Home Improvement

We closed in part of the screened porch to convert to a dining room last fall. A successful conversion in that the problem of congestion while entering through the kitchen door or the staircase from the downstairs entrances was solved. Other issues are still being handled gradually...until yesterday. The unpainted siding purchased to match the current has been allowed to age throughout the winter. It had to be caulked and trimmed, both projects that required a tall ladder or scaffold from our 2-story back side. Ol Abner took advantage of the good weather and completed the prep work during two beautiful days earlier this week. Then the painting could begin. I'm talking about two short walls meeting at a corner with one 3.0 window on the one side and two 6.0 windows on the other. Frugal man that I married was reusing plastic dropcloths as window covers to avoid overspray. Small tears and holes in the plastic were easily covered with the painters tape. When the windows were taped for painting the image of a digital TV screen with large blurred areas and only a smattering of blue pixels arranged in a random pattern of clusters. I was so proud. Progress was in sight. My two tone house was about to match again. I expected him to pull out the roller and start painting, but gadgets purchased must be used. He has one of those airless paint sprayers (in fact I think he has successfully painted the rest of this house and another with it) and planned to make quick work of the small area to be painted. The gadget didn't co-operate. Paint drooled all over the ladder, dripped on his jeans, shoes and elbows and generally went anywhere unintended. As Belle and I walked around the neighborhood his expletives (though unintelligible) could be heard between bangs and engine flutters from the air compressor. Understanding friends and neighbors wisely refrained from offering to come help him. He was just finishing as we returned from our stroll and we complemented the new look. (not his, the house) The squirrels and birds were all in hiding and I took a cue from them when he grunted and told me the airless paint sprayer had malfunctioned (paraphrased). This morning after a shower and hand scrubbing of body parts, most of the paint has faded from his body, two pair of jeans will sport green embellishments forever and he's stiff and sore all over. He told me last night that he will have to invest in more exterior paint because that siding "really soaked it up". I wonder if he will try using a roller and brush this time.