Home Improvements

Sword-of-Damocles

“Home improvement” for me, right now, is largely not about making it better. It’s mostly about keeping the damn place standing. A holding action against entropy. That’s just how it is. (I assume this is a temporary situation. Sooner or later I’ll get my shit together and putter around the homestead at a leisurely pace indulging in the improvement instead of maintenance of the house. One can hope. Either that or I’ll retire and spend my days fishing… which seems like a good solution to a decrepit house.)

On the other hand, Mrs. Curmudgeon gets a vote too and ladies seem to be really attached to nice bathrooms. So I promised to repaint the bathroom ceiling. (It needed to be done.)

I’ve never painted a ceiling when the walls and stuff are already done. It seems like a bad idea; a fine opportunity to create a disaster. Isn’t there a Charlie Chaplin movie about this very idea?

It’s freaking me out. I’m painting like a single drop on the already nicely painted (several years ago) walls will cause a bomb to go off.

For me, it’s the paint version of the sword of Damocles. Wish me luck.

About AdaptiveCurmudgeon

Adaptive Curmudgeon is handsome, brave, and wise.
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0 Responses to Home Improvements

  1. me says:

    tape up some cheap plastic sheeting. use the tape to mask a nice sharp line @ ceiling to wall corner.

  2. Mark Matis says:

    I understand that if you generously slather bacon grease on any painted surface that you do not wish to “repaint”, spatter and droppings will not stick. And if you have a dog around the house, he’ll be glad to “clean off” the bacon grease when your painting is complete…

  3. Douglas2 says:

    I’ve discovered a sort of dropcloth that is made of blue non-woven fabric, and lined with plastic. When put down it lies down flat and isn’t slipperier than ice. It is also light enough in weight that it can be taped up on walls.

    I considered it an investment. I immediately chopped it up into smaller more manageable sizes. Unfortunately one of the things it protected the floor from was milky coffee, and therefore a few pieces were thrown away to hide the evidence of the spill from me. Out of curiosity I rescued one piece from under the coffee grounds in the rubbish bin and ran it through with the next laundry load, and it came out clean and slightly faded.

    So tape something up on the walls, and worry a bit less. Also, water-dampened cheesecloth will wipe new wet latex paint off of old dry paint without any problem.

  4. Glenn555 says:

    Have fun. I’d rather stick needles in my eyes.

  5. jefferson101 says:

    I feel for you.

    I was informed that the Kitchen ceiling needed re-painting. I was informed of that about three months after we put the new hardwood flooring in.

    Spilling paint, or dripping paint, on the lovely new flooring would have been grounds for permanent spousal abuse, and there is not enough plastic sheeting or drop cloth in the world to make you feel secure.

    Happily, I did put Urethane on the flooring, and managed to get the spots that I did manage to leave on the floor (we won’t talk about the counters) cleaned up before she saw them.

    Oh, Joy, oh Rapture! I haven’t had that much fun since football practice my Freshman year in College. (Which was the end of my Football career, but just to note….)

  6. abnormalist says:

    In our home we have the following understanding.

    She does all the painting unquestioned. If I dont care for what shes done, I have the option to redo it.

    That way she gets to pick whatever she wants, the catch is if I REALLY dont care for it I can change it, but its entirely on me. So basically she gets what she wants, and I dont have to paint!

  7. Robert says:

    OK, I’ll be the bad guy here. Don’t worry about drippage on the walls since you’re gonna repaint ’em anyway once she sees how nice the ceiling turned out. My motto is: “Do a crappy job once and you won’t be asked to do it again”.

    • I can’t do a deliberately shoddy job. It makes me break out in hives. So it’s not the Sistine Chapel but I didn’t make a mess either.

      I told the missus that I can repaint the walls right now while the drop cloths are out or she must wait 10 years minimum before asking again. She didn’t take me up on the offer and said the wall are fine. (Who am I kidding. I’ll be repainting the walls in a couple years. I’m doomed.)

      • Robert says:

        Yeah, I can’t follow my motto; leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I may do a poor job, but I’m compelled to try my best. It’s a curse, I tells ya.

        Repainting: yup, yer doomed. Accept your fate. I gotta quit playing on the computer and get back to work now.

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