Paint Department, a very scary place

I am painting Adam's old room--it must be done--right now it is half alien green and half bare drywall (but no mold-yea!). So since I have to paint anyway, I decided to paint my sitting room. I picked out a lovely light pink that Adrienne was nice enough to find a sample of for me. Then I did nothing for weeks. Since I had picked out the color in my head, actually going to the store and buying the paint seemed redundant. Of course, you can't paint, unless you actually get the paint. Boy the lottery is the same way, I hate that.

I asked Adam several times if he wanted to go to Home Depot with me and he declined every time. Coward. So last night, I had no meetings and no more excuses. I pulled into the parking lot and went up the middle to find a place to park. There was a big fence at the end of the isle and they were having an outdoor sale. Yea! I love sales. What a bunch of junk. But junk I thought I might need. I picked up a roller skeleton for $3.97--such a deal. I looked at rugs (garbage) and lights (nothing was just right) and door knobs--I don't even need a door knob. The guy at the counter came over to help me several times--I must have had that "I have no idea what I'm doing" look about me. Luckily he took the roller skeleton out of my cart and told me that he didn't have any nine inch rollers, so he was sure I didn't want it. Thank you sales guy.

Now it was time to actually go into the Home Depot store. I spent a lot of time looking at lights before I remembered I was supposed to be there to buy paint. I went to the paint department and realized that I didn't have my paint sample that Adrienne had given me. I made a quick call home to get measurements and poured over the paint color choices. There are millions of pinks. I got a number and waited for the sales person. I was going to ask her how to chose a color of pink. Unfortunately she asked me what type of surface I was painting, and I blankly said, I don't know. Everything was down hill from there. She refused to ask me any more questions and she refused to answer any questions that didn't have to do with price or availability. To say that she was no help would be generous, because not only would she not really help me, but she made me extremely nervous about how little I knew as well.

I'm a college graduate I kept telling myself and I buckled down and picked out a pink. We did some math and came up with how many gallons I needed. They had a very cool display of all the things you need for painting and I got started with the accouterments while she mixed the paint. [I looked that word up--it means to equip an army--that's me. A one women painting army equiper. One p or two, that is the question. But I digress.]

Next I informed my unhelpful sales lady that the room was alien green with a dark grey trim and ventured the question, do I need a primer? Her response was "Which primer do you want?" I took that as a "yes" and ventured a question with a question, "which do you suggest?" She showed me an complete isle of primers and gave me some prices. I asked if the cheapest was fine, but I might just use a little more and she answered, the cheapest is fine, but you might use a little more. I wonder if she went to college and she was just playing with me.

Next I said how about the trim--don't I need semi gloss paint for the trim? She pulled out the price sheet and showed me how much the semi gloss was. I took that as a yes. Then I got super technical and asked which color white should I use, because I've heard there's really many shades of white. She pointed to the million colors on the wall and told me to pick one. But I want you to tell me, I persisted. She said look at the white suggested with the color you picked. Wow, it is all organized--it is amazing. Of course, I didn't like that white and I picked a totally different white. I'm sure I'll pay for that someday, but I was so caught up in the moment. She mixed my poped corn white and I ventured down the isle to find paint brushes--I'm sure I'm going to need paint brushes. I thought about asking the sales lady which ones I should buy, but her look of utter frustration and dismissal of me as useless, dissauded me. (Come on, that has to be a word, but it's not in my dictionary to check the spelling.)

Luckily, home depot was ready and willing to sell me just anything my heart desired. They had prepackaged six packs of paint brushes of all sizes and the pan with two rollers, a drop cloth and more paint brushes. I bought extra drop cloths by looking at the pictures--you can never have enough drop cloths and soon I was all done and ready to go. Might as well look at the rugs while I'm here and I have a parking space. The rugs were very dismal. Then I had to look at tile. There's some tile around the house that Jose said he could fix for me. I did some math and looked and looked and looked. I think I need to go to tile store. Maybe someone there will actually answer a question.

Anyway, I finally paid and left as the sun was setting. I walked out, but there was a big fence in the way down the isle I parked in. I had to walk the entire length of the parking lot and go around, because the isles have curbs completely surrounding them. What poor planning by a store devoted to contractors. Good exercise for me though.