Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Painter's Progess

Coffee in the New York skyline mug, "Somebody Told Me" by The Killers on iTunes. "Good Morning, Good Morning!" warbles Mrs. Chickadee..... scritchhhh. Wrong morning melody. I am not chipper or perky this morning. I am old and sore and moving like it. "Mmmfwha?" is more like the sound coming out of my mouth (though The Killers are waking me up fast).

Licha called yesterday and mentioned in the conversation what a Seattle kind of day it was. I had been thinking exactly that, and today looks to be more of the same. A dark grey drizzle day with a gentle susurrus of the leaves in the trees and the fountain in the little pond on the front porch... Holy Poo! I left the water running and overflowed the pond (I can hear the goldfish, "Hurray! Down the stream and Freedom!"). So it's going to be THAT kind of day, is it?

I wish with all my heart it could be a curl-up-on-the-couch-under-a-cosy-throw-and-read-a-book kind of day. I am in the midst of the new Simon Green (The Man With the Golden Torq) and would love to throw responsibility to the wind and read all day (and drink green tea). Alas, big painting push. The schedule comes together and I have high hopes that by the end of the week the logistics of the move will have come together as smoothly as the logistics for the painting have.

You might be saying to yourself, "How tough can be it be to paint? You get a brush or a roller, slap the paint on, wash, rinse, repeat!". That is painting for Other People. Here, as an example, are the steps in their proper order for painting the kiln room (all cleaning prep and dry times left out): putty the holes in the floor (plywood), prime the floor, roll the basecoat on the walls, cut the basecoat on the walls, putty the trim, prime the trim, sponge the first accent color on the walls, sponge the second accent color on the walls, paint the trim, roll the floor (with the accent colors swirled into the base), cut the floor, spatter the gold paint onto the floor, turn Jessie loose on the walls with the rubber stamps and the gold paint. Everything in a specific order.

This is one room/area out of ten. The others aren't as complicated as this one--I'm mostly not doing the trim, just where it's new and this is the only floor I have to do. But all the rooms have a base color (or two) and one to four accent colors applied in various techniques including sponging on, woolie stamping, roll on/wipe off, and roll on cover with plastic wrap and pull off. The schedule is... intense. Dave, my beloved Igor, did most of the rolling over the weekend, and yet there is still a full week more.

Okay, enough talking/writing. Time to do. Off to don the paint duds.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So David got rolled? Poor soul.

Your painting sounds very much like Bridget's. But you've seen her work.

Jessie and rubber stamps, hmm? So, then, nothing over four feet high off the floor then?

Brenda Griffith said...

Oh yes, I'm giving her a little step ladder and letting her trail gold stars across the walls. It should be very cute. She already does the rolling with Dave--he does the upper walls and she does the lower.

Jodi said...

Painting is a bitch. That's why, after nearly 11 years, my kitchen still looks like crap! A paint job would spruce it up. But, I'm lazy.