Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles

[Note:  Of late, I've been posting new pictures of progress on our house each Monday, but this past week all of the work was of a nature that there are really no pictures to capture the differences.  So, instead, I'm writing a post I think you'll find entertaining.  It wasn't so at the time, but then most funny stories aren't.  So enjoy below!]

 It never dawned on me, and in hindsight, it should have.

After Tom and I married and bought our first house in 1992, it was a major deal.  And I do mean MAJOR!  We had been living in a small duplex while I was in law school and had the opportunity, via assuming someone's loan, to buy a house with a $2,000 down payment, which was unheard of in 1992.  But God blessed us with such a "deal."

 The house seemed to us to be too good to be true, and in the long run, that proved to be true.  But at the time, it seemed perfect.

 Except for the fact that the family who had inhabited our house had been smokers.  That was a HUGE factor we found when we toured the house post-sale.  It just HAD to be painted throughout.

I had just graduated from law school the end of May and was working full time as a law clerk, still, as I studied to take the week long bar exam in July.  My life was hectic and stressful.

Tom worked full time, too, but could take off a little easier than I could so he decided to make the ultimate sacrifice.  As much as he despised painting, he surprised me and told me he was taking a week off work after we closed on the house to totally repaint it.  He engaged his young nephew to help him when he could and they worked together most of the week.

In the meantime, every evening I would either pack up household goods and then go over to the house or else would go by the house first to see the progress and then go pack.  So, I was really busy, too.

We had been living in a beige and brown apartment for three years and the house we were buying was entirely dark wallpaper and cigarette smoke covered dirty yellow walls.  Most of the light bulbs in the house were low wattage which only added to the dirty look of the entire house.

We went in and changed out all of the bulbs to brighten the house as much as possible and decided to paint the entire house white with the exception of the hall bathroom.  It was papered in 70s ugly yellow flowers with yucky green leaves.  It was atrocious.  So I decided to paint the vanity room and tub/toilet room both with pale blue semi-gloss paint.  I was wanting to decorate it with blues and amethyst and couldn't wait to get started.

The painting chore was a lot of work but Tom and his nephew, Christopher, made good progress each day and it was fun to watch it all come together.  They started on Monday and by the time I went by early Thursday evening I was expecting even more good news.

But when I got to the house about 6 p.m., Tom was there alone lying on the linoleum den floor staring up at the ceiling. 

"What's wrong," I said, because he looked troubled, I thought.

"Well, Dee, I have good news and bad news for you," he said.  "Which do you want first?"

"What's the good news?" I asked.

"The good news is that the whole house is painted.  We've got two coats of paint on everything."

"That's good," I replied.  "So, what's the bad news?"

"The bad news is that some of the walls are white and some of the walls are blue and I can't tell the difference."

Tom is colorblind and as it turned out, so is his nephew Christopher.  Tom had sent Chris out that afternoon to get the last can of white paint to do touch ups before they did the hall bathroom in the pale blue.  Chris came back in and said, "Uncle Tommy - all of the cans are empty."

Tom said, "They can't be - there's a can of blue paint out there."

He went to look.  There wasn't. 

The can of blue paint was marked and set to one side in the garage, but Chris didn't know there was anything but white out there.  Tom was busy painting inside and didn't see the can of paint until it was already opened and couldn't tell that it was pale blue semi-gloss.

Tom asked me, "Which rooms do you want to see first?  I know that the master bedroom and bath are alright because they were already finished before we used the last can of (blue) paint."

We started in the front guest bedroom.  Tom said, well.  I said, well - three walls are blue and one wall is white.  We'll have to get more paint and finish this room in blue.

We went in the next front bedroom that would be the office and turned the light on.  I said this room is white except for touch ups of blue around the window and around the door and the corners.  This room could be salvaged as a white room with a little work.

We examined the walls of the long hall.  This looks like it was white with a layer of blue over it, I said.  It is going to be blue.

The hall bathroom was still the hideous yellow and yucky green wallpaper, but I decided I would have to live with it for a while until I could do something else.  There was enough re-painting to be done already and I didn't want more.

I called my boss, Lenny, and told him I had to have Friday off.  I then went out to Sears and bought two more gallons of winter white paint and one gallon of pale blue semi-gloss.

We spent Friday re-painting and got it all done with my eyes helping Tom to find the spots and walls to paint. 

It didn't seem that funny at the time, but in retrospect it was hilarious and is one of our favorite stories.  I am going to talk with Derwin, our builder, though to make sure he gets all of my colors right and on the right walls in our new house.  I'm especially going to check to make sure none of his painters are colorblind.

Surely I couldn't have the bad luck again of having not one, but two colorblind painters painting my house.  But, just in case, I think I'll be out there at the house closely supervising when the time comes, what do you think?

In the meantime, cheers everybody and many blessings to you today!  Dee

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