Paint
Here’s what happened when we decided to paint our bedroom and living room.
First, we realized we’d never thought much about designing a home together. For the past 35 years, all the places we’ve lived have been furnished with the same old stuff, mostly hand-me-downs, and these pieces now float incoherently between the cream colored walls of this house.
Once we really looked at this haphazard creation, just tidying up surfaces seemed like a cover up. We had to do a garage sale. This revealed the true condition of the basement--it was a dank rabbit hole reeking of deep disorder and sucking neglect. We’d have to sheet rock over that.
Meantime, we'd also been collecting paint swatches and samples. In six months we'd accumlated dozens of 3”x 4” swatches and forty little jars of color from Benjamin Moore. Every choice had been wrong. I thought--if we can’t even choose paint, we can’t stay married. We could decide to do nothing, simply recognize that we'd tried to get off the couch and couldn't, then flopped back for another download of Roku. At that point, weak confused and frightened, I saw the mess we were sitting on and felt helpless to take action.
Here’s what happened when we decided to paint our bedroom and living room.
First, we realized we’d never thought much about designing a home together. For the past 35 years, all the places we’ve lived have been furnished with the same old stuff, mostly hand-me-downs, and these pieces now float incoherently between the cream colored walls of this house.
Once we really looked at this haphazard creation, just tidying up surfaces seemed like a cover up. We had to do a garage sale. This revealed the true condition of the basement--it was a dank rabbit hole reeking of deep disorder and sucking neglect. We’d have to sheet rock over that.
Meantime, we'd also been collecting paint swatches and samples. In six months we'd accumlated dozens of 3”x 4” swatches and forty little jars of color from Benjamin Moore. Every choice had been wrong. I thought--if we can’t even choose paint, we can’t stay married. We could decide to do nothing, simply recognize that we'd tried to get off the couch and couldn't, then flopped back for another download of Roku. At that point, weak confused and frightened, I saw the mess we were sitting on and felt helpless to take action.
Fortunately, at just that moment,a lucky breeze sallied by freshening our reason—we decided to re-sod the backyard! And all it took was a phone call. The lawn was rolled out in just five hours and looks like a miniature golf course. We’ve sat outside and admired it, most often when the splintering universe sets to howling inside the house
This Paint Project has come with some big roots and it feels like doing therapy—risky and at some point inevitable because, as my great-grandmother used to say, the deeper you dig, the worse it smells. But we’re doing it. And we’re old. I think we’re courageous because neither of us knows what this will be when all the pieces settle.
This Paint Project has come with some big roots and it feels like doing therapy—risky and at some point inevitable because, as my great-grandmother used to say, the deeper you dig, the worse it smells. But we’re doing it. And we’re old. I think we’re courageous because neither of us knows what this will be when all the pieces settle.
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