The Great American Cover-up

The mural on our staircase wall has been the "elephant in the room" (actually, it's much bigger than an elephant) since we bought the house.

I'll never forget the first time we saw the house. Olivia was at a friend's house. Steve and I walked through the front door with the boys, and there it was. Larger than life. Naked statues. Kissing. With a leopard watching from above.

(The view from the front door/entry)

(The view from above)

Jack's reaction was priceless. He took one look and said "Ewwwwwww—that's so gross!"

It's been almost 6 months since we moved in. While the mural bothered me a bit at first, I then sort of forgot about it. I know...how can one possibly forget about a 16' wide painting up the staircase I climb numerous times every day? But it's true. I just sort of put it out of my mind. That is, until someone came to visit. They'd take one look at the wall and then look down at their feet or fidget with semi-embarrassment. I always found myself jumping to explain..."It wasn't exactly our taste or style, but we knew that it had been an incredibly costly addition to the house, and we felt a little guilty about not loving it and wanting to keep it as part of our decor, yada yada yada." So, the mural stayed, and we just figured when the time was right, we'd know what to do.

In the 6 months since we've been here, we've also had issues with the boys being frightened in the house. Jack was afraid to get out of bed in the night. If Grant was left upstairs, or downstairs for that matter, by himself, he would freak out screaming that he was scared. No amount of reassurance seemed to help.

Last Friday night, we were discussing our weekend plans. A birthday party for Saturday morning had been cancelled due to the weather, and although we had a Halloween party Saturday evening, our day was wide open. Steve asked Jack "What do you think we should do tomorrow?" Jack's response was immediate "Can we paint over the mural?"

That did it. Saturday morning, we woke up early and headed to the paint store. On our way, we took a detour to the donut store for one of these:

When we got home, we gave the kids some Sharpies and let them go to town on the wall before we got to work. This is likely the only time in their life that they'll be allowed, let alone encouraged, to tag a wall.

A heavy coat of primer went on first.

A few hours later, the final coat of paint went on.

As Grant was supervising the paint job, he said "Now I won't be scared anymore". Steve and I really had no idea that the boys were so bothered by what to us was just a bit of tacky art.

It's amazing what a couple of coats of paint can do. We still need to figure out something to put on the wall (or some things) to break up the vastness of it.

In the meantime, the boys are adjusting superbly to the blank slate. Grant actually carried his laundry basket upstairs today. By himself. And didn't shed a single tear.