A Woman's Prerogative

They say it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind. I'm glad, because I seem to do that a lot when it comes to the farmhouse remodel. Changing my mind means more work, and it usually means more money. Therefore, one might come to the conclusion that it is not a good thing to do. But in the end, I'm almost always glad I went with my gut instinct, even with the extra expenditure of time, effort, and finance.

Once renovations on the farmhouse began in earnest, there were several instances of changing my mind in the nick of time. There had never been a bathroom upstairs, so we took part of a bedroom to create one. After the framing and the initial plumbing pipes were done, I decided the room was too small. That meant tearing out and moving the studs on one side and moving the pipes for the sink and toilet drains. When I told my husband that I wanted to move the wall, his reaction was considerably less than enthusiastic. Once the change was made, however, he saw the wisdom of my plan.

I've also changed my mind about the placement of a window and door in the downstairs bath/laundry area, and I've gone from almond-colored switches and outlets for the whole house to brown ones for the kitchen and white ones for the bath, laundry, and dining room. Never mind that it meant cutting a new door and filling in the old door with a window. Never mind that the almond outlets and switches had to be removed and the brown or white ones installed. Never mind that all that took time, and when a contractor is working, time is money...lots of money.

My latest change of mind transpired in the past couple of weeks. Way back last summer, when I thought I would be getting all the painting done before school started (silly me!), I labored over choosing just the right shade of yellow for the dining room. I had a dozen or more paint cards from the store, which I took to the farmhouse at different times of day. I propped them up around the room and after much deliberation, decided on "Warm Summer." Last weekend, after I finished all the priming, I opened the yellow paint and put a few brushstrokes on the wall, just to make sure it was still the right color after all these months. Wouldn't you know - it was definitely NOT the right color. In fact, it looked rather like neon yellow, not the rich earthy tone I wanted. I learned, with the kitchen ceiling (click here to read that post) that paint colors can sometimes be changed, so I didn't despair too much. On my way home from Dad's last Monday, I swung by Lowe's in Lewisburg to make the switch. Once I'd made my new choice - Yellow Frost - the very helpful paint clerk informed the that he could not change my gallon of Warm Summer to Yellow Frost, carefully explaining that he could add to a certain color in the mix, but could not take any out, which was what was needed to achieve my desired result. Once again, my change of mind cost me in time and money, since I spent close to an hour in Lowe's and ended up buying two new gallons of paint.

Can you see the too-bright yellow?
It's just to the right of the correct yellow along the door.

This past weekend has been one of very visible progress (read about invisible progress here). I got the first coat of Yellow Frost on the dining room walls, and I am pleased. Very pleased. And so glad I changed my mind. It's a sweet prerogative of being a woman, you know!

First, "cutting in" all the edges...

...and then rolling on all the color!!