21 things learned in 21 days from...

...redoing my kitchen walls:

1. Stripping, patching, and priming are three important words when preparing walls for painting. Shortcuts may result in starting over.

2. Utility knives are sharp.

3. Roughing wall surfaces is much more fun than making them smooth.

4. Tools, like socks, disappear even if you are the only one using them.

5. If you accidently shove your hair against an oil-based primed wall, you cannot get the primer out of your hair with shampoo.

6. Even though I’m square, my walls are not.

7. It IS about the result and NOT the journey when others praise your finished work. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.

8. There are 29 million shades of yellow, and yet, you pick the one you used last time.

9. Yellow is the new black.

10. Your old appliances suddenly look even older.

11. It IS about the praise.

12. You fixate on two prayers during the redoing process. “Please, God, don’t let me die before this mess is cleaned up and be only remembered for how my house looks at this moment.” And “Please, God, let this project end…soon…before I lose my mind and fingers (utility knife) or break a hip (falling from fireplace bench or stools)…or run away to a foreign country where I’m sure life would NOT be easier. Please?”

13. You find nine crickets who have died under your large floor radio and you don’t know why. But maybe it’s because of…

14. One dead shriveled spider that creeps you out more than nine dead crickets.

15. You have a lot of blue and white dishes that are friends with dust bunnies.

16. Dusty bunnies DO die alone behind furniture from what appears to be a horrible death. Who knew?

17. You CAN do anything you dream and you vow to stop dreaming.

18. Painting a room is a good cleaning time. Another good reason to not paint.

19. Conversations with friends and family revolve around your project. “How’s it going?” “Great.”, “How’s it going?” “Ok.”, “How’s it going?” Silence and dirty looks.

20. You swear that you will never ever do another project again and yet you know you are lying.

21. Finally, you know with all your heart that a finished project is not a good reason to begin another and yet you search for money and hurry to Lowes.






Photo source: http://barrierfc.wet-paint.com/