It's never good when you hear these words: "Honey, I think we need to paint"

Nothing can help you feel better about your home than new paint. The problem is... I hate to paint. I'd rather move than paint.

Ashley decided to paint one night while I was at work a while back and our living room and hallway has been green for seven years. The dining room and kitchen are greenish. I think the little sample thing said it was "Rubbed Sage." But the green of the living room can best be described as "Sports Bar Green."

It's dark. Really dark. It's always been a challenge to get any light in the room. Think about the most popular color to paint the Man Cave to make it look most like a bar and you've got it.

It's been scarred from seven years of twin boys being here. There's some patching to be done. We also have chosen not to put any kind of decor on the walls because the boys, until recently, would have sacrificed any art to the HGTV gods. The same cannot be said for the boys, as they went through a very prolific period of putting their own brand of artwork on the walls from ages 3-6. As we trust them now to not to leave their mark, Ashley has determined a change is needed.

We (and by "we" I mean "Ashley by herself") picked out a cream color to paint the paint the living room. I think the paint name is the not so cool "Alabaster." We (remember?) chose it instead of Vanilla Sugar, Euchre, Ivory Glow, Honeybutter, Deep Cowslip, Cottage Linen, Haystack and Homestead Resort Cream. This accounts for about one-quarter of the colors we were considering.

Who knew there were so many different names for cream? They all look alike, till you put them next to each other. If I held up one, then another, you'd swear I was holding up the same color sample. It's kind of like being at the eye doctor and sitting through the whole "Which is better... A or B?" thing he does. Except this time it's Ashley and she's holding up little beige squares. Like I'm supposed to know which will go better with our furniture and rug.

Since we're changing from a very dark green to a very warm cream, I'm guessing we (from here on out, "we" means "Joel alone") will have to put up one coat of primer and two coats of paint. The other cool thing is that I have to do ALL the taping because I can reach the ceiling without a step ladder. To top it off, I get to refinish the TV armoire. But Ashley is unsure will make the cut in the living room, but she just wants to see what it will look like darker to better match the end tables. It may be relegated to the basement, which by the way, we (remember?) will refinish this summer.

We can't wait to get started.