my 1st time painting

I never thought I would see the end of this dark tunnel Saturday evening.  I started painting Saturday afternoon by myself not really understanding what I got myself into.  But after ~$120 later, a glass of wine, help from a friend, Pandora, and a lot of determination, I finished painting our dining room.  Here are the before and after pictures!

Me prepping the walls with painters tape.  

And of course, Gracie thinks it is play time and she brings me her infamous tennis ball!

This is a picture I took Sunday morning.

I took these pictures in the evening.  The room looks SO much better!  Yay!!

 Things I learned...

1. I will never try to undertake this task on my own ever again!  I was lucky because my neighbor, Gina, came by for a couple hours to help out but without her, I think I would have lost my sanity!
2. Buy the 3 inch painters tape for the ceiling edge and doorway edge.  There is a very high chance that you will accidentally hit the white walls with the roller.  The wider the tape the better!
3. Make sure you take off all the lint from the new roller before you soak it in paint.  You can do this with duct tape or masking tape by applying the tape on the roller and pulling the lint off .  I learned this from Gina's husband who gave me a painting 101 lecture 30 mins before I started.  He told me that a LOT of ppl make this mistake and paint the lint on the walls and to get it off, you have to sand down the walls.
4.  Apply the painters tape the day before you paint (not any earlier).  I prepped most of my walls a couple weeks ago with painters tape and when I pulled the painters tape off of the walls Sunday morning, part of my drywall stuck on to the tape!  Yikes!
5. Always have touch up paint on hand for any goof ups!