Wednesday, June 23, 2004
The Painting Saga (Part Two)
Now, I'm sure that you're all laughing at this perfectionist who has never painted before. Ha ha ha!! (Just please do me the favor of waiting for a couple of weeks before you tell me that you've been laughing at me!! Thanks!)
So ... yesterday I went and bought everything I needed. I basically went up to the guy at the counter and said, "I have never painted before. I know what colors I want. That's it. I guess I'll just have to take one of everything." :-) The guy was very nice ... talked me through the number of coats, the pros and cons of primer, painting ceilings, amounts of paint, spackle, tape, drop cloths, faux painting, etc., etc. I'm sure that I didn't ask every question that I should have ... but I have many FEWER questions thanks to him.
So ... instead of going straight home from the store, I stopped at a friend's house to have her look at the colors I chose so that I could hear her say, "Oh ... that's going to look nice!" Now, I probably should have gone to her home before I bought the paint, because she really didn't have an option to tell me that it wouldn't look nice because I had already purchased the paint. It will have to look nice!!
So ... today I got up and immediately started the process. I emptied the room of every piece of furniture (and everything except air!) I cleaned the walls, the window sills, and the carpets. And then I spackled. Spackling didn't take me as long as I thought it would. I was finished with all of the above mentioned stuff before lunch.
THEN came the drop cloth. Okay ... so if you know that I am a perfectionist and you, yourself, have painted before, I'm sure that you've been chuckling to yourself about Lou Ann and how she'd handle the drop cloth. Of course, every square inch of floor has to be covered. SOOOOOoooooooo ... after I completely frustrated myself with the drop cloth slipping and sliding around, I decided to just TAPE it in place. SOOoooo ... the drop cloth is now TAPED to the moldings. Ugh!! And ... between taping the moldings/drop cloth and taping the window and the three doors (hallway/bathroom/closet) ... it took me the entire rest of the afternoon.
Finally ... who ever thought up the brilliant idea of using plastic sheeting for a drop cloth. I mean really. Isn't glad wrap difficult enough to use when it's quart-sized-lasagna-holding small? I mean, really!? A 12x15 piece of glad wrap is NEVER going to stay where I want it to on the floor of my room. Not to mention the fact that when you cover a carpeted floor with glad wrap and then try to walk ... well ... imagine it. [pause while reader imagines...........] I KNOW that I will have a concussion before this whole thing is over.
If I don't post again in the next few days, please call 911 and have them break my door down. I'll probably have bled out from a large hole in the wrong part of my head due to slipping on a glad wrap covered floor and hitting my head on a taped corner of a window sill....
Meanwhile, please continue to look at pictures of my brother's new twin sons, Aaron and Will.
More to follow........
