It all Started with a Hole

As often happens in life, you fix one thing and another breaks. Sometimes accidentally. I wasn’t planning on painting all of my hallways……but it all started with a hole.

We had already painted the stairs, of course. Since I didn’t feel comfortable standing on a drop cloth on the stairs, I’ll be slapping some paint on the stairs again…….

The middle son finally decided that it was time to run the ethernet cable through the wall instead of along the stairs. In the process, there was an accidental punch through the wall. These halls were my first painting project 5-6 years ago, and I didn’t have any paint left. I certainly couldn’t remember the name of the color! So I took the piece of the drywall with the paint to Lowe’s and they did a pretty good job at matching the color. Just a slight difference.

Truth be told, I have wanted to repaint this first project of mine because I had gotten two gallons of paint and they were slightly different colors– they were made at the same time, but just off enough that you could see it in the walls. This is why I got a 5 gallon bucket for the painting of the bedrooms. All the same exact color. This is fairly common. I repainted my living room afterI removed an antenna from the wall and it left a big spot– the color was slightly off, even though I had the name. The old stuff had dried up after 12 years. So, I just went on and painted the whole room again. While other people probably wouldn’t notice, it would drive me batshit crazy……so I just go on and do it.

I am glad I painted the halls, because there were a lot of mistakes that I noticed almost daily for 5 plus years. Other people probably did not notice—–ever. Marty had fixed the banister posts and I got those painted yesterday, too. With rescue cats…..they have been rough on those posts! This hole repair was my best repair EVER– as in, I know where it was and even I have a very hard time finding it. I am learning! Yes!

I scrubbed the baseboards I painted 5-6 years ago and they look great, so the only trim I will paint will be the trim I have never painted before in the bedrooms. It’s a lot of work, but it hasn’t been painted in 18 years— along with the one hideous mustard yellow room. Once I get the floors installed, it’s going to look like a new house. I can’t wait to see the finished project. When my anxiety goes up because I am living on subfloor, I remind myself, that it is a work in progress and we are making headway. Last night I was thinking about how this relates to my walk with God– I’m under construction. The road to heaven looks a lot like my house– you fix one thing and the thing you thought you had straightened out, pops up again…..but hopefully at the end of the road, it’s all fixed and ready to go!

Future plans– 1) Refinish the solid wood floors downstairs, replace the carpet in the one downstairs room. I can’t afford to replace the entire downstairs flooring to get matching wood floors, and I feel it would look weird to have wood floors and a laminate or different wood in that one room. While I HATE carpet, one carpeted room won’t kill me. 2) new kitchen counters and add a backsplash. It has always driven me nuts that the house had wallpaper floor to ceiling in the kitchen and behind the counters. I painted it– every stitch of wallpaper in this house was placed on un-prepped walls. So, if ever I replace the counter tops that are separating (think 1980s laminate on particle board), Imma get me a new backsplash. I like my cabinets and may just paint them one day. 3) Replace the vent above my range. The stoves I am looking at have vent rods that match– $200 or less. Maybe I’ll do that now that my stove is dead. 4) Fix the tile in the downstairs bathroom/laundry room. When they added the tile, they only did half the room and didn’t run it under the washer and dryer and 5) wainscoting in the remaining two bathrooms it has not been installed.

After that, it all starts with painting the outside of the house again. Ha ha ha. My yard is a mess…… but at this point, who cares? Home ownership is a lot of work and with any luck, if I ever have to sell, I can make a little $$$$$

Not sure how much will get painted today after church because I also have to drive to Fayetteville for work. Did I mention that I am rolling out yet another new division? Yep, I am. Work is going well. I somehow manage to get the job done and stay employed. God has been good to me. I show up, I do my best, I pray a lot and somehow it works out. I like my job and have learned A LOT — completely not in my degree field, but definitely a lifelong career for me! Who would have thought that at the age of 48 I would find a job that would lead to a career! I felt like I was thrown out of an airplane without a parachute, but it turns out, I had the greatest parachute of all– God!