Will somebody PLEASE share with me the Disney-like magic that is required to paint trim? Please? The Romper Room priming job, while, well, ugly, sanded quite nicely and is smooth to the touch. And it did its job, as you cannot see the wood now with only one coat of the top paint over the primer.
But this paint job just isn't, um, well, working. I CAN'T DO THIS!! And it's making me nutty. The color is beautiful. The high-gloss sheen would be beautiful if I could get the paint to lie flat. Smooth.
I cleaned, sanded, wiped, primed, sanded again. I bought the fancy-schmancy "angled sash brush" - and not the el-cheapo two-dollar one, either. It's a really nice brush. The paint is good stuff, too. But I'm getting bumps and waves and lines. And when I finish and think it finally looks really nice (or at least not hideous), it waits until I walk away and the stuff buckles up, folds in on itself and runs. Then Zorak walks past it, sees a mockup of Madame Tussaud's after a fire, and wonders what I'm smoking and why.
This is 100%, totally and without hesitation to admit it: OPERATOR ERROR.
I've tried thicker coats, thinner coats, grand sweeping motions, slow meticulous motions... and the result is always the same: bad. *Gah.* And this, after I tried being so encouraging to someone else with my, "You could TOTALLY do this, really" rhetoric.
On other fronts:
The HVAC guy came out today. He gets it. Of course, he saw the place back in August, when we were trying to close on it, too. So that's settled and we'll be installing HVAC around the end of the month. Wow. Central Air. Those are beautiful words.
Smidge actually used the potty today! And the floor. And the couch. And the driveway. Two out of four ain't bad. ;-)
Ain't. This word is sneaking its way into the boys' vocabulary. Yes, the irony that my use of the word just now reminded me of it is not lost on me. I, however, was mutilating a song title. The boys have decided it's funny. This is not funny. When you mutilate a word, or use a word such as ain't long enough, you will eventually forget that it's a joke. One day you wake up and find that some horrible word or phrase has embedded itself into your vocabulary - and that you really mean it when you use it! ARGH! There's still hope for them. They still think they're joking. John used it today and there was a small, but significant, pause and a smirky-chuckle thing that emanated from his lips as he paused. So there is hope. (right?)
Night has fallen on Narnia. I'm a basketcase. John still has no clue where they all are, but agrees that it's one grand adventure. James catches my voice cracking and pipes up with, "It's okay, Mom. They're in 'Aslan's Country' now." Well. Yeah. I know that. But. But. BUT IT'S SAAADDDDDDD. "No, it's not sad. It's beautiful." Huh. Out of the mouths of babes. I get the allegory (or the not-quite-allegory), and I know, in my head, that "all is well", but you know, I'm pretty heavily invested in life on this earth at the moment, and the mere thought of the children... *gasp**choke**sob* Well, at least they haven't asked me to read The Littlest Angel in a while. So it could be worse.
And it seems Miss Emily is up. Again. I can't complain, as she's been sleeping well ever since that one fretful morning. (Although I wasn't going to mention it for fear of jinxing it - I can, now that she's broken her streak herself.) And so I am going to go and cuddle my sweet baby girl, maybe read a little of my book to her (that always reminds me of Three Men and a Baby - "It's not what you read, it's the tone of your voice.") Perhaps even hit the hay a little early tonight. If I can get the boys' windows painted and trimmed, I'll post pictures of those this coming week.
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
11 comments:
Oh, I hate when people ask, "How does she sleep?" when they see a baby! If she's sleeping badly, I probably don't want to talk about it, and if she's sleeping well, I'll jinx it by saying so. Yes, I learned that lesson quickly! Now, when people ask, I just smile and change the subject.
About the paint: I just painted my bedroom red. With or without primer, it took four coats to cover smoothly. With or without primer, things that touch it still pull the paint up when moved. Very annoying, especially since it's $30 a gallon, lifetime warranteed American Tradition paint. I feel for you, Dy. Good luck!
I have absolutely no expertise whatsoever in painting, but that sounds extremely frustrating. Breathe in. Breathe out. Repeat.
I do know what you mean about choking up with books. Practically every book we have read this year for school has made me cry. The boys think I am totally sappy. I can't blame it on pregnancy anymore! I've just had to turn these books over to my oldest to just read on his own. Sad.
Yay for Smidge!!! Sounds like he is moving right along. No pun intended...
S.J. is right with Miss Em. on the rolling over thing...She seems very pleased with herself. Lots of giggling lately, too. Almost four months old...time does not just fly, it warps!
I'm keeping you in my prayers for the 19th. I truly hope everything works out for y'all.
mere
I live in fear of painting trim. FEAR. Our bathroom trim is starting to chip here and there so I know it's coming. I feel for you. I don't know how some people can make it pretty and smooth. Oh, but I'm sure you will, Dy. It's probably just me.....
I've been known to read the newspaper to my babies. All in the tone, sister!
Oh, Dy, this is why I hate painting. All that effort and then... gack.
My only feeble and lame suggestion is to ask if the guys in the paint store shook it up long enough in the machine? Once I made the mistake of trying to repaint the trim in my kitchen, and the paint just would *not* stick properly. I had done all the prep work - sanding, dusting, etc. - yet icky results. I took the paint back to the store and got a new can and made them put it back in the shaky-machine-thingy, and finally, THAT worked.
Worth a try, anyway. Good luck!!!
Karen
Hey! I am back, at least in Blogland, though I don't have email yet.
About AIN'T..... once the Boy found it in the dictionary, I had truly lost the battle, sigh.
Talk to you soon,
LB
Rain and humidity. I watched an entire walls worth of paint slide down the wall minutes after it had looked perfect. Do you know how frustrating it is to have to sand a wall of eggshell paint two days after you have applied it? Good luck.
kiwi
Dy, you mentioned using an oil-based primer recently. I hesitate to ask this of a Renovator Extraodinaire such as yourself, but you are not putting latex paint over oil-based primer, are you?
GrammaMack
GrammaMack,
Um... why do I have the feeling that saying "yes" is going to pinpoint the problem?
We did put an oil-based primer on the windows (KILZ brand), and the can said we could use latex over it. Is this bad?
And please, please don't hesitate to tell me if I've taken the ball and run in the wrong direction. (This goes for anyone!) Or if something I mention sounds absurd or just plain wrong. (I mean, be nice about it, of course, *grin*, but please don't be silent!) We are truly learning as we go, and while we've learned much - cumulatively - we are back to square one with every new project.
It's like the first day of school, every two weeks.
Dy
Dy, you've actually educated me! An on-line search revealed that latex paint can be used over oil-based primer (but not oil-based paint) as long as the primer is allowed to cure for the entire recommended time. So I'm afraid that's no help in your conundrum after all!
GrammaMack
I think the primer thing may be a problem. My experience was that some oil based primers can take latex paint on them, but it can take weeks for the primer to be really dry enough for it to go on well. The other thing is that trim almost always has faint brush marks on it. While you're doing it, they seem really awful, but when you're done they smooth out, and when the paint is really dry (even for latex, think weeks for the chemical bonds to really set) it's a lot smoother. Our condo was professionally painted when we moved into it & we re-did a lot of it just before selling & so I spent a lot of time staring closely at trim - the pros before me left brush marks too. Oh, and two thin coats are better than 1 thick. And, if your trim is not all fluted and ridged, a small foam roller is just brilliant for the job - & then it really does dry smooth.
Hmmm, thanks, guys. I'll try not to sweat the trim too much. Will try to be patient and give everything ample time to cure (it is SO humid here - we woke up this morning and thought we'd been transported to Cambodia!)
Dy
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