The Naked Painter

I've said it before and I'll say it again---one thing leads to another. 

So, (there I go again with the "so-s")---we decided to replace the carpeting in the bedroom. We waited 2 weeks for it to come in. Installation was all set for Thursday---then this happened! The installers called Butch in to the room to show him a HUGE stain on the sub-flooring that was actually rotted. They assumed it was from a plant leaking. When Butch showed it to me, I said, "how could a plant leak in the middle of the room?" We have no idea what it 's from---the carpet was not stained in that area (my side of the bed), no ceiling leak above. All we can figure is that when we had the carpet replaced when we moved in, the "layers" just covered over it. Now, the sub-flooring is disintegrating. Luckily for us (or un-lucky---however you choose to look at it), these installers could replace the sub-flooring before putting in the new carpet. Of course, that required a trip to Home Depot. No telling how much that is going to cost. It took them from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to get it all done. I was ready for them to go---very nice, but talkers---if you know what I mean!

This is the rotted sub-floor---probably about a 4ft. square section.

As I said, one thing leads to another. Turns out, the new carpet wasn't as "tall" as the old carpet, so now we need to paint the baseboards. I weighed my options---do it myself---or---have my awesome painters do it while having them klip klopping around on my new carpet with their big 'ol honkin' shoes. I opted to do it myself. Now mind you, I haven't painted in about 27 years. When we moved to Nashville, I made Butch promise that we could "hire" stuff done. Anyhoo, here I am faced with a job I don't really want to do, but think will be a piece of cake. Butch has always said that one of my main faults is underestimating how long something will take. He left early this morning for a conference in Pittsburgh, so I thought it would be a good time to get it out of the way---30 minutes tops! Are you kidding me? It took me about that long to tape off the room, including running out of painter's tape and resorting to masking tape which I had to search for.

Here I am all set up to begin. I start to think this could be a disaster waiting to happen. I don't have any drop cloths. One wrong move and that sour cream container of paint could be all over the place. Then I came up with the genius idea to put a plastic bag underneath. I ended up using the piece of cardboard is a sort of paint pallet. I almost called Jeanne (she paints a lot) to see if this blue tape could stain the carpet, but decided I didn't have time to get on the phone. I was wingin' it.

I was down on my hands and knees, crawling around the room---even under some furniture. I started to get really hot. That's where the naked part comes in. I took off my clothes and painted naked. I kept thinking that if someone dropped by---or---God forbid---I spilled the paint and needed to run for rags, I'd be up a creek. None of that happened and I got the job done. Took an hour and a half---start to finish. Not too bad, but that did eat an hour of my day I hadn't planned. 

But what do I do with this? I probably should have kept the lid. Wouldn't it be funny if I put it in the refrigerator and someone thought it was sour cream? Lame joke as there's only one person I could pull it on and he's not here anyway. It would be just my luck, that I'd forget I was playing a joke and fall for it myself!! I just poured it down the sink. Only kidding, I'm not that stupid---hey---I'm not taking votes. I went back out to the garage and got the paint can that I had already put away and poured it back in. 

Then I remembered why I don't like painting---it ruins a good manicure.

There's only one problem with the new carpeting---when you walk on it, it leaves marks that look like dirty smudges---just what I was trying to get rid of. Always trying to look on the bright side---I came up with this---it took 16 years for my other carpeting to look like this. In another 16 years when this new carpeting really is smudged and dirty looking, I won't be able to tell the difference---or, just maybe---at 75 yrs. old---I shutter at the thought---I won't even care. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Lots of posts coming daily!!!