A Super Stressful Friday (Self-Inflicted) and Choosing a Wall Color for the Garage

Wow! Yesterday was a day and a half around here! I had a mini disaster occur. I was trying to do too many things at once (a bad habit of mine) and while calling a local tire place to schedule having my tires rotated, I managed to spill a lot of water onto my keyboard. While trying to wipe off (and shake out) the water from the keyboard, I didn’t notice a small amount had also splashed up onto one of my monitors. Argggh.

The keyboard ended up pretty much fried. It was typing gobbledygook the rest of the day–adding extra characters at random points and other weird stuff. I didn’t notice the few drops on the bottom of the monitor until a vertical, blue line, that later turned into a jagged red line, appeared on the screen.

So I spent most of yesterday (after the tire rotation) swapping out the keyboard for an older version of the exact same keyboard. Fortunately, when I purchased the one I ruined yesterday, I had the presence of mind to keep the old one. It took a while to get it updated so the hotkeys worked correctly, but an update from the Logitech website took care of that issue. I love the programmable hotkeys, it’s one of my favorite things about this, sadly, now discontinued keyboard.

This older keyboard actually works better than the newer one ever did. I previously used this keyboard for so long, the plastic space bar is actually worn down in the center. I can literally feel a thumb-wide depression when I run my finger across it. This keyboard–we have history. We go way back! lol

 

It reminds me of the worn-down, wood steps of the beautiful staircase I used to climb on a daily basis to the third floor of the historic 1874 Admin building where I took so many classes during my four years at Mercer. I used to wonder about all those souls who had climbed that staircase over the past 100 years, creating the curved indentions in the wood steps long before I was a student there.

 

After the keyboard battle was won, I connected a new monitor to replace the water-damaged one. I love these monitors so much, a few years back I purchased a spare one to keep on hand in case one of the monitors died one day. I was thankful to have it yesterday! I probably should order another one now–for the next time I do something dumb. lol I hope your Friday was a lot less stressful!

 

While I was fretting over keyboards and monitors yesterday, I was also trying to choose a wall color for the garage walls. I realized a few days ago that with the new bright-white lighting, white trim, and a wall (or maybe two) filled with white cabinets, the garage was going to feel way too stark if I painted the walls white, too.

 

I think I’ve settled on a Sherwin Williams Color called Neutral Ground. I often use Benjamin Moore paints in my home but since the outside of the garage door is being painted during this mini-renovation with my exterior house paint (Sherwin Williams Duration) I thought I’d go ahead and choose a SW paint for the interior. That way, the painters won’t have to go to two different stores for paint, although BM and SW are only a block or so apart

I wanted a light, neutral color that wouldn’t pull too green, too gray, or too anything, but would feel somewhat elegant/sophisticated and would contrast nicely with the white trim and white cabinets. That probably sounds weird–wanting an elegant color for a garage. lol Hopefully, I’ve made a good choice. After I chose Neutral Ground, the guys at the paint store said it was one of their most popular colors and that they get orders for it almost every day. I took that to be a good sign.

 

If it turns out to be a good choice, I am tempted to use it in my Master Bedroom and upstairs hall. It looks pretty good with the green drapes in this room.

Updating Bedroom with New Drapes, Tartan Bedding

 

Not the greatest lighting but hopefully, you will get an idea from this photo.

Sherwin Williams Neutral Ground, SW7568

 

Here’s how it looks with my summer bedding, although I’m not sure these photos are really showing how it truly looks.  I really dislike choosing paint colors–gives me major anxiety!

Sherwin Williams SW 7568 Neutral Ground

 

The painting in the garage will start on Wednesday and should be a two-day process. Looking forward to sharing an update on the garage after that!

Happy Weekend!

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Comments

  1. Yes, you had a “Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day”! So sorry. Hopefully you can plan a mini spa day or mini vacation to decompress when everything is back in order! It’s also important to take care of YOU so you’ll be around a long time to enjoy that garage!

    • lol That’s a good way to put it! Can’t believe I destroyed my keyboard and my monitor at the same time. Thanks, Toni–you are so kind to think of that! ♥
      XXX

  2. Are you moving all your cabinets out of your garage so the floor can be painted? Those cabinets are great and filled with a ton of stuff.

  3. Oh Susan! Poor you. But I am so glad you know what you’re doing and were able to program your old keyboard. (I don’t think I’ve ever seen a space bar that literally wore down like that!) Yikes. 😀 That’s funny. Yeah, you have some history, the two of you. And I like that you had that extra monitor. I’m like that with certain things. I know if it breaks I don’t want to have to worry about having to find or order another, I want it Johnny on the spot. (Pool pump, for instance. I don’t want it going out in either extremely hot or extremely cold weather without having another one on hand.)

    Anyway, the paint color you chose looks very soft and pretty. I know a lot of beiges / tans can tend to go pink and almost look like foundation make-up, but yours looks like a good one. I’m looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

    I hope today was better and tomorrow will be better yet. Maybe as God did, you’ll actually take a day of rest. You deserve to!

  4. Becky Tucker says

    Soooo, you are human like me? I have mess ups so frequently, my husband and I call it, “another day”. You did a superb job of fixing and planning ahead for these days. Well done, my friend Susan!

