January 21 Valley Life column

January 21 Valley Life column in AG Weekly

Weekend project takes longer than expected

Now is the time for indoor projects, that’s what I thought as I glanced outside at the frozen ground. My bedroom needed painting. A big fan of Trading Spaces, I figured if I was organized and stuck to a plan, I could have the bedroom done in a weekend, easy.

Who was I kidding? I wasn’t a team switching rooms with my neighbor. I was one person who didn’t have a designer telling me what to do. But I thought I could pull it off. I would paint one day and hang paper the next. By Monday, the room would be ready to put back together.

Telling my husband he was in charge of meals, I began. First, let me say I hate painting. I hate it with a passion. No matter how careful I am, I get paint in my hair, in my eyes, on my elbows. If that isn’t bad enough, I usually find a way to spill the paint, or step in it. But someone had to paint, and since I had no neighbors to swap with, that someone was me.

The ceiling was white. I was going to repaint it white and hoped I could get by with one coat. No such luck, it took two coats, as did all the moldings. Two coats of paint meant I didn’t finish painting the first day.

By 8 p.m. I was so tired I couldn’t move. My arms hurt, my legs hurt, my equilibrium was shot. If I stepped back up on that ladder, I was sure to topple to the floor. If I had been a true Trading Spaces team player, my homework would have been to finish painting, even it if meant staying up until 3 or 4 a.m. But I was so tired, I went to bed.

The next morning, I had to do my “homework” before I could start hanging paper. I finished painting by noon, which made me happy. I still had all afternoon to hang paper. If I could con my husband into cutting the strips of wallpaper for me, maybe I could finish the room on time.

Wrong. Even with hubby cutting paper, I still had to cut around outlets and light switches. Each strip of paper took a good 45 minutes to hang, as I matched seams and pattern repeats. By bedtime, I had only papered one and a half walls.

Needless to say, I’ve revised my plan. I figure at the rate I’m going I should finish sometime in February, maybe March. In the meantime, the rest of the house is a mess and we’re sleeping on the mattress in the middle of the living room floor.

“No more Trading Spaces,” my husband has threatened. If he catches me watching it again, he’s getting rid of the TV, or me.

©Bonnie Dodge