Painting and Purging

I painted my ass off this weekend. There is still a lot of painting to do. FYI, painting trim bites, and it adds A LOT of work to your painting project. I am changing the trim from white to dark brown, so everything requires 2 coats, and I have to paint EVERYTHING, including all those little wood pieces on the window glass too. UGH.

It probably doesn't help that I ended up painting the hallway twice. R- I wish I would've read your response to my last post before I went out and bought a lighter color and painted the ENTIRE stairwell hallway, ceiling included, in the lighter color. The whole time I knew it wasn't going to be right; I just wasn't feeling it. And every time I have painted, I have known before it is dry if it is 'right', if it is what I had fixed in my mind's eye, and this was not it, I could feel it in my gut. And yet, I continued on, and painted the whole damn thing. Then I sat down to the puter and read your response and just KNEW you were right. On Saturday morning, after it was dry, I knew that I had to try the darker color out again, or I would regret it forever. I painted the wall at the top of the stairs in the darker color, right next to the lighter color, and I knew instantly I had made a terrible error. So, I painted the hallway, ceiling included. AGAIN.

I still have a lot of painting to do. I have to second coat the hallway trim, and get a bit more paint to finish the doors. I have about 80% of the trim in the bedroom done, but have yet to paint any walls, except a little bit of ceiling cutting in that I did yesterday while L napped. I will probably work on it in the evenings this week after L goes to bed. I have time before the carpet comes, but I really just want it done.

The good part of this whole painting / recarpet is that I PURGED a ton of shit. It feels so good to be rid of all that stuff that I had not looked at in literally YEARS. I got rid of 3 bridesmaid dresses that have been collecting dust in my closet. I got rid of clothing that was outdated, worn out and outgrown. I discovered how much room we have in our closet and our room and our dressers when we have only what we actually use.

I didn't get rid of everything that just takes up space; some concert / band t-shirts made the cut (they don't fit, but I'm sorry I couldn't let *them* go yet), I had to keep my wedding dress, of course, even though it still carries the dirt from that evening, and even though I will never wear it again, I can't get rid of it. I did, however, move it from the back of the door (where it has been since June 18, 2005 when I was the most beautiful bride ever ;0) ) into the closet, and covered it with a dress bag. Even that made me slightly sad.

I also held on to the (slinky) little black dress that I brought on our honeymoon and wore to the fancy restaurant, as well as a sexy little black number that I wore to a friends wedding in 2003. Although I may never fit in them, I can't give up hope just yet on those dresses.

I am feeling really good purging, and like any pack rat, I have to take advantage of this state before it disappears. I will be tackling the downstairs closet which is CRAZY and houses things like the flower arrangements from my wedding (seriously, when am I EVER going to use those again?) and a box full of used candle wax which I had intentions of melting down into new candles like 5 years ago. That and a ton of other stuff I am not even sure of since I haven't looked at it since I shoved it in there 6 years ago when we moved in. I am SO excited to strip us down of these excess 'things'.