Wednesday, May 14, 2008

If I do this again put me in a straight jacket

Two years ago we put new siding on our house. The house used to be blue. I liked it but decided to go to a neutral color. I put red shutters on the house, but wound up leaving the front door blue. People kept commenting on how pretty the door looked. In fact, even my own Mother thought I had painted it blue. UMMMM, it was always blue. The house was blue.

The one thing I never got around to doing was painting the bottom of the house to match the new siding so for two years it has been blue too. It drove me nuts that it wasn't complete. I've tried twice in the past year to get off work for few a days to paint it, but something always happened. Well, this week I managed to get the time off. I've needed the sanity break too. I spent Monday preping the house and then yesterday painting.

I wound up running back and forth to home depot yesterday trying to match the color. You see, the piece of siding we had kept for matching paint disappeared recently. I had put it away so I could find it and then my husband put it under the sink, so he could find it. Guess what, tadaaa, it's gone. No surprise there. I started to go with plain old taupe but that matched the garage and not the siding so I looked for another color that I thought would be a better match, and I thought I had found it. The paint chip looked good with the siding it was slightly lighter, but the same color. I thought I had done it.

Then I had to determine whether we had latex or oil based paint. This is important and I had no clue. The lady at the store was very helpful and told me to use denatured alcohol on it. It worked and came off. It was latex base. Yeah, for me. I will say this woman provided the best service I've every gotten at a home depot. She knows her paint.

I went back to the store and there was a man working, he mixed the paint I requested. The color on the can matched the chip so I went home and began painting. What the???? It's lighter than I thought. It will dry and get darker. Nope. I'll put on a second coat that will help. Well, the coverage is good, but it's still too light. I had resigned myself to this, but my husband was ticked off. He was mad because I had purchased two gallons and we were stuck with it. So off I go crying to the garage trying to find the stupid piece of siding. He came and told me it was okay. He didn't realize how much I had put into it. So I dove back in and finished painting which took all day.

Have I ever told you that I have large azaleas in front of my house. Well I do and painting behind them was a feat unto itself. I was crawling around and contorting my body to get in there. Thank heavens there were no unwanted visitors hiding in there. My body is sore today. But I'm finished. I absolutely had to finish it yesterday because rain was coming for today and tomorrow. You can't paint in the rain, at least not outside.

We have ordered new decking and I can't wait to see it on the house. When it is finished I will share a photo. Then you can see my insanity and my husbands. Oh, he got chased my a bumblebee last night while trying to dismantle the deck. I'm nice though I didn't start laughing.

I should say my husband may have upset me yesterday, but he really is a wonderful man. My birthday was this past Friday and he went all out to make me feel special and then did it again for Mother's Day. He doesn't take the easy way out and try to blend the two.

5 comments:

Rebekah D. said...

Ah, the fun of home DIY projects. Nothing ever turns out to be as simple and straightforward as it should be, does it? That's why the house I thought for sure we would be finished remodeling well before my baby comes looks like it will be finished when Marley is about two weeks old. Moving with a new baby, yay. I guess it beats trying to move when you're nine months pregnant.
Glad you had a good birthday and Mother's Day. I made the mistake of getting married four days after my birthday, so one or the other of the holidays is usually a bust. Kudos to the hubby!

KellyKline said...

"Then you can see my insanity and my husbands." Just how many husbands do you have?

I bet the house looks really nice. I will be waiting to see the pics!

Siren said...

So the paint isn't perfect? If you are within a shade or two, and not a completely different color, it will look fine.

thehipster said...

rebekah: I'm not sure either time is an easy time to move. You are a brave woman. When is Marley due?

Kelly: I should have known my intelligent friends would spot my mistake with the my grammar. I'm actually surprised Rebekah didn't spot it first.

Siren: It looks fine, it was just frustrating.

Samantha Alice said...

You know, Hon, they'll probably age and weather differently, so it's a good thing the shade is a hair different. As long as the tone matches, it's good.

Can't WAIT to see the pix! Wish we were around to have a cookout on the new deck!