  5. That was a stressful Friday Susan! I’m glad you had your other keyboard and a back up monitor. I am loving your paint color choice, I think it will be beautiful! Hugs, Brenda

  6. franki Parde says

    oh, wow…AND, YOU KNEW how to “change ALL this stuff out…KUDOS!!! You are what they call…a “whiz!” Just wait till this is all freshly painted…”OH, WHAT A FEELING!!!” franki

  7. Nothing worse than choosing paint colors…well, maybe a keyboard and monitor would be. Gah! But seriously, I’d gotten to the point when choosing paint, I do use the SW color visualizer, but I also buy white poster board our kids used to do those science projects on, buy sample quarts, and go to town painting the boards and then putting them up against walls, light, etc.. I donate the quarts to ReStore afterward. I think I bought nearly a dozen quarts of different whites when we were doing our bath. It was awful. I like that this new home we’re in was mostly all white (SW Extra white). It made decision-making easy – no decision at all!

  8. Iris McCloud says

    It looks like the paint color could give give you a subtle change from the current color. It might just feel fresh and a little new without stopping you in your tracks when you walk in. Since you will have the wall paint why don’t you take a couple pieces of poster board and paint them. You can then put them up on your different walls at different times of day. That should give you a better idea of how it will look. It’s so hard to judge from a small store chip. I always torture myself trying to change paint colors. I’m sure that you will keep us posted. Good luck.

    • Thanks for that reminder, Iris. That’s what I normally do, paint some big sheets of poster board. I should do that this time instead of painting on the wall…would be easier to cover up if I go a different route.
      I know…torture is a good way to describe it!

  9. Nice paint color…did you put a little sample on and do you like it with the floor? BM has little bottles of paint you can use to try. Even with all my years of working with paint I am surprised how different colors can look in different locations. A color that looks right in one room can look completely different in another room. When we did our floor I matched the paint color with a light gray even though I never use gray anywhere else but it looked nice in the garage with the floor. Your floor has some white dots so ivory will also look nice too. A deep gray would be fun there too since it’s a space you could play with. Nice with all the white. Woo, I have a lot of thoughts, don’t I?After 40 years of helping people with paint colors…

    • I haven’t yet but I think I’ll get a quart mixed tomorrow and try it out just to make sure. The flooring guy is coming back out again on Tuesday to let me see all their samples because I’m starting to think the one I picked initially will be too white. I know what you mean about it looking different in different rooms…and at different times of the day. The garage is super bright now with the new lighting so hopefully, this color won’t feel too dark. I’m just not a fan of gray so trying to stay away from the grays, although the flooring I choose may have some gray in it…not sure.

  10. Regality3 says

    And that is why I have always had a strict rule for 25 years: No liquids on the computer side of the room! Period. No exceptions.

  11. Always fun when it is someone else choosing paint colors! Looking forward to the new garage.

  12. Linda Page Gurganus says

    Love the paint color!! I think it will be perfect for the garage and your bedroom & hall. I need to repaint the inside of my house so I plan to go check out that color and get a swatch. I agree that choosing wall colors is very stressful!! So sorry about your monitor and keyboard but so glad you had spares!! Smart girl!

    • Thanks, Linda! Was very thankful for those spares. I’m kinda glad the keyboard bit the dust…it never worked properly and my old one actually works much better.

  13. Susan I was having my kitchen painted Neutral Ground but once they started painting it was almost identical to my white cabinets. So I switched to accessible beige which turned out grayish! I’ve come to the conclusion the colors turned out like they did as my painter had them mixed somewhere other than SW or BM. I’ve seen those paint colors and mine looked nothing like what I’d seen. Hopefully you’ll have better luck than I did.

    • I hope so too. I made a BIG deal out of telling the guy who came out that I didn’t want the paint altered in any way. I will preach that again when the painters arrive. Right now, my sample card looks much different than my trim paint…so it better match that if I do stay with Neutral Ground. Thanks, Judy for reminding me about keeping an eye on that!

  14. Marie In AZ says

    LOL, Susan. I want to let you in on a little secret I learned many years ago:
    “All stress is self-induced.” Think about it, laugh a little, and remember that most things have a way of working out! Keep on keeping on, and have a great day.

    • So true! I actually handled this a lot better than I probably would have when I was younger. I’m used to always having to take care of everything myself and I know a magic fairy isn’t going to descend down from the sky and wave her wand and “fix” stuff when it happens. So rather than spend time bemoaning the situation, I just immediately dive in and start trying to fix the issue. Of course, having a spare keyboard and monitor definitely helped make me feel better about the whole thing. I’ve already ordered another keyboard since this one has been discontinued. I managed to find one last one like it left on Amazon. Monitors are insanely priced right now, so I think I’ll wait on buying a spare, plus I may even upgrade to bigger ones if/when the prices ever come down.

      • Marie In AZ says

        You were prepared! Great job. Once I learned about the “self-induced” stress, it was always easier to reach a timely solution…like you did. Love reading your blog, and I know it’s a tremendous amount of work. Thanks.

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