Well, it’s finally here, the day the painter is supposed to come. He told me the other day (when he called to delay from Thurs to Monday), that he’d be here around 9:00 a.m. Over the weekend I went to Sherwin Williams, where he told me to go, and picked out the colors. He also told me to tell the sales people there the color number and that way they’d have it, but the sales people didn’t want anything to do with it.

Anyway, Brent and I got up this morning and cleared the tops of the kitchen cabinets, the top of the bookshelves, and some of the stuff that might get broken in the kitchen/den area. We also finished clearing out the “yellow” bedroom, taking down the curtain, blinds and the shelf that ran along the ceiling.

Brent had to leave, he worked early today. About 7:45 I called the painter to see when he’d be here. He said he was dropping off a crew out by the airport (an hour or more away from me) and he’d be at our house in about an hour or an hour and a half. Okay, that’s fine, that would put him at our house at about 9:00.

About that time the electricity went off. The afternoon before, we had a really big storm that knocked out the electricity for most of the area. It came back on for the night but when it went off at 8:00 a.m., I figured they had some repair or maintenence work they needed to perform. It ended up staying off for about 2 hours, but it didn’t bother me much with what I needed to get done.

I went about washing the stuff that had been on top of the kitchen cabinets. Tomorrow, after the paint is dry, I will vacuum up there and put it all back. I also had a couple of orders to fill (for my business) and I kept myself busy with that.

Finally, around 10:30 the electricity came back on but my painter was still not there. So, I picked up the phone and called him. Again, I guess I should have expected it, because he was running late but on his way. He showed up about 11:30.

He had two helpers with him, they unloaded and got to work. The painter got to work on the holes and the areas he needed to patch while the workers started to tape off and cover the walls downstairs. Later they also prepped the room upstairs.

As soon as the painter got the holes repaired, he told me he was heading off to get the paint, it was about 12:30. I thought he’d be gone half an hour or so, so, I was going to wait till he got back and then go get myself something to eat. Well…it finally got to be 2:00 and I was starving, so I left. I just had to trust that the guys wouldn’t steal anything. I got back around 2:20 and sat outside for a little while, the painter showed back up a little after 3:00. It was apparent that he had more to do than just go get paint.

Anyway, it’s now about 5:00 and he just told me he had to go get more paint. He also told me he’d have to finish tomorrow. Why didn’t that surprise me? But he’s going to finish up our main living areas, the kitchen/den and the bathroom/closet. Thank heavens, that’s the area where we spend all of our time, this way, tomorrow we can start putting our stuff away.

I went in to take a look at the ceiling that was already painted, it looked a lot whiter than I thought it would. I could find the paint chip to compare it. Oh well, even if it isn’t the same color, it still looks good. Hopefully he’ll use the right color on the walls upstairs however, I picked that so it would match the existing wall colors throughout the house. I think I’ll check it before he starts painting. I’ll let you know.

Oh, I also asked him to paint the stairway and upstairs hallway. It’s currently a peach color from when we painted it about 15 years ago. It really needs it and he said he’d only charge an extra $100 including the paint. So I told him, “Do it.”

Well, we’re almost there. And my neighbor just called, he’s going to go give her a quote before he leaves today. I’ll report to you tomorrow what we think of our work and I’ll ask her what he’s going to charge to do their job. If everything turns out good, I’ll give you the guy’s name, if not, I still may give you his name.

Later.