Friday, May 1, 2009

It Was Bound To Happen Eventually

This week I decided to get off my lazy butt and start the upstairs bathroom.

I'd been using the it's-not-a-necessity-it's-just-the-kids-bathroom-and-not-something-I-want-to-spend-precious-money-on-right-now excuse, but since I returned some stuff to Lowes and had store credit, the guilt finally got to me.

The timing is perfect, right?

Let's fix things up after we've had visitors all month long that I apologized to for the lack of progress on anything beyond the first floor.

After making people use a broken sink faucet (sorry Mom) and hang things to dry on towel bars that fall off the wall without provocation (watch your toes Dad), NOW let's get things moving.

Geesh Rebecca.

So I'm all ready to go. Supplies out, hair clipped back, counter all cleaned off....oops, wait a minute... disregard that last one.

And then, good ol' Murphy's law. The "this will only take an hour" rule? Mmm-hmm.

WHO? WHO I ask?

WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD PAINT WALLS IN A HOUSE WITH OIL BASED PAINT, knowing that the only thing that could go over it would be MORE oil based paint?


The DEVIL, that's who. You see, the thing about latex going over oil is: IT DOESN'T STICK! These photos were taken after coat #2. Which is what I usually refer to as the FINAL coat. So my one hour estimate? Out. The. Window.

Unless I keep the faux-finish look circa 1995.

(And I'm not just using that date for dramatic effect....I "ragged" our walls in our first place back when we were first married. In 1995. Okay then....14 years later, not so much).

But on a happier note, look what I found at the top of somebody's bulk pick-up pile...
tell your neighbors thanks for me, Allison.

And that if they're going to talk about the girl jumping out of her van to steal somebody's trash, maybe they shouldn't talk so loud and assume that she doesn't understand Spanish. Because she just might.

And for the record, my shoes do not eat out with me at the plaza every Monday night.

At least that's what I think they said.

What am I going to do with it?

Don't know.

But it was free. Unlike this one. And I'm all about free.


  1. Ohhh that SUCKS royally!!! Oh, that sucks. Wish I could say it didn't suck. But it does suck.

  2. Ouch. I have never used oil paint. But hey, for being fourteen years old and in a bathroom that paint has held up really well.

  3. I love that you did the entire two coats before you could accept that it wasn't working. Hee hee. I'm planning on using your tricky hang-a-frame-over-a-mirror manoeuver, btw. One of these days.

  4. Just get oil based color over that right? Did you get any phone calls or emails? he he

  5. Sorry about your luck. I am feeling your pain!

  6. thanks for the laughs today! i can totally empathize with the whole going somewhere else in the middle of a project and then get distracted by the phone (or children) and then forget what the heck i was doing in the first place thing!

  7. HAHA!! Those were MY neighbors? I wasn't sure if you were talking about me until you mentioned them talking Spanish...yep, that's this neighborhood! And do you have any other friends in this area named Allison?

    Darn! I wish I would've seen that! I'm all about picking up "treasures" from off the side of the road.

    Sorry to hear about the oil based paint problem. That totally blows. I love how you bashed faux finishes because I used to think they were cool too and now I can't stand them (and there's a mess to make).

  8. Hi there, I don't know the exact path that caused me to stumble onto your blog, but stumble I did and I know this is a older post, but.....apparently the Devil also resided at my house, they (the previous homeowners) put wallpaper directly onto to drywall in my kitchen. And it's ugly wallpaper too. Can't do much about that but paint over wallpaper or replace drywall. I feel your pain! Love your pic's and thanks for the inspiration!

