8,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000. This is the estimated number of colors in the world, according to the Rochester Institute of Technology Web site.

Psychophysicists-people who study human responses to stimuli-estimate that a person has the ability to view 10 million colors. But as lighting conditions and sources vary, so do the shades-along with the idea that one person's perception of a color is going be slightly different than another person's.

This is important to me because finally, after seven years, we are officially thinking about planning to paint our house. But where do we go from dirty yellow? (This is the most appropriate name we've come up with. We do have others, but they're not suitable for print.)

Our current house color is one that nature never intended. The paint store surely must have spilled some brown into a yellow paint can and created the sale color of the week. The previous unsuspecting owners walked into the store and was told they could save a bundle by using this "one-of-a-kind" creation. They smiled at the price, shrugged, and said, sure, why not?

I'll tell you why not. Because it's dirty yellow.

I think the psychophysicists would agree. Not to mention Feng Shui experts, who believe in organizing your surroundings in a way that will bring serenity and balance to your life. Whether or not you buy into that, color plays a part in their philosophy and I have a feeling our unfortunate shade didn't make it onto their color wheel.

But many others did. Starting with the color estimation of 10 million, then factoring in lighting types, lighting levels, surrounding colors and the varying eyesight of the billions of people in the world, the color-science researchers at RIT ended up with that big number with the 33 zeroes, also known as 18 decillion.

In other words, the fact that my house ended up this color is a miracle.

So I have just less than 18 decillion color left to choose from. I could go the feng shui way, where each color symbolizes something: Reds? Luck, wealth and happiness. Greens? Growth and peace. Pale blues? Harmony and communication. Yellow? Longevity (Yes, we know this-it's the color that won't die!)

With these guidelines, it stands to reason that if I want a balanced life, I should mix the colors together and paint my house some kind of brown.

With interior painting, I associate my colors with food. My living and dining room walls are "Wendy's Frosty." One accent wall is "Hershey Bar." The other is "Spruce Grove." (OK, that's not a food, but I don't know of a green decadent treat. Still, spruce trees are nice, so it works.)

I don't know if my color choices are emitting subconscious peace or joining my yin to my yang, but they're good for my sweet tooth.

I could continue with this food method and plan the exterior around caramel apples, blueberry pie, or butter brickle ice cream. After thumbing through the color brochures, I've realized that it's easier to assemble desserts on a plate, where they don't have to color coordinate.

My 7-year old is pushing for pink. She loves to remind her dad that he is the only male in the house, including two cats, a dog, a turtle, and piles of stuffed animals, which she assures us, are all female. Painting the house a "girl" color would make her day. (Hmmm...that is a little like strawberry shortcake.)

The saving grace in all of this is that my husband and I have similar tastes. Or it may be that we've looked at too many colors and he just stopped caring.

A couple of days ago I announced I had found the perfect ones and he replied with "great, perfect...go buy them" before bothering to look at them.

It's nice when we can work so well together.

The 18 decillion color wheel has been narrowed to three: a base color, a trim color, and an accent color. Planning a two-story house from a 1x2 paint chip is tricky, but we feel all right about our final decision.

I'm not sure what color choices say about people, but it must mean something when given so many color possibilities, two of the three we choose are black and white. Not midnight and eggshell. Not black bean and snowfall. Just black and white.

At this point, I'm with my husband. Great, perfect, let's go buy them. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm craving a chocolate marshmallow brownie.