One paint job leads to another and another and....

 As I am sure you are breathlessly awaiting a report on whether or not The Husband ever noticed the door from the garage being painted; I am here to tell you he has not.  Nor has he noticed that the front door has been painted.

Are any of us surprised?  No, dear reader, we are not.  

Not that I really care - I just find it hilarious that he claims to have "excellent observation skills" - just apparently not in the subject of home decor.

As for the front door - I painted it with the paint that was meant to be for the new front door - don't worry, there is plenty left over for the new door...that will eventually be mine.

This hideous burgundy is GONE!

Marine Blue - so much better! I hate this door just a
titch less now.

On to another paint topic...

First, it should be noted that I don't despise painting.  Oh, I'm not constantly running around looking for something to paint...but usually I don't mind it.

Well over a year or so ago I finally persuaded The Husband (the man who seems to abhor color...until it's actually on the walls, etc. and THEN decides he loves it) to agree to have our porch ceilings painted haint blue - which my heart has been set on for YEARS.

But then - COVID and LIFE got in the way.  First there was COVID, then The Oven Died - Part 1; The Hot Water Saga; The Oven Died Again - Christmas Edition; the Second Once in a Lifetime Tree Event...you get the idea...life.

At any rate, when The Husband asked me a couple of weeks ago what I wanted for my birthday (about two days before the actual day...what can I say, he likes to *plan ahead*) I told him I wanted to get something on the calendar for someone to come out and give us a quote to paint the porch ceilings.

Notice, all I wanted was a solid date for someone to give us an estimate.  I can happily state that he made that particular birthday wish happen and then some.  The guy came out last Wednesday and then came back on Thursday and voilá - my porch ceilings are haint blue! 

I was fine with having someone do the ceilings - despite not minding painting - because I was unsure how to approach this particular task and I truly didn't feel comfortable spending that much time on a tall ladder.

I love it!
Again - I REALLY need to figure out the basics of photography
because this example in no way portrays what is actually
going on out there.

Gosh, that man knows how to make my heart go pitter-patter, doesn't he?

But then I apparently lost my ever loving mind.

I will admit - I can be a bit...what's the word?  Hmmmm....

Particular - we'll go with that as it's the kindest word for it that I can come up with - about things.

*And here's we segue into an aside - which does pertain to everything else - but these are things you need to know as to understand how we landed here.*

Somewhere, way back in the archives while trying to find THE perfect color for the door that I still don't have (although that color up there on the door IS perfect for the door that will eventually be mine), I have mentioned that this house has green undertones - but I don't know if I ever mentioned that all the trim is cream.

Now, technically, I don't have anything against cream but that would be the LAST color I would ever choose for trim because it just seems dingy to me usually.  I would have gone with white trim.

And honestly, if money were no object, one of the many things that I would do immediately is wave a magic wand and make all the trim white.  As it is, I am slowly chipping away at the cream where I can.

*And now we are back to the regular programming.*

While my heart is over the moon with those blue ceilings do you know what it brought sharply into focus á la  If You Give A Mouse A Cookie?  

If you guessed the cream trim you get a gold star.

So, it was glaringly apparent that the porch and the trim needed to be painted white.  

And I figured I was up for it even though I'd never actually painted a porch before.  Which thrilled The Husband as he absolutely HATES painting.  But what I did not take into consideration is that of ALL the painting jobs there are in the world - the one I dislike the most is painting trim.

Guess what a porch is?

Technically, trim.  Trim on a screened porch.  Screen which The Husband says would be next to impossible for us amateurs to replace perfectly, so taking it off was off the table.

Guess what else?  That porch that I spent an entire day cleaning about a month ago needed to be cleaned again.  Why?  Because it's outside.  And because that is where the dirt, pollen and bugs live.  And it needed to be wiped down every single day that I was painting because of dirt, pollen and bugs. *sigh*

Guess what else?  Dirt, pollen, bugs and random strands of my hair seem to LOVE fresh, wet paint as I had to continually pull one or all of these things out of the paint tray for the past four days.

Basically, I was in hell.  

It was agonizing but I can tell you this - I will NEVER, EVER paint another porch again.  NEVER.  

Knowing what I know now, I would have done the ceilings and had the painter do the rest.

But as of this moment, it's DONE.

Since I was sprucing things up I went ahead and ordered a
rug and re-arranged the furniture.  I must say, I'm
pretty pleased with the results.

But...you know...those back steps off the freshly painted porch are looking mighty shabby...

How long before he notices?

 Late last week, I looked up and realized that July was upon us (how?!) and realized I have a LOT of vacation time that I need to use between now and the end of the year.

I fired off an email to my boss mentioning that I would be taking this week off - well, the four days of this week since Monday was technically a holiday.

After wandering aimlessly around the house yesterday, I decided that today SOMETHING would get done.

My list of SOMETHINGS THAT MUST BE DONE is a long one, to be sure - so I had a plethora of choices.  I decided, on a mere whim, (well, let's be honest - most of the time that is the way most things get done around here...on a whim) I decided that today was THE day to touch up the paint in the various spots around the house that make me twitch every time I see them.

Now, honestly, this wasn't a HUGE job.  But it involved dragging out the paint, stirring it until it actually returned to the actual texture of paint (at least 20 minutes...maybe longer.  Or maybe I exaggerate...who knows?  It felt like forever), discovering that we have paint rollers in multiple sizes - none of which had an indicator of what size cover they might need, by the way.  Along with multiple covers...none of which fit the aforementioned paint rollers.  *sigh*  Which necessitated a quick trip to the local paint store - where I somehow magically picked up a cover that actually fit one of our rollers and a couple of those sponge paint applicators things.

First, those sponge applicator things are PERFECT for touch up jobs - at least when using the original paint as the touch up paint.  As of now, all those areas that made me twitch are gone.  Also, apparently, at some point in time, we had a bunch of drunken monkeys with greasy fingers touching every single wall in this house from knee level down...that must have been some kind of party!  It's a shame I don't remember it.

While I was waiting for the touch up jobs to dry I decided to touch up the back door - at one point a couple of years ago, we had that door painted and then shortly thereafter replaced the hardware on the door.  

*Pro tip: have the door painted AFTER updating the hardware - it will make your life much easier, I promise.  Otherwise, you will look at that door every day for about two years until you get around to fixing it - ask me how I gained this knowledge...*

Around the time we originally had that back door painted, there were plans to have the door from the garage into the house painted...that never happened for various reasons including weather and then COVID.

But today, since the paint was out anyway...that door got the first coat of paint.  Technically, it's too hot here to paint that outdoor door (humidity, heat, etc.) but I grabbed the oscillating fan that we bought when the AC went out earlier this year...

(what?! I didn't tell you about it?  Bad blogger!  Actually, it wasn't that big of a deal but it was a perfect item to have on hand for todays impromptu job)

and, hopefully - fingers crossed, I dried that door enough so that the paint won't peel off when I open it again tomorrow to finish the job.  We shall see.

What's amazing about today's job (and then some) being semi-completed - there was absolutely NO PREP.  No taping things off; laying down protective cover, etc. - and yet, shockingly, paint landed only where it needed to be.  For once, I came out of a paint job without paint in my hair - for me this is miraculous.

I'm seriously considering painting the much despised front door tomorrow - I figure it may not transform that stupid door into the one I actually want with a paint job but at least the dreadful burgundy will be gone.  I know that paint magically only landing where it should is a once in a life time event - so I shall most likely do some prep and end up with paint in my hair.

The most hilarious thing about all of this - The Husband never noticed that the door from the garage into the house was painted...despite this being our MAIN entrance and knowing that I had the paint out.

Let's see how long it takes him to notice, shall we?  

As for that front door?  Well, if I actually follow through and paint it, he will never notice; of this I am positive.