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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

PIY-er

I painted a wall. That may not be a big deal to some of you but my experience with paint has been limited to watercolors and fingerprints. I realized through this experience, though, that I am not a DIY-er. I am a PIY-er--a Pay it Yourselfer.

I have always known that home improvement projects weren't my strong suit. But they make it sound so easy on House Hunters:

"I really don't like the paint color in this room."

"Nothing a can of paint can't fix!"

I even find myself yelling at the hunters when they say things like that: "Come on, you can easily paint over that! Just grab a bucket of paint, a paint brush and go to town. And while you're at it, you can change the carpet to hardwoods, add a bathroom and knock down that wall that makes the house not open enough for your taste."

So when my neighbor said that she had painted her whole house AND her kitchen cabinets, I thought, "Surely, I could paint one wall. How hard could it be?"

And this wall really begged to be painted. It's in our guest bedroom which was formerly a child's room. It has stripes on the wall so I thought the room must have been a circus theme. But luckily the former owners left all the paint in the basement (it's like a paint store in there; you should come shop!) and I found the paint--or paints I should say--from that wall. Apparently it was a baseball themed room according to the notes on the paint can. (I DO love the notes; they help me figure out what paint goes where!) You be the judge:


Usually I delegate these projects to Popsy. He painted our entire kitchen in Frisco and Leo's room here. (From one painter to another, Popsy, much respect.) But he refused to paint this wall. Why? Because HE LIKES IT! Frank and Leo agree. But I didn't and I'm pretty sure nobody else who toured our house did either. So I tackled the job of painting the entire wall the same color as that middle stripe. I thought it was the color of the rest of the walls. But alas, it was not. They were a lighter tan. Still, I stuck with that darker tan and hoped it would come across as an accent wall. That's a thing, right? 

This next paragraph is a shout out to Ace Hardware (for which I am not being paid): I went to Ace Hardware to get supplies and a kind, older man helped me. He didn't pressure me into a lot of fancy painting tools; I walked out with a roller on an extended pole and a square edger kind of paint thing-a-ma-jiggy. When I left he said, "Let me know how it goes!" I said, "I'm not in here much but I live close so I'll come by!" I mean, can you imagine someone at Lowe's or Home Depot saying that? 

So anyway, I taped (my least favorite part), I rolled (maybe my favorite part) and then there was a lot of moving a tarp around and making sure I didn't drip paint anywhere. That's the main thing I didn't like--all of the potential damage I could do to the rest of the room. Like I dripped a little paint on the comforter, on the other walls, on the baseboards and on the outlet covers. (That might be because I abandoned the taping process midway.) 

I started on Monday and I went in to finish today, thinking I just had some touch ups and I ended up doing more harm than good. Now I'm totally discouraged and ready to just wait until Popsy comes in December to undo the damage I have done. Here are some pics to explain the situation: 


Day one-Hey, this is not so bad. I just roll some paint on there. I'll get to those edges later. I don't need tape there, right? I've got the cool edger thing-a-ma-jiggy. 




Day 2: Ooh, that side dried pretty nicely and thank you, Frank, for getting the edges.


Day 2, afternoon: The other side is coming along but it was a pain to move this ladder and the tarp and all of my supplies without making a mess.



Day 3: I think I'm pretty much done. Just need to do a few touch ups! Surely I don't need to tape for that, right?


Oops, maybe I should have taped.


Missed a spot.

What color was this part of the wall before? No one will ever know!



The pictures don't do it justice. It is pretty awful! And I'm dreading the part where I have to go clean up all those brushes and pans and the tarp. I realize that the reason I don't like to paint is not because I'm lazy. I know I'm not lazy because I love to clean. I clean hard core. 

No, I don't like painting because of two P words that I don't have: 


PATIENCE: I just want it done! I am the type of person who fast forwards through home improvement shows to the big reveal! 

PRECISENESS: I prefer cooking over baking. I don't like to measure or make things exact. That's why I liked the rolling part. It was more of a free for all. 

I don't know how much it would cost to have someone come paint a wall but I would guess that it would be worth every penny. Because this thing took me a lot of time and it was just one wall! And my time is too valuable for that. (Except I don't actually have a job so I guess that argument doesn't work.) 

But hey, if you need some help purging your closet, making a Mexican meal or writing a snarky blog, I'm your girl.  Just don't give me a paint brush or a drill or a hammer or any tool whatsoever. 

I will say, though, that the entire time I was painting I looked EXACTLY like this girl: 




4 comments:

Granny Jo said...

You get an A+ for trying! Popsy will be delighted to come to the rescue and all he charges is a can of beer.

Granny Jo said...

I really like what you did and it does look alot better! It is not as easy as it seems and the fact that you were willing to try is admirable!! You are right taping is a pain and helpful. If you would of taped the painted wall it would of been much easier to blend the blended lighter color. Taping the ceiling is a pain and works better and still is a pain! When you have a wall socket and got a screw driver and took off the plastic cover it is easy to paint and not have to tape. Again way to go GIRLFRIEND I am so proud of you! If you can wait until December I can touch up what you still need to do. Also the next paint project I can be your helper and then we can go out and get a Margaritta and Mexican Dinner to celebrate our success!!! PROUD OF YOU POPSY

GR said...

You were brave and it looks so much better. I painted every room except the bathrooms in the Hibiscus house. It never looked good and I even spilled paint on the carpet. Professionals did a beautiful job later. Popsy has the comparative advantage in painting. We can all contribute beer to the cause.
mama

Writinggal said...

Thanks, Grandmother! Well, I never noticed that the paint looked bad in the Hibiscus house! And an update from here: I decided to try to fix the mess-ups so I went back to Ace Hardware to get more frog tape. I was able to show my friend there the pics on my camera. He said red paint is the hardest paint to cover and I should have used a primer. Anyway, I did fix some of the mess-ups so Popsy can save his strength for other projects!