Panic re-decorating.......

Nothing says Merry Christmas like fresh latex paint!  

All the pots are shipped, shows balanced out, every state has been paid their sales tax and the trailer has been unloaded into the studio.  Done for the year!  Happy Dance!  

Friday night the calendar date loomed large, the kids were coming home; counting bedrooms and beds we were now counting the inflatable mattresses.  Nuts, the inflatables had leaks.  Off to the Home Depot at 8 p.m. on Friday night to pick out paint.

Rachael had painted her room midnight in 9th grade; midnight blue walls and Ralph Lauren ballroom gold ceiling and woodwork.  Rachael is now 27 ....... our answer to decorating;  close the door so we don’t have to look at it.  

We should have liquored up before picking out paint but decided to go for it with all our senses intact.  What were we thinking?  Paint chips lined two walls.  Laura Ashely, no.  Martha Stewart, no.  Tommy Hilfiger, no.  Eddy Bauer, no.   and so it went.  Where was my old friend Sherwin Williams and the little Dutchboy?  I finally hit the Home Depot brand.  I picked out Woodrow Wilson Maize (who knew Woodrow was a color enthusiast) and ceiling paint called Honesty.  (should have been Honestly?)  I would love my next job to be naming paint colors.  Compost Brown has nice ring to it and I know what that looks like.  Explaining our golden midnight distress to the home depot paint goddess she responded the store would be closing in 5 minutes please make your final choices.  We bought the primer, the brilliant white semi gloss trim, 2 gallons of Woodrow Wilson Maize and 1 gallon of Honesty.  A few rollers and a new Purdy trim brush.  Off to the checkout before we were locked in Home Depot for the night.  I always felt paint was the cheapest thing you could do to a house to increase value and update the look.......... $213 is not cheap and wasn’t even high end paint.  

We emptied out the room of Peace Corp stuff, old chairs, boxes of trophies and stopped counting the navel rings I stepped in bare feet and kept going.  Peeling the poster off the back of the door I realized Abby had sprayed a can of super adhesive to the entire door,  nothing takes off spray adhesive so back to the Depot to buy a door.   By midnight the room was empty.  We lugged up the ladder, drop cloths and wine, had a glass of wine, high fived and decided to start painting in the morning.  

Saturday morning we jumped out of bed and decided to make the truck stop breakfast; eggs, bagels, bacon, coffee and juice.  Fueled we knew we could keep going until dinner.  I pulled out the joint compound and started patching holes.  Butch apparently had other plans and was seriously ticked that I wanted to patch holes, remove switch plates and ceiling fixtures.  I refused to budge on this topic so he left the room and decided to patch the floor in the bathroom.  Before leaving he tossed a rag onto the old dresser tipping over the big bottle of Goo Gone.  It oozed down the dresser and onto the carpet.  I grabbed the Windex and started cleaning up while he exited the room. I spackled in peace.  Spackling done, it was time to paint.  Wiping down the walls, ceiling and woodwork we could begin priming ceiling, walls and woodwork.  We went through a gallon and needed another.  By this time I was ready to buy a disco ball mount it on the ceiling and call it a day but luckily we had a gallon in the basement from another project.  

By 8:30 p.m. the ceiling was painted with Honesty, the woodwork was brilliant semi gloss white and I could start cutting in the walls with Woodrow Wilson Maize. 

Halfway down the wall I stepped back and thought;  Duckies and Bunnies!  Oh NO!!  I am painting a nursery!  How this room started out 27 years ago.  I called Butch over, why?  I don’t know.........   What do you think?  I think it’s a mistake.  Nuts!  I grabbed the car keys and raced back to the Depot in snow storm, hitting the door at 8:45 p.m. 

Hanging on the paint counter I did my best Marlon Brando impersonation, screaming STELLA!!!!!!!!  Only to find out the paint goddess was on break.  Honestly?  The store closes in 15 minutes and I need paint!!  I am not leaving until I have paint!  The manager paged her repeatedly.   This time I opted for Oatbran, but alas the paint goddess was cranky and when I got home the top of the paint can read........ Woodrow Wilson Putty.  I laid on the floor and cried.  Picking myself up I pried the top off the can and thought no matter what I am putting this on the wall!   I painted a wall and it looked pretty good so I kept going until 2 a.m.   I’d continue patching and putting on the second coat of paint in the morning. 

Sunday morning, no big breakfast and back to the room of doom.   Painting clothes on and on the ladder by 9 a.m.  Painting to Donna Summer’s, She Works Hard for the Money I finished up by 7:30 p.m. 

Butch got home around 7 p.m. as he had to do an emergency tree hoisting and trimming for his Mom.   We had time to wrestle the new mattress up the flight of stairs and fling it onto the stand.  We also wrestled the box springs and a twin mattress set for Abby’s room.  8:45 p.m........... do we have time to run out and buy bedding?  YES!  as it’s Christmas the the store are open 24 hours!!!   We needed curtain rods, sheets, comforter, pillows, mattress pad and so it goes.  We started at Target, ran to Kohl’s, Bed  Bath and Beyond, onto TJ Maxx and finally Marshall’s.  We got it all.  I charged up the battery on the drill  and jumped into hanging curtain rods, and a mirror.  Wrangled the sheets on the bed only to have the main support on the bed fall off.  Strip off the mattress and box spring and put the frame back together.  Grab the hot sheets out of the dryer, put the third patch of spackle on the hole in the wall and call it day by 2 a.m. ..... again!  

Monday morning, fresh paint over the hole, vacuum, dresser cloth and table cloth dug out.  Napalm the bathroom, get my morning walk in with Maggie (4.5 miles)  grab my key and head out the door to pick up Abby at Kent by 2:30 p.m and Rachael at the Akron Canton Airport by 3:38 p.m.   Home to a crock pot dinner by 6:30 p.m.  

Running through the door I yelled go look at my new guest room.  Response;   It’s nice. 

Nice?  IT’S FABULOUS!!    Rachael leaves in 9 days and for the first time in 28 years I have a guest room!!!  The dog is gonna love it!