What I Learned Painting Today

Today I learned many things while painting. Here's the list:

1. Painting with two is much faster than one.
2. Willing assistants to retrieve various odds and ends keeps the process going.
3. Assistants are much more willing when there is hope of a movie when the painting is done.
4. No matter how light the blue paint, it always takes at least two coats to cover.
5. Taking the time to tape things that aren't to be painted is worth every second.
6. No matter how carefully you place the tape, there is always some paint that gets on things that it shouldn't.
7. Be sure to remove the tape before the paint dries.
8. Cleaning up right away is much easier than waiting until later.
9. Painting with two is much more fun than painting alone.
10. My children and I like the same music.
11. Dancing while painting makes it go even faster.
12. Painting works out more muscles than an hour with a professional trainer.
13. Painting a room is a sure way for a recovering perfectionist to fall "off the wagon."
14. A freshly painted room is immensely satisfying.
15. It takes longer to clean and replace the stuff removed to paint in a bathroom than it takes to actually paint the bathroom.
16. A putty knife cleans fresh paint off a tile floor.
17. A paint tray liner is worth the money.
18. No one cleans a bathroom as well as Mom.
19. One bathroom plus two teenage daughters with long hair equals a clogged sink.
20. Teenagers do not seem to understand how to put an empty shampoo bottle in the trash can. Perhaps they miss their tub toys.
21. Tub and tile cleaner does a great job getting rid of tough toliet stains.
22. Clean bathrooms attract less spiders. (Well, that's what I'm telling my children--then maybe they'll try harder to keep their bathroom clean).
23. Painting is a great time to listen to songs for use in multimedia productions.
24. It's a good idea to write down the titles of the good songs that you hear.

A few other things I'd really like to know. Am I the only person who uses a toothbrush to clean the dirt out of the outlets and off the switches? Do other people replace the face plate screws?

Coming soon...the end of the painting saga!

Success

I have always loved my beautiful front room window with its large picture window topped by a lovely arch. I can now say that it has once more been successfully covered. A quick internet search and I found instructions on how to create my own arch window "rod" from a clear plastic tube and 1" cup hooks. It worked beautifully, even though I had to go up on the fourth step on the ladder! Determination overcame my fear of heights and I got the project done. I even found out that I can drill and such with my left hand. Afternoons will be a little cooler with the harsh west sun filtered. Now off to paint a few more things....

The End of Summer Vacation

I don't usually relate much about my career in this particular blog, but today my work life and personal life were at the summer crossroads.

I've learned that many teachers spend their summer vacations doing many of the same things that I have done...home improvement, professional development and serious family time. My children tease that as we visit the local home improvement store that I'll run into one of my teacher friends and we always do. Sometimes we see more than one!

We all set some summer time goals, so that the time didn't slip away. We planted a garden that's doing pretty well. I finished a few major projects. There are more to go, but I'm happy that many were accomplished. Life is much more peaceful with the day to day household things more organized and under control. I'm not sure if I'll ever have every drawer organized and labelled like Sheila, but it's much better than a year ago.

Today was the official end of my summer vacation. I spent the morning with a team helping to put a computer lab back together after recarpeting. (We think the carpet was original to the 1977 building, so it was long overdue.) The carpeting is so beautiful, that after the machines were set up and ready to go, I spent the rest of the day making sure that everything in the lab was in tip top shape. I cleaned out the closet. Sorted through the miscellaneous tech stuff that gathers in the corners and under the tables and put aside the stuff that needs to be surplused to the district. All in all things got done to help get the new school year started off on the right foot. Of course there are always those projects that are important, yet never quite urgent enough to get done when school is in session, so I'd better find a few more hours before the faculty returns and get things all done up right. For instance updating the machine images, reimaging the lab computers, and reimaging the computers for the new teachers. Of course I'm sure that the first few weeks will be spent helping to get all of the equipment set up properly after the new carpet install.

It's been a shorter summer than usual for me this year, but I feel excited to get to work with students again. I've been taking an online basic PowerPoint course through the Utah Education Network this summer and it's sparked some ideas of things I'm looking forward to doing.

Tomorrow morning is an opening faculty meeting and I have the new school year excitement butterflies! I always try to find a way to support my schools goals and hope that this year I might actually do it.

And as I've finally learned to do, when I leave school tomorrow afternoon, I leave teacher at school and return home as Mom.

Lateral Epicondylitis (Tennis Elbow)

is the name for a condition in which the bony bump at the outer side of the elbow is painful and tender.

I don't even play tennis, but that's what I have. So now I have a lovely black arm band to help keep the stress off the tendon. It helps, but it itches. Basically my right arm has become useless, so hopefully the treatment will get things right again in four to six weeks. Yep, that's right...four to six weeks doing things with just my other arm.

Fortunately I have wonderful children willing and able to take up the slack.

Paint Under My Nails

Not sure why it hasn't bothered me enough to finish painting the kitchen. Since Thanksgiving weekend the kitchen has only been partially painted. I stopped somewhere about the kitchen sink and have ignored it for too long. I thought I'd get after it right after school got out, but no matter how many times I thought I'd do it, I just didn't feel like it. So, after psyching myself up for a couple of weeks, I finally decided that it was time. I had a brief stall--a few hours clearing up ideas stuck in my head that I just had to research, but then I dove into the project.

Fresh paint looks great! The walls look fresh and new. There is great satisfaction when a room has been freshly painted.

The kitchen is the last major room to be done. In the last year or so I've repainted, fixed, and uncluttered every room in the house. In the other rooms I painted the ceiling and walls first, then I'd do the windows and trim. This time I did it differently. I painted the windows first. Not sure why, but they seemed to be the part that I left for last before (in fact, I should check them all and make sure that I went back and did them.) It was great to have the windows completed when I rolled the wall color on...then it was done! Fortunately the kitchen ceiling was