skills

Ok, fine. The title is slightly misleading, but the content isn't that exciting, so I had to rope you in somehow...

Since the man was going out of town for the weekend, I had lined up a multitude of projects.

He leaves the house for more than a couple hours and the While You Were Out demon starts whispering in my ear. These little projects tend not to be so little, and I can confirm that the last minute stress that those folks on the actual show seem to deal with is real. It's all about the big reveal and god forbid it's not ready the second he walks through the door. I'm certainly happy there aren't cameras to record all my mishaps, but on the other hand, I wouldn't mind some carpenters and getting everything free from Home Depot.

Unfortunately, all my plans flew out the window, following all this crap.

I had purchased my paint testers in advance, so that seconds after he drove off to the airport, I was painting swatches. The night before the accident, I'd actually masked off the room and I was not willing to let that go to waste.

I was rather impressed with myself that I nailed the paint color on my first try, until I went to purchase a couple gallons of wonderful Benjamin Moore paint (Definitely worth the money. Learned the hard way.) and they mentioned some Pottery Barn gift card promotion. Turns out that Barley (BM 199) is one of the colors Pottery Barn uses in the catalog. I'm original like that.

With 48 hours until Charity showed up (a genuine guest and the inaugural user of both the bedroom and the spiffy, but slightly eye-assaulting new bathroom), I set into action.

I finished the second coat of paint early Saturday morning and felt pretty good. Until the man suggested that Charity might suffocate in the paint fumes. Solution: open all windows and doors in basement, allowing gale force winds to blow through, taking paint stink with them.

Changed out the bed frame, re-hung the pictures, installed curtain rods, put up some curtains and set up bedside tables, one of which was happily given a new lease on life with the help of the Rust-o-leum American Accents Distressed Antique Black paint kit and some new hardware:

Table before:

Table after:


I even had time for a nap in the afternoon.

Junk-filled Guest Room Before:


Clean, painted (though slightly stinky) Guest Room After:


More importantly, we didn't have to take Charity to the hospital for VOC induced asthma. But I did offer her the option of sleeping somewhere else in the house

In case you ever decide to, you know, paint your hands or any other body part for that matter, I recommend driving on over to Home Depot and getting yourself some Gripper primer. Really, they were NOT kidding when they said it sticks to anything.

I've washed my hands three times, exfoliated with a scrub, picked at the primer, scrubbed with a washcloth. And still, I could play Powder's sister.

There is a project in the works, because hell, if I'm going to be loopy because of what the neurologist told me was inner ear issues following my concussion, I may as well add some paint fumes into the mixture

Full details soon.

In other news, Charity (she of profound berry knowledge and bridesmaid extraordinare) will be here this weekend. Yay!