NaBloPaintMo: Day 14, Room 3.5

All through college, I spent each summer working forty to sixty hours per week as a painter at a factory.  I wore a hard hat and safety goggles and steel-toed boots, climbed tall ladders and drove various man lifts.  All summer, every day, for three years, I stood in the stifling heat and scraped and cleaned and painted sixty foot ceiling rafters and exteriors of water towers and other factory buildings.  I went to work in clean clothes every day, and left the place looking like I'd been caught in some sort of awful sand storm.  I woke up at 4:30am every morning to go to this job, and I was always in bed by 10pm, because that was some hard work.  I learned, incredibly well, those summers, to push through the pain and to do what I had to do.  Even when I was exhausted and aching and covered in thirty years of filth.

Fast forward ten years.  I'm almost thirty.  I own a two homes, and spent all of yesterday wearing comfy jeans and gym shoes with a fabulous autumn breeze blowing in through the windows while listening to my favorite music, painting our family room.  I stopped for a coffee refill every hour or so, and reveled in the fact that I was creating a new space in which we'd soon be relaxing.

And yesterday?  Kicked. My. Ass.

I rolled out of bed at 6:24 this morning and nearly collapsed into a heap on the floor, wondering who in the hell's body I'd jumped into.  I dragged myself to the bathroom to hunt down the Tylenol, each step causing every muscle in my body cry for mercy.

It's not that I haven't been painting for the last several months and years, because I have.  But this room might have been just a smidge larger, and taken just a smidge more time.

You'll recall that this was our starting point.  Granny Smith Green and someone else's furniture.  The green really took over the room, and made the fireplace hide in the corner.  Also, it made my head hurt.

I started with the ceiling, which was covered, everywhere, in spots of either red wine or cranberry juice.  I spent that two and a half hour segment making up stories in my mind about the man and woman who we'd just bought the place from, and their recent divorce.  By the time the sixth ceiling coat was drying, I'd concluded that the family room fights were among the ugliest, and that most certainly she was a drink thrower.  Either that, or the stress of the divorce was causing repeated bladder infections, and, Holy Hell not ANOTHER round of cranberry juice!  Up in the air! Crash!

Splatter, splatter.

Drip, drip. 

When I'd finished the lower half in jet blue, I was very nervous.  Nervous that what I had just created was kitchen decor circa 1986 that should include a porcelain hen sporting a country blue bow around her neck.

Thankfully, the upper color, Aloof, as you may recall, gave me much hope and transported us back to the correct decade.

By the time I was covering over the last of Granny Smith, there was one certainty in my mind.  It was that I was in love with Aloof.  Its very presence was calming my nerves and rubbing my aching feet.

Okay, Aloof was not rubbing my feet.

But saying goodbye to the Granny and hello to Aloof was almost like having my feet rubbed.  That's all I'm saying.

***

One thing I hadn't really considered was how I might reach the ceiling and walls above the stairway leading down from the kitchen.

Hadn't considered, that is, until I found myself threatening Kevin with everything I had, to NOT LET GO OF THE LADDER. 

Because technically, I don't think you should have two of the feet on the floor, and the other two feet half way down the stairs. 

But we home renovators, we do what we must.

This morning my family room is ever calmer.  I dropped KJ off at school and applied the final coat.

And though furniture delivery is still five days away, I'm already dying to drag a fleece blanket and a good book down here, and curl up next to the fireplace.

...Except for that one little detail where I have to paint the kitchen tomorrow.

More pictures, and more pain, coming soon.

Comments

[heels]

The new paint is beautiful! So is the "foot-braced-against-the-wall" stance. Fantastic.

[Dad]

The paintjob looks beautiful but I don't think you could've gotten away with the "leg lean" at the plant. I think you should share that picture of you in the hard hat... yes, there is one folks!

[Alissa]

all that work and i even i want a nap... in your new relaxing family room, that is.

[Frema]

I, too, am in love with Aloof. Who know Aloof could be so damn comforting?

Great job on your color choices. The combo really does make that room feel like home.

[takin chances]

It looks fabulous, Molly. It really does. You are SUCH inspiration to me and I don't even own ONE home yet. :)

[Jenny]

Two things:
Do you notice I tend to number my comments, by the way? And, no, that is not my first thing...

1) Maybe if there were a lot of fights going on, perhaps those red stains are neither red wine NOR cranberry juice, if you get my drift...
2) Next time, get a long handle roller like we used when we painted my bedroom. Not worth almost killing yourself!

[Jenny]

Oh yes
(Make that THREE things...)

The room looks fabulous! Great job!

[Alexander Pavlovich Romanov, Autocrat of All the Russias]

So, there is a part of your past that gives you your admirable painting pumpitude?

Everything looks to be shaping up...ever give any thought to paneling? God, do I love paneling. It may be a "guy thing," it may be an Irish thing (thanks, Denis Leary).

Makes it look like a Northwoods lodge...perhaps it is because it involves saws and nails rather than color samples and brushes. Whatever it is, gotta love that paneling.

Or, for lazy people like me, wood-grain contact paper is good enough.

[bubblewench]

That is a completely different room! That looks awesome! Great job! Ok, maybe I won't put off paiting for a year....

[Amy W]

I love it! It looks great!

[Hilary]

Ahhhhh, MUCH better. I scrolled back up to get a better look of the before (after I saw the after) and yeah, Granny Smith made my heart rate jump to places it shouldn't be.

[Rachel]

It looks great! The colors turned out beautiful!! What brand of paint did you use. Cuz, I get to paint when I move and I may like that Aloof color in my house. You know, cuz I like to steal ideas.

[crookedeyebrow]

It looks wonderful!What in the world were they thinking, granny apple green? Nothing like sitting in a jolly rancher of a room huh? You did a wonderful job!

[SJ]

It's looking awesome! Oh, and you and Kevin are too cute.

[Michelle Z]

I love how fun & kicky you look up on a ladder!

Can you come over & pick out colors for my little bathroom? Thanks.