Project: Crazy

"Why don't we just paint the apartment?" I asked Preston last week. Alternately, I could have just said, "Why don't we see HOW VERY MUCH we can bicker?" or, "You know what would be fun? To throw our marriage in jeopardy before the school year EVEN BEGINS!"

Let's rewind: last week, our new duvet cover arrived, and while lovely, it is much lighter than our old one, and gives our VERY VERY white bedroom a look that's a little too First Communion-chic for my taste. Basically you walk into the bedroom and you are, in fact, blinded by the light. When we moved into our apartment two years ago, I had just finished repainting an apartment - including a BRIGHT red kitchen - white, and let me tell you--after you've primed and painted a red kitchen white during a Virginia summer, you will NEVER want to paint anything EVER AGAIN. So, no. Even though our whole apartment was WHITE when we moved in, I was going nowhere NEAR a paint can, and we figured we would just get used to the fact that our whole apartment kind of looked like a bathroom.

Turns out, we did get used to it . Or, really, we just worked around it...mostly. We hung pictures on the walls, used dark furniture in the dining room, put a dark oriental rug in our living room, and got a dark red duvet cover for our bed. Yes, indeed. Everything was jolly until we put the new duvet cover on the bed, and all of a sudden the room looked like somewhere a Vestal Virgin would sleep. The white walls, the light comforter cover, and the white rug...it was just too much. And that's when I uttered those fatal words: "Why don't we just paint the apartment?" "Painting's not that hard," I continued, "and it makes such a difference. It would look like a whole new apartment." OH THE POWER OF SELECTIVE AMNESIA.

So Preston and I agreed that we would paint the three largest rooms in the apartment -the living room, the dining room, and the bedroom - put up new shelves in the living room, and partially redecorate the bedroom. Each of those projects really demands a post all to itself, but for now, I'll just say that over the past week, we have been to Target once, Lowe's/Home Depot three times, and Ikea twice. And maybe that doesn't sound like a lot, but LET ME ASSURE YOU. It is.

On Thursday we painted the dining room, yesterday we painted the living room, and woohoo! We are not dead! Or divorced! But man. WE TOED THE LINE. We've both groaned, snapped, and muttered under our breath at the other person a LOT over the last few days, and if I were painting with one of my younger brothers, this would be no different than everyday life, but Preston and I really don't fight, or even bicker, so this newfound irritability (on both our parts) stings even more, and honestly...it's just no fun.

Although we're over half-way through with Project: Frantically Reorganize/Redecorate the Apartment Before The School Year Starts and Time Evaporates, it still feels like completion is so. far. away. Our apartment still looks like a small (but real) hurricane passed through it, no pictures are on the wall, there's nowhere to eat because our living room is in our dining room, and my painting clothes will be out at least until Sunday (the day we're painting the bedroom). I've made sure to document this process not only with before and after shots, but with chaotic middle shots, so that next time, when I get the urge to paint, I will have reminders not only of how transformative painting a room can be, but also of how much painting sucks. Or, perhaps to be more fair, of how frustrating it can be to live in the middle of chaos, even if it is somewhat organized.

So I know that the apartment will look beautiful (because darn it - it WILL LOOK BEAUTIFUL), but right now, we're smack in the middle of Project: Crazy, and I just want the fairies to come and finish it for me. Is that really so much to ask? Maybe they'll even go to Lowe's and IKEA for me this morning...now THAT would be a real gift.