In an effort to liven the place up and get a little color in the house,
Jenn and I decided to paint the downstairs half-bathroom
red.
On Sunday we bought the primer, bought the paint, got rollers and stir
sticks and all the stuff needed to get it underway. Last night we put
down the drop cloth, got everything out, and Jenn poured the primer into
the pan. It was time to begin.
Jenn worked on chipping in the details, getting close to (but not
touching) the baseboards, behind the sink, etc. I got the roller and
covered the big stuff. Halfway through, I’m noticing that the primer
seemed a little thin and wasn’t covering these stupid wall decal things
that the previous homeowner had put up. I figured it was just going to
take a little extra effort, but no biggie.
I got to the last wall and it was time to refill the roller pan for the
second time. It looked pretty good, but was really uneven. That’s why
you buy primer, though, right? So you can smooth it all out and get a
nice even topcoat. I told Jenn to pour some more into the roller pan and
she told me to do it myself. Fair enough.
I got down from the ladder, grabbed the screwdriver and the pour spout,
and then grabbed the primer.
It seemed a little heavy to me, but I sort of figured it wasn’t
covering very well, so maybe we were spreading it on a little thin.
Popped the top, and…
“Hey, Jenn… I’m looking at this primer…”
“Yeah?”
“How come we haven’t used any?”
“Sure we have.”
“Um, no, the primer can is entirely full.”
“What?”
“This can - see - says ‘Interior Primer Sealer.’ It’s totally full.
This other can… yeah, see, it says ‘Interior Eggshell.’ It’s half
gone. We’re priming with our paint, honey.”
“No, no,” said Jenn. “That can says ‘tinting base.’ That’s the
primer.”
“Jenn, they both say ‘tinting base.’ That means it’s white and they
can add tint to it. The key here is that this one says ‘primer.’”
“Oh.”
So there went like two hours’ worth of work and half a gallon of Ralph
Lauren red paint. We started over with the primer and, lo and behold, it
created a much more uniform look and actually covered the stupid decals
a little better. We’ll still need a couple three coats on there, but
it’s much better looking now.
We didn’t actually complete a full single coat on that bathroom. After
all of that, I got all the roller work done, but Jenn didn’t finish the
cutting in on the detail. I’ll have to finish that tonight while she’s
at a meeting.
I could’ve killed her… but I have to laugh. I mean, the two of us,
jammed into a tiny half-bathroom with ladders and everything, totally in
each other’s way, and two of the three hours we spent in there were
basically for nothing. We could never go on The Amazing
Race, we’d kill each
other the first day.