Home Improvement Project #1

Our marriage has successfully survived our first home improvement project. We painted one whole room! One room may not seem like a big deal to some, but our task included painting over a very bright, bold purple. It's bothered me since day one, but I obviously didn't let it keep us from buying the place. Somewhere between Home Depot and home, we also worked up the motivation to strip the baseboards in the room too.

Backing up....the previous owners did a horrendous job at painting in at least three major rooms...and in very bold colors. Two out of three of the rooms, at least the color choice is fine. The painting job included streaks that still showed the color underneath, splatters onto baseboards, moldings, and ceiling, painted outlet covers and outlet receptacles (some had been removed and some had not...) and slightly painted vent covers. And then...they painted the baseboards white in the bedroom. However, like the rest of their painting jobs, they just kind of quickly slopped on the color, leaving it covering them completely in some parts, completely ignoring other parts, and streaking some white across the rest. Our only logical explanation is that they let their 9-year old son do the painting as part of a Boy Scout badge or something. It bothered (at least me) enough that we tried our hand at stripping the paint off the baseboards. We were successful...several coats of paint/stain stripper, a couple pieces of sand paper worked to shreds, and hours later...we were triumphant! And two coats of primer, one coat of top coat, some touch ups, an uptight wife, and a day and a half later...we have a newly painted bedroom. It's definitely a much more soothing color..."Silent Tide". Ahhhhhh.....

In conclusion...painting is a big pain in the patootie.