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Another blank-slate vacation week for my husband led to the latest episode of home improvement at the Vestals’.

I realize we are closer to mimicking our parents with each passing year; vacations spent doing time-consuming chores rather than taking a week or two to actually go on a trip.

With no real plans to speak of, we started discussing various projects that seem to continually build up on that invisible “honey-do” list stored in our minds.

Painting the living room before Christmas seemed like the most appealing idea, so we set off to Home Depot to pick up some paint chips and small paint samples of the color we thought we wanted.

Going to Home Depot as an adult is like going to a toy store when you are a child. There are so many pretty, colorful and shiny things that catch your eye and make you wish upon a star (for unlimited funds to infuse the items into your home).

We spent a good hour just walking down through the laminate-flooring department before arriving at the paint department.

Once in the paint department, we started pulling paint samples from the display case. I took them to the stools by the paint mixers.

Because they were not very busy that night, I was able to spread them all out on the counter so that I could compare them as I tried to narrow our choices.

I wanted something in the brownish family of colors — lighter than chocolate brown, but darker than beige.

I found a sample that I liked called “Cliff Rock” among Baer’s color offerings. I was all ready to get a sample made up to bring home to paint on the wall so we could confirm it was the right choice.

I started pulling out the laminate flooring samples we had placed in our shopping cart a bit earlier. Seeing the samples side by side, I did not like the way they looked together. Something about the color choice I had been so certain of a few minutes beforehand made me doubt it would be a good long-term choice.

I pulled all the paint chips back out of the cart and gave each color a new look — this time next to the flooring samples.

I found a color in the same color tint family that looked good with all the flooring samples we liked. It was lighter than I thought I would want but seemed a good overall complement to things we already had at home — and the direction we hope to go as we have money to improve things in the future.

My husband said it was the perfect color match and not to even bother with getting a sample made. He wanted to go ahead and get the paint right then and there.

As the Baer Premium Paint with primer mixed, we gathered other painting supplies.

Arriving home, we began to tear apart the living room to prep before going to bed.

I knew this would make things easier the next day when my husband and son would begin to paint our walls.

Holes were spackled; walls were cleaned. Molding was taped off with blue painter’s tape; something we found invaluable in the coming days.

It only took my husband and son a half day to paint the living room. I was amazed at what a difference a fresh coat of paint made. Everything looked cleaner; fresher.

They decided to go ahead and paint the hall, dining area and kitchen beginning the next day — part of our plan to unify the main living areas of our house by giving them the same color once again.
Here, several weeks later, I am amazed at how good everything looks.

Adding color to our previously white kitchen walls really did warm up the space. It feels like a different house, even though the only thing that has changed is the wall color.

We plan to continue to paint other parts of the house. My son has sample paint on his walls that helped us rule out the color he thought he wanted in his room. Trim needs constant updating, and our bathroom could use a new coat or two. Momentum to complete the projects has begun.

Now all we need is for my husband to have another week of vacation so we can see our plans materialize.

Linda Vestal is a wife, mother, daughter, sister and friend living in Gibsonville. Contact her with comments or story ideas at lindavestal@triad.rr.com.