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03/12/2003: "Spring "Break"?"

Sometimes during Spring Break, Mel and I travel. Sometimes we stay home. Either way, we usually end up needing another vacation to recover from the week’s events. This year is no different.

We had planned to go to London during Spring Break, but considering the current political climate, we decided to stay home. Oh yeah, we decided to paint the kitchen, too.

Really, there was nothing really wrong with the kitchen as it was, except it was very white. Well, off-white, but monochromatic nonetheless, with dark-stained, 20-year-old, cheap, builder-installed original cabinets – crappy wood veneer over crappy pressboard.

We’ve been talking about painting the kitchen for a couple of months. Enough talk, we said. It’s time to break out the paintbrushes and start stroking. Well, Monday was Vet Day and Supply Buy Day. Off to the vet first for the cats’ annual exam and then to the local home improvement superstore to pick out the paint. More than $200 later, we have primer, wall paint (two shades of purple*), cabinet paint (saturated shades of red, blue, yellow, orange, green, blue, and teal*), and assorted but necessary painting supplies.

Tuesday was Errand Day, so we didn’t get started painting until that afternoon. We got first coats of primer on the upper cabinets. That’s it. We were worn out and could barely move that evening.

Today we stayed home and painted all day. All the cabinets now have two coats of primer. Here’s what I learned:

a. I have muscles in places I never knew muscles existed.
b. When you plan a painting job, multiply the amount of surfaces you want to paint by four and the time to paint them by 8.
c. Clean off your counters before painting the cabinets. Many of our small appliances, dishes, and utensils are now decorated with really neat white flecks of primer.
d. Little foam brushes with wooden handles work better than the little foam brushes with plastic handles for getting in little nooks and crannies.
e. Those new Ziploc (or Glad) cheap disposable covered containers make excellent paint buckets for small quanties of paint. You don’t have to pour the paint back in the can when you quit for the evening. Just slap the lid on it and go.
f. Storing your brushes in Ziploc bags eliminates the need to clean them out overnight. They stay moist and flexible and are ready to go when you are the next day. In fact, I think the brushes are the most flexible things in the house at the moment. Neither Mel nor I can move.

The plan is to paint more tomorrow and Friday, but then actually rest all weekend to get ready for work. Our usual mode of operation, however, is to keep on working until we either fall out from exhaustion or have to go to work. We’ll see what happens.

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* We’re going from absolutely no color to a color overload. We don’t really know exactly what we’re going to do to the cabinets, but we’re hoping inspiration hits us over the head real soon now.