I'm on vacation this week, and trying to fix up my house so that I can eventually sell it and move back to my beloved Minnesota. My downstairs bedroom is badly in need of a face lift, so I ordered new curtains, new bedding, and decided to paint the walls a lovely light blue (it's a dingy green now). A study I read online (which of course must make it true) says that people sleep longer in a blue room.
What I know about my myself is that I like to skip right to the end of a project. I want it done, like now! So my character flaw is that I like to take shortcuts to get what I want as fast as possible. The last time I painted this room I painted over some stains on the wall, and they bled right through, making the bedroom walls look dirty and dingy. So this time I bought a good primer designed to cover stains as a first step. I had all my tools, knew what to do, and on Monday opened the primer can only to find a sticky, muddy, mess at the bottom. Thinking I'd forgotten to have the paint store shake the primer, I went back to the store, where they gladly shook it for me. Got home and found the same sticky mess. I was SO tempted to skip the primer and go straight to the paint, but instead, I got back in my car and drove it back to the store. The very helpful young man behind the counter offered to shake it again. I suggested that he do so, but this time open the can afterwards and stir with a paint stick. Yep - same problem. So I was offered a replacement, but every can he opened was defective, so I switched to a new product, had him try it out, and went home. By that point I had only accomplished taping, removing curtains and pictures, but oh well, I had a week to get it done.
Tuesday morning I arose with every intention of priming, then painting that bedroom. Until my temporary tooth crown came off (again) and I had to spend the morning at the dentist's office. They've informed me that the cement they used this time is so strong it will have to be drilled off. How fun - I get to have a crown drilled off in a week so that my permanent crown can be placed.
So Tuesday afternoon saw 3/4 of the room primed and painted, and Wednesday believe it or not, I finished. My pretty new white sheer curtains went up, my new white coverlet went on, and a new floral quilt went on the end of the bed. I'm still not done - for some reason in their infinite wisdom the builders of this house in 1961 decided to mount the fuse box on the bedroom wall. In my nearly 18 years of living here I've never figured out how to hide it. I could paint it I guess, but the big black "Main" switch still sticks out. So I ordered more curtains from Penney's during their Black Friday sale - I'm going to try a wall of curtains on that wall, and if it doesn't look right, I have another window in my living room that still needs window coverings.
What does this have to do with life? Well, I was very frustrated this week. I wanted to get to the end quickly, so that I would have a beautiful result to look at. I wanted to revel in my success. When life threw me some curve balls, I had to deal with them and move on. And I found that I couldn't skip steps - I needed to do it right, even if it meant that it would take longer than I initially thought it would.
There are lots of people willing to help, (Home Depot) but sometimes the help they give isn't what you need, even if you didn't know it at the time. Once you do figure out what you need, you have to ask for it. And you still have to work damn hard to get the results you want.
In the end, if you follow the rules, have the right tools, don't skip steps, and deal with the obstacles life throws at you, you will have something to be proud of. Something new and shiny and fabulous. And if you take care of it, it'll be just as gorgeous for a long time to come. And in the end, we're all still works in progress; just like my bedroom.
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