I spent most of Labor Day priming the new dining room. I’d thought, “Hey, it’s just one room. How long could it take?” LONG. For one thing, it’s a dining room but there’s also a mud room. And both rooms need not only the walls but also the ceilings painted. Best purchase: the $12 extendable-handle paint roller I dithered over in the store. Mediocre purchase: the $7 non-stick paint pan that claimed I could let the paint dry and then just peel the paint off in a sheet (FAIL—but fun to pick at the paint).
We chose and ordered the floor. It’s Armstrong Laminate, the Black Walnut. It’s the kind of floor you snap together. I hope it’s not going to be too dark/dramatic.
Oh, hi. Have I mentioned we’re putting in a dining room?
I went to the dentist this morning about a tooth that’s been doing painful little twinges. I’ll say this: it is WAY more satisfying to go to the dentist when something hurts. What I hate most is when I go in for a routine cleaning and they find $1,200 of work that “needs” to be done. It’s like when the auto place says the car “needs” $1,200 of work: What if they’re just totally making this up? There’s no way I would know! But if something hurts and they can make it stop hurting (or, for the car, if something is clattering/smoking and they can make it stop doing that), I still hate to spend the $1,200 (panic panic financial panic) but at least I know I’m getting something out of it. …Unless they broke it last time they were in there. Well, not thinking about that.
Excellent work with the priming! That is a thankless job. The actual painting is much more rewarding. Priming is like chopping vegetables. Where as painting is like actually COOKING and EATING the meal.
Sorry about the dentist. I went two weeks ago and have FOUR cavities. I’m getting them all filled on October 1. Nevermind, I can’t talk about it.
Painting can be slightly therapeutic, I think. What with the repetition and the swish, swish of the roller. Therapeutic and back-breaking.
Last year we all did our twice a year check ups, thinking we had dental insurance because we always have, only we didn’t have it, because my husband goofed. So oops, lots of unpaid dental bills for ’08. Whee!
I hope your tooth feels better.
And that you’ll share pictures of the final product of your dining room. ???
The floor looks lovely. Sigh, I can’t wait for the day next summer (when we put our house on the market) when we start thinking about what new floors we want. Even though I won’t live here to enjoy them, I CAN’T WAIT to tear up this disgusting carpet (mostly due to my dogs and my son grounding banana into it) replace it with something hardwood-ish. Good luck with the painting. Ugh.
I think that floor is perfect, especially with your soon-to-be cream walls. It seems like such a shade that you can have really dark, rich accents or pastels, and either will look great.
I very much look forward to having snap-together wood floors in my future home.
Black Walnut was my favorite! You are going to LOVE it.
Omaha Mama: No offense meant or anything, but you be crazy. Painting is not therapeutic. Painting is torture. The end. But when you’re done, it looks so pretty! And then you never hang pictures, because hanging pictures requires putting HOLES in your NEW PAINT and what if you put them in the WRONG PLACE? So instead, you just sort of lean them against the wall instead. Or, if you have toddlers, you put them in the attic.
I look forward to pictures!
I think we’re living some weird parallel lives… except I’m changing our dining room into our new baby’s bedroom and it has dark red walls and gah gah gah….
And I have a dentist appointment tomorrow for a tooth that hurts too. If I survive the appointment, I hope I still have the tooth. Or money in my bank account; one or the other.
Do you have furniture squirreled away somewhere, or do we get to participate in furniture picking? Because I got my furniture from my in-laws, which was very kind of them, but it means I totally missed out on choosing dining room furniture. Not that I could have afforded any, but I didn’t even get to look.
My compliments on the flooring choice! :)
Oh, also, does this mean that you actually NEED $1200 worth of work in your mouth?! Sweet Jesus.
I love the roller extenders. They are the BEST. My addition to the Stupid Product list is the line of ‘edging’ products that are supposed to do corners so perfectly. Nope. Even the ceiling ones are a pain in the ass b/c they usually get paint on the rolling part and thus smear it all over the ceiling.
Beth Fish- We have a 1970s dark pine table and chairs set we bought almost ten years ago at a consignment shop for $100. So we have something we can eat off of, and there’s no RUSH as we YAY look for furniture. I want a different table eventually, but what I’m really looking forward to choosing is some kind of china cabinet and maybe one of those long narrow table-like things that goes along a wall and holds…stuff?
Astarte- UNKNOWN. He said nothing LOOKS wrong on the xray, so first he’s going to do a filling, but once he gets in there it may in fact be a root canal. So…we’ll see. It’s the Unknown Dental Situation! My favorite for restful sleep!
Ahh, the table-like thing that hold stuff. We call it a sideboard but my mom calls it a buffet. We’re on year 4 of the search for the perfect/cheapest/not hideous/charming one. If you find one, let me know!
Good choice with the flooring! It will look LOVELY with frothy latte.
PLEASE show us pictures when you are finished?
What, no pictures of the flooring or walls you primed? I’m so invested in your new dining room I need to see! ;)
I’m with OmahaMama on the therapeutic aspect of painting – FOR A LIMITED TIME! It’s wonderfully productive and Martha Stewart-y for about 15 minutes – then you just want it the hell over with. The End.
I’m so excited for you – I love my Pergo floors. Even better than I love hardwood (shhh!) Hope you will share pics. Now get back to painting….
I love the flooring! We just put in bamboo and cork in our house. The cork was Click-Lock (“Klee-Klock” at our house) and it went in very nicely.
Sorry about your teeth. I just went through some fun with mine. It sucked, but I’m glad it’s all taken care of now.
Can’t wait to see pics of your dining room!
YIkes on the dental stuff. ick.
I hope you’ll post a picture the minute the dining room is remotely done! I feel very invested in your dining room. I love the Black Walnut.
I can’t wait to see photos, either! Second to recipes/cooking tips, redecorating projects are my fave!
Ooo, I love the floor choice!
The last time I went to the dentist, I passed out. Because my ex was getting his wisdom teeth taken out, and ew, there was a lot of fluid. But yah, passed right out in the dentist’s office. And I haven’t been back since. And even hearing about people going to the dentist makes me feel sort of lightheaded.
I’ve never been as interested in my own redecorating/renovation projects as I am with yours. CREAM you say? I’m all aTWITTER!
Love the new floor and can’t wait to see it all done. WOO!
I ALWAYS think that about the dentist. I seriously think that my last dentist was inventing things to have done. Also, he sent me a bill for $300, inexplicably, and when I called to ask about it they said they would look into it and call me back, and I never heard from them again, which is fine with me because I do not want to pay them $300 for nothing. So now I need a new dentist.