we painted our living room and our dining room. it feels like we have a new house. finally, our house has color! i love that we have a big window in our living room looking out into the park. it's like a big picture that changes with the weather...kind of like the ceiling at hogwarts, except that it's not magical. one of the best parts about the window is this barely noticeable digital thermometer between the window glass and the window screen that eric installed. it's nice to know the temperature outside when you look out the window. you can say stuff like "how is it snowing when it's 45 degrees outiside?" and "it's deceptively beautiful outside with the sun shining and blue sky, but it's 15 degrees, so i'll stay inside/bundle up when i go outside."

it's important to remember when painting that if the previous homeowners did a sucky job at putting in the baseboards that you should just rip them out and put in new ones. it will save you the agony of painstakingly taping them off only to not get a nice clean line. this will also spare you two hours of laying on the floor doing touch-ups trying to get that nice clean line (but to no avail). also, semi-gloss shows every imperfection in the wall, but is necessary if you plan on having little kids running around getting everything from crayon and pen to peanut butter and jelly on the wall. it'll save you from having to re-paint every time you clean off a mess.