Fixing one of the things that just bugged me...

There is one thing in this house that has simply bugged me since day 1, the border in the kitchen.  Now I have a feeling it bugged me more than anything because I took down a border and wallpaper similar in our last house and then only had a few short months to enjoy it.  Then we buy this house with a border in the kitchen and its not far off, same colors, same type of styling.  I would say if you are looking through a book of borders these were likely to sit right next to each other and would never enter a house if I had my way.  So I got a bee in my bonnet and decided that before we headed to VA last weekend I would go ahead and make sure it was down. the walls fixed and repainted.
So I did, or shall I saw we did.  I would have been happy doing it by myself (B. serious did NOT want to do this project), but I ran in to a few small problems, the first one, I do not have go-go gadget arms and several of the locations (above the fridge corner and the corner of the main cabinets) were just a smidge (or maybe a foot) too far away, so B. had to do them (or I suppose I could have done my precarious perch on a ladder and the cabinet and hope for the best, since he didn't seem to think that was the best of ideas he pitched in).  We got the entire border off in about 2 hours, it was 2 layers but came off more or less seamlessly.  There was one large spot that had to be repaired where I could NOT get the border off without damaging the wall.
Then the unfortunate reality set in about 2 minutes in with this project, they had painted up to the border and farther.  As a matter of fact they had painted after the border was installed (there was a bit of overlap).  I was mad, but mainly only because B. was right.  Luckily for us this paint was flat enamel so it would likely blend well when retouched and they had left us almost 1/2 a gallon of it.  So over the next few days I patched the walls as I had time and then finally on Thursday evening got to sanding and then painting coat 1.  B. helped out with this as well, mainly for his long arms but also because I think he realized it meant not hearing how much I hate the border :-P!
In the end the border is gone, the walls aren't damaged and the color blended nicely.  It looks so much nicer too!  We finished the last coat Friday morning and then hit the gym while the paint dried, came back and cleaned up before birthday and fathers day celebrations in VA with my fam!  It looks SO much better!
Here are a few pictures of our project: (sorry about the bad exposure I just grabbed our point and shoot while I had a free hand...

Before hand:                                                                          

After! (a quick snap right after taking down the tape and heading out the door)