The big reveal!

Ryan was out of town this weekend to witness the Gators win another SEC Champhionship (yuck) so I thought a little home improvement project would surprise him when he got home. I always underestimate the enormous amount of work involved in home projects...maybe because those shows always make everything look so easy!

I started bright and early Saturday morning and headed to Home Depot for some supplies. When I got home, I sanded down the door in the kitchen that leads to the garage and painted a layer of Kilz to tone down the olive brown color. I also tested a small square of the green paint I bought and thought it looked good. After a short break to watch the game, I went back to work all night and got two walls almost totally painted.

I woke up the next morning and hated the color. It was so much brighter than I thought and way too intense. So back to Home Depot I went for more choices and supplies. I get really frustrated with choosing paint, since it never looks like what the tiny paint chip shows, so I ended up finding a green that was similar to the gray we already had in there...same color family, just a different tint. After testing it and one other color, I finally settled on a lighter sagey green, used that little quart up and went back for the third time to get some more paint. I was up till almost 11:30 painting and cleaning up my mess, trying to get things back in order before the hubby got home today.

He landed from Atlanta and I was sure he wouldn't want to go into the office but he did. Just to be safe, I left work early and worked from home for the afternoon in anticipation of him coming home early. No such luck...But when I heard the garage opening I ran to the kitchen and hid to surprise him. It was so funny to watch him in one of the mirrors as he walked through the door and it registered. I don't think he was expecting it and it might have even confused him a bit.

And the end result? Ta-da!

Honestly, the color is so similar to what we already had, just more green than gray, but you can barely even tell in the photos!
I have to say, it's not finished but I am quite proud that I pulled the whole "While You Were Out" surprise on Ryan. I finished all of the walls and got at least one layer of primer on all the trim so it looks pretty put together. And he says he likes it, so it was a successful home improvement. Just remind me the next time I say I am going to take on a "small" project how much harder it really is to accomplish! I am totally beat!