Saturday, November 08, 2008

Once more, with peeling

Here we go again: once again I'm covered in paint chips.

Progress on my bedroom (which has been next in line since AUGUST for an interior overhaul) has moved at a pace that would insult snails, molasses in winter three-toed sloths. Needless to say I've been a little busy. But despite my insane schedule, I've been trying to get through the prep work -- a little bit at a time -- so when painting day finally comes around, everything will be chipped, washed, repaired and ready to rock and roll.

One wall was already completed. I basically had to chip away all the paint, because it was cracked in bits and pieces all over the wall. I wasn't entirely surprised that the dingy off-drab grey chipped down to white plaster. After all, it was an outside wall, and I imagined the constant exposure to hot and cold, sun and snow, and wind and rain didn't help matters much. It seemed a very plausible excuse, and explains, in some sort of twisted way, why tonight I thought I'd move the computer table and expose the smaller interior wall to make sure there weren't any repair-type surprises.

And there weren't. Until I picked up a paint chipper to get at a little corner that had started to chip. And with one not-particularly strenous swoop, a huge swath of paint came off the wall.

Ugh.

So, I spent the next couple of hours chipping the wall. Luckily for the wall, my sanity, and any other innocents, the paint came off fairly quickly and easily. So now, it's two walls done. Two to go. I'm no longer betting that any of the remaining walls "won't need that much work." They probably will. But I'm hoping, frankly, that my lack of despondency, panic and sheer anger at the slowness of this project shows my newfound understanding of the home renovation biz. Nothing ever goes as planned, nothing is ever as easy as you thought and you might as well accept it now and get over it. But I also know that time spent on the front end of the project will pay off in the end. Over the long haul I'll be glad I scraped and repaired and took the time necessary to do the job right.

Just do me a favor and remind me of how serene and accepting I am of this situation when, after picking paint chips out of my hair and surveying the spectacular destruction of my house, I decide the best home improvement would be to stick my head in the oven and just forget the rest.

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