kids wanting attention.
 Round three: Cameron's room.
 But first I need a week off.