Happy Yellow Home - Painting Days

The move was tough for the girls who, while well traveled, have never known another home. We'd lived in our Santa Barbara County home their entire lives. We had designed and built our addition. There were special touches here and there that were decidedly ours. They liked the idea of moving, the idea of living on a farm. They were even excited enough to pick their rooms when we toured the house for the first time. But when we signed the paperwork, it sunk in: we were really doing this.

V really didn't want to leave the mural on her bedroom wall behind, to sleep anywhere other than under the two corner windows in her own room, to leave our pet cemetery behind. E didn't want to leave behind her friends, particularly neighborhood kids who came out of the woodwork as soon as we put up that "for sale" sign last spring.

But there are treasures to be found in our new home, our new community. Being closer to nature is a bonus for us all, as is being closer to some of the girls' grandparents.

To help ease their frustration, we had the girls design their own rooms - paint color, carpets (the carpets in their rooms and the master were fairly rank) - and then we went to it. The first morning I woke the girls in their new rooms, I asked, "So, how do you like your room?" Through squinting morning eyes, they answered.

E: "I LIKE it!"

V: "It's WONderful!"

Made my day - and it was only 7:30 a.m.