The Fine Art of Painting

 Right.  So no, the entertainment center is still not done. I had a few minor setbacks regarding paint this week.

First thing you need to know about painting is that the entire job is only about 30% of it is spent actually painting. The other 70% is prepping and clean up. Since prepping and clean up is the lamest part of any job this makes painting a vicious chore.  The only way to make it even less enjoyable is to have endless supplies of help. By help I mean by people under 4ft tall. Those over 4ft and male ran like hell when I got the paint brushes out.  Cowards.

No, no lucky me had Tessi and Connor taking turns begging to help me paint. Even buying them cute little porcelain bunnies to paint for Easter wasn't enough to hold them off. I finally had to threaten them that the Easter Bunny would give their stuff to Teddy if they didn't remove themselves from my sight.  

Then I let let them spend hours alone on You Tube watching Skylanders videos.

Yes, I do understand that my name is now removed from the World's Sweetest and Most Nurturing Mommy competition.  If we're honest with each other though, I've been out of the running for that a few years now.  That used to bother me but then I got over it. 

I set up my painting station outside because there really is only so much chaos you can fit in one house. 

                                    

Wow. That is blue. Its even more blue in the picture.  I think the name of the color is Damn Blue. But I wanted something different. Something fun. This color will be inside the drawers and the shelves. The outside will be darker. It will be fine.

Please ignore the dying plant on the right. I got that at a Ladies DIY workshop at Bunnings a week ago. I went for the build a cabinet section, not realizing that there was a plant an herb garden bit. 

What the Hell am I going to do with a plant? 

Oh yeah, same thing I always do. Watch it die.  

At least the planter is going to a good home. My friend Leigh is a wizard with plants. Should have given her the stupid thing as we left the store, plant would still be alive.  My bad.

Now I have learned a very important lesson when it comes to paint and selecting paint colors. When the gal behind the counter says, "You need a  coat of primer underneath the dark color or else it won't show up right." She is serious. This is not some scam perpetuated by the paint industry.

If you learn nothing else about DIY learn this: 

The sentence, "Oooh, I don't really want to spend extra on (insert word or phrase) right now.  I'll just make do with what I have." Actually translates to "I'm going to spend twice as much covering up the screw up my cheap-ass causes by  not doing the right thing the first time around. "

In short, when the paint chick says buy primer, buy the damn primer. I know paint is twice as expensive in Australia than back home. I know that. But do you really want to spend hours trying to achieve the cool neat two-tone effect you were looking for only to see that both shades look so similar that the difference just looks like a lighting problem?

                                 

I think not.  So back to the store to get darker paint and hope I can use the first coat of blue as a primer.  It doesn't work quite as well as I would have hoped but I've decided to find the paint shade charming. If you needle me about it I'll direct you to closest paint store and you can fix the eyesore yourself.

Just so you know, along with paint you need this.

                                       

I suggest you not bother with this puny size bottle of turpentine. It's easer I think if you just fill the swimming pool with it. 

The best part of if it is that it removes the hideous smell of paint from your nose and replaces with unique, yet ghastly odor of chemical death.  This is also a good time to stock up on any and all headache medicine. Also, this is is BAD time to run out of your blood pressure medicine as the headache caused by the blood pressure rising and the fumes  can not be cured with your generic OTC meds.

Just saying, of course that didn't happen to me. My house runs like a Swiss watch and all prescriptions are up to date. That is if the date is October 1956.

But this is where I'm up to. The painting is almost done. My next post will either have a completed picture or so help me God I will have a picture of a bonfire. 

I did put the cabinet on wheels so it will be easy to roll it out onto the driveway to light up.