Painting the Walls

No, I did not paint.  The last time I tried to paint, it took me months and I have to get the rooms rented really soon, so I do not have months.  But I was tempted to paint myself when I was quoted $2,200 to paint the rooms.  How silly was I?  When I finally wrapped my mind around that price, I called the painter (now several weeks later) and the price was more than double, but he was going to add the ceilings (that were awful) and the floors (that I was going to carpet anyway) and it would all be done in a matter of days, so that I could get the rental listing up sooner with pictures. 

The painter is quite a guy--he's a talker--he wants me to know that he loses money on every job.  He works seven days a week, fourteen hours a day for the past 30 years that he's been in this country.  He spoke Armenian and Spanish (and English) and had workers that only spoke Armenian or only spoke Spanish.  Adrienne got to hear some of them fighting and said it was pretty heated until Joe came and spoke with both groups in their language.  They worked mostly evenings and weekends, which made me realize that Joe probably does work every day--he was always tired when I saw him, but he was very meticulous about details that he saw.  I noticed a lot of little details after he left, but I figure he was too tired to notice them when he was there.

One thing that he did (that I didn't ask for, but it is so pretty) was that he put a really nice molding all around the rooms that I am renting out.  The floors are that laminate (but the heavy wood kind--not the flimsey tile kind).  The floors are gorgeous.  It really is too bad that the house should be torn down (according to every general contractor I bring in).

I noticed that one of the covers for a light switch was missing and I pointed it out to one of the workers.  I had replaced all the covers brand new when I painted a few years back, so I didn't want to lose any of them.  They guy (in broken English) said they were all new.  I looked and sure enough all the little screws were white from the store.  I remember the ones that I bought had silver screws (because I was mad at the time that they were not white too).  I have no idea what he did with the old (sort of new) covers.

Another time, I pointed out an electrical outlet that the painters had just painted over.  I said that they had to fix that.  They guy looked at me a bit blankly--I think it was a language barrier, but later when I looked, there was a brand new cover and the plug area was clean and bright--no paint.  I know I saw paint all over it, so I'm not sure how they were able to get it looking so new.  However, for what I paid, they could rewire the whole house, but I digress.

The painter is in love with two colors:  Pearl White and Swiss Coffee.    I can't really tell--it all looks pretty white to me. The night before they were going to do the kitchen, I began to be worried--did I really want white again.  I tried to find a nice pale yellow that would look nicer, but I wasn't sure.  Then I started to worry that if I changed the color, they'd go away and say that they were waiting for the "special" order to come in.  Kiss of death if you are in a hurry--"special" order.  So I have white walls.  It is clean and if I were a renter, I would want to rent it.  Score.

The place smells like paint and it is pretty serile looking (all that white), but I'm sure that we'll get used to it and settle back into the space.   Now if I can just find a renter.  Fingers crossed.