Monday, August 9, 2010

Virgin territory

Today I took my weekly stroll through Home Depot.

Growing up dad and I would always go to Home Depot on the weekends. Mom would always stay in the car (or at home) because, "I hate Home Depot. I will not go in there." And she was true to her word.

I honestly cannot recall ever seeing my mom in Home Depot- Oh wait, there was ONE TIME when we first bought our house and she helped me pick out blinds for the guest room. Okay, so one time in my 27 years of knowing my mom, she went into Home Depot without being drugged, hog tied or otherwise impaired.

I digress. Weekly I'll walk the aisles and see what's new; drool over the chandelier that should be in our kitchen (one day!) and the bathroom cabinets.

Most times I walk in after just having a meeting or getting off work, so I'm a little "fussy" looking. Sometimes, employees will look at me and ask "can I help you find anything?" and I'll say, "Oh, um,no thanks" and they walk away rolling their eyes thinking, "ohhh, she hasn't got a CLUE what she's doing in here!"

Today, I was kinda rolling my eyes at myself. Why? Because of 'burnished clay'.

I have been wanting to repaint the foyer for a while. It is the ONE space in our house that is a virgin to my paint brush. Seriously, every other room has been painted at least once (the kitchen, our bathroom and our bedroom have had "some additional work done")

Now, I didn't select colors for other areas in our house lightly. Oh no. This is a constant struggle I face personally. I can help anyone else with colors for their home. I can suggest accessories 'til the cows come home (and they always come home) but for our home, its taken me four years, about 18 gallons of paint and a lot of spackling paste to get it 'just right'.

Which brings me back to the foyer. One reason I haven't paint it before is its HUGE. Its two stories, so I'll need a tall ladder. And the walls in the foyer blend into the stair case walls...which are also two stories- which is kinda scary since I'm only 5'-4"...and balancing a ladder on the stairs is just asking for an ER admission ticket...so I've waited.

Until now.

Last week I'm taking my weekly stroll through the Depot and stop at the Behr paint display. I already knew what color I wanted to paint, but couldn't find "it"...(yes, I'm one of those people...) So I look at the display case and suddenly, I see it. It sees me. It was magic. I put back the other three colors I picked up because I just KNEW this was the one.

Its taken me a whole week of talking to myself to finally get the paint. But, here's where my silly self and my professional self clash. Instead of just buying the gallon of paint (even though I'm in total lurv with it) I buy the sample size.

So I get home, and I start to trim. Then the trimming gets a little bigger...and then I'm working my way around to the closest corner...and then I realize, paint samples are THE BEST INVENTION EVER! Perfect size for my brush...no big clean up. Got the color across wonderfully...

The hubs didn't know I started to paint "spots" today...so when he walked in from work I was in the kitchen:
him: "Well someone was busy today!"
me: "Yes, I was...I made dinner, I ran errands..."
him: "I was referring to the spots. On the walls. What's with the spotty walls?"
me: "Ohhh, nothing. Just testing it out to make sure I liked it."

I didn't tell him I also "spotted" the upstairs. I waited for him to see it first (why give away the surprise too soon, right?) He gets upstairs:
him: "Hoooooney..."
me: "Do you like it?"
him: "Do I have a choice?"
me: "Uhmmm"

I often feel like Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy. (Who is my absolute IDOL!) "Erin, you've gotta lotta 'splaining to do!"

Except hubby doesn't have a Spanish accent! hehe.