The Funny Thing About Paint.
I grew up in a many places, we always had a roof over our
head even in the roughest of times, and sometimes it was a roof that moved, but
when it rained we didn’t get wet. That
was the important part, we were always safe.
And warm enough, blazing hot summers and cold winters…always warm. ;-) AC
was for the rich and privileged. But
always, always, we had white walls, or maybe I would be more accurate to say we
had eggshell colored walls. As I kid I
found this fascinating, the idea of ever wanting the color of an
eggshell. I’ve seen a few eggs in my
life and I frankly couldn’t distinguish between eggshell and white. Good grief.
But my dad didn’t like to paint, and if he did have to paint it was
always eggshell.
When Eric and I got together we went from rentals to Navy
housing, back to rentals and there was a roof over our heads and in two
particular apartments there was even AC to combat the oppressive Japanese
summers. We knew we were living in high
quality then and didn’t take it for granted. We were cool in summer and warm in
winter. And through it all we were
surrounded by white walls. Always
white.
We briefly owned a house when we thought the Navy was going
to leave us in one place till he retired…the first thing we did, and the only
painting we did, was to each girl’s room.
Madison got a very pink room to tickle her heart, and Sydney got a
beautiful purple room. Standing back and
looking, I have to admit that the purple room was quite lovely. Each room had a darker shade accent wall,
because apparently that was the thing to do…and then a shade or two lighter for
the remaining walls. In the shallow
little well of memories that the very young possess, both my girls have vague
but true memories of their rooms.
We didn’t get to stay long and we were back in Navy housing
with white walls…then rentals, and all had the white walls. And when we finally got into a position we
could buy another house, the first thing we did was take out the 60 foot
nightmare of a Palm tree that swayed against the roof in the front of the house…then
we started painting. I started in my
kitchen cabinets because they are very old and were in terrible shape and
needed a lot of work. And through it
all, as I painted them out with white primer to buy us some time…I came to the
end thinking…maybe white is not so bad after all… Sadly, the rest of the house is anything BUT
white. It fact, it is mostly yellow…a
whole lot of yellow in varying stages. And
it’s funny, even as you start to shy away from a property you tell yourself,
look at the rooms not the color, paint can change it to what you want. But painting is exhausting! Yes, I can and will change all the color in
the house to something more pleasing to my eye and hopefully, pleasing to Eric
and the kids…but good God…where did all these walls come from? I think the idea of “open concept” is a mere
byproduct of people like me thinking: if I knock down that wall and that one
that would be at least two walls I wouldn’t have to paint!
And then you have the color choices! Paralyzing in the magnitude! And yes if you don’t like it you can change
it…but did I mention that painting is exhausting?
But as it is, half the hall is done, and half the living
room has been painted with primer. We
took a break in all the heat to not paint, and then we had a wall put up to
turn a formal dining room we would never use into a fourth bedroom, complete
with closet for Sydney…so we started painting again there so as soon as the
electrical is done she can move on in.
Then we have to sand down some in the room they are sharing to then
paint it with lots of pink for Madison.
Sydney wanted a teal like color and Madison wanted pink. J All I could think, please let them love it…I
don’t want to be painting over it all again in six months, and yeah…I want them
to love their new rooms too. Totally, my
first thought!
Then there is Bradley’s room…what to do, what to do? One wall is kind of ra oyal blue color that
speaks to my KC Royals loving heart…but the others are more grey. And it’s his room and I want to make it all
his…so his room is last because I can’t seem to come up with a viable option
for his room. Do I want McQueen colors…ugh…maybe
too dark. How about Curious George,
because he loves Curious George, so I thought browns and YELLOW! Nooo!!!!
UGH!!!! But with George wall appliqué’s
and George yellow, not the dusty, kind of dirty yellow I see around me
now. Of course, he changes his
preferences about as often as he changes clothes…so, well…now you can see why I
might feel a bit shackled by his whimsy in choosing his room decoration. So yeah, his room will come after the girls,
but before the Master. I don’t even know
what kind of color ours is, something that might be a bit blue and a bit green, and
something else….who knows. I keep
thinking of options in the back of my head, because choosing colors is the
hardest part for me. Cause yeah, I can
always repaint…but the funny thing about paint…it is a lot of work to do
it.
But here are the best parts.
Watching Sydney going to town painting her room, awesome. Watching Bradley mimic our movements with his
own paint brush…so very cool! And seeing
two girls that fight a lot coming together to work this kind of project for
each other and for the family, nice!
Seeing their eyes light up as they see the colors they were allowed to
choose to make their rooms awesome and all theirs, is quite literally the best part! The walls may not come out perfect, especially
with a brush in Bradley’s hand, but it’s our house now, our walls and the
journey of our family. Our life is not
perfect. There is no one in our family
that is perfect. And yet in many ways,
our imperfections are giving us the perfect life for us. With a little paint here and there, little
flaws can be corrected. And with a
little extra work and extra love here and there, little mistakes can be corrected
and lessons can be learned. Who knew
the life lessons that would come shining through with a little bit of paint and
hard work. Yeah, it’s exhausting, but a
life well lived is exhausting in itself, but oh so worth it.
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