After six years in our little home, B and I are finally getting some new paint on the walls. It’s amazing that we’ve managed to last over 2,000 days staring at the original builder’s paint, Crisp Linen (or as I call it, beige). It’s a dreadful non-colour that serves as a blank canvas for an amazing assortment of children’s fingerprints, shoe scuffs, and crayon doodles.

The boys were really excited when Bob the Painter rang our doorbell at 8:00 this morning. A ran downstairs in his Bob the Builder hardhat and launched into the following conversation:

“Bob, I have a suggestion. Could you paint the sun and a blue sky and some white fluffy clouds on the wall? And some hot air balloons and a rainbow. And could you paint a picture of my house, and Cody’s house, and Freddy’s house? And maybe you could add some windows so it looks like we can see outside.”

As much as it would have been totally awesome to have such a vivid mural in our living room, we explained that such an elaborate project is probably beyond Bob’s current comfort zone and our budget. It’s not fun to dash your son’s hopes and dreams that early on a rainy Monday morning.

It will be interesting to see how our colour selection turns out. We had originally looked at a red accent wall that would have run the entire length of the house, but I chickened out. Instead, we’re going with a combination of Elk Horn (greeny-brown) and Pensieve (tan). I know, I know, it’s boring, but I want to make sure the walls don’t draw attention away from our extensive collection of 19th century French impressionists.