Monday, 11 pm. Things are still going on schedule, but it's been tough. Working hard all day, every day, and then sleeping poorly every night (I've been too tired to open up the air mattress, instead I've been passing out on the couch around midnight every night) is starting to take its toll on me. I will be so glad to sleep in my own bed tomorrow night.
They got the station back on the air so I did have to do my show after all. It was fun to be there, but it would have been nice to have that time here.
I got back to work around 5, cleaning the headboard so I could prime it. Which took a little longer than I had hoped -- all those fiddly bits where the doors slide back and forth, to paint in and around. Ray and Christa came at 7 to help prime. Have I mentioned that I have amazing friends? I had just started cutting in when they got here, and the two of them took over and did all the priming, all I had to do was finish up priming the headboard.
There were only a couple of goofs: first and most seriously, the old paint started peeling up off another wall when Ray tried to prime over it. Ugh! It looks horrible and scabby. I ought to resand that entire wall, but it's not going to happen if the bedroom is going to be put back together by tomorrow evening.
Second, we made the mistake of turning up the ceiling fan, which brought down a shower of plaster dust. I hadn't thought to dust it when I was cleaning the floor and walls! When it started, all three of us just stood there like, "duh, what? what's that stuff falling on my shirt?" Ray was the first one to figure out what was going on. I think we got it turned off before much dust got on the walls.
Also, we were surprised to discover that paint rollers come in different sizes, because the rollers I had bought were too short for the metal handle. Actually the rollers were the right size; it was the handle that was too wide. The handle was also too wide for the paint tray and Ray had to sort of dip it in diagonally. Who knew? I had assumed paint rollers were all a standard size, at least the big ones.
The last goof was potentially the worst, but turned out to be nothing at all. Christa was up on the folding bench (which is a cool thing by the way: made of aluminum like a ladder, but it's a bench so you don't have to get down and move the ladder as often) and I was working on the headboard. I tried to move the headboard with one hand while holding my little paint tray in the other. Unfortunately the headboard got caught on the slippery plastic drop cloth and tipped right over. It could have knocked Christa off the bench and really hurt her, but it fell just short of the bench, thank god. The only damage was a bruise where it bonked me on the leg.
Christa gave me advice on the wall color, which is always a problem for me. You'd think from my profession that I'd be good at picking out colors, and I do feel comfortable selecting colors for design projects. But for some reason I lack confidence with paint colors. I can't look at a color chip and visualize how it will look on an entire wall.
I wanted the wall color to look nice with the furniture, which is white with light green frosted glass. So I got out my copy of Color Image Scale by Shigenobu Kobayashi (which I had forgotten I had until Lisa reminded me of it) and we picked out a nice soft blue that goes with the green glass.
Christa also advised me on what to do about that short wall with the contact paper. After only 1 day it's already starting to peel off, so it obviously won't work even as a temporary solution. We agreed that it was best not to waste the effort trying to paint it, but just leave it as is so Georg and I can replace the drywall maybe next weekend. So the room won't be quite finished when he gets home tomorrow.
And Ray offered some tips on making sure the surprise isn't spoiled for Georg -- I was planning to post all these entries today at 1:30, when Georg gets on his plane. But Ray warned me to be sure the plane leaves on time, because otherwise Georg might be sitting in the Las Vegas airport websurfing just as I upload all my posts. Ray also suggested I make sure it's a nonstop flight (it is).
They left around 9 and then I had dinner and got caught up on some work. Now I'm tired. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I have to go to Home Depot and buy the paint, get David to come over with his truck so we can load up the paneling and take it to the dump, paint the walls, paint the headboard, clean the room, put up the lights and curtains, and replace all the furniture. Who-ee! Hope I can get it all done in time. I have be done by 7 pm to pick Georg up at the airport.
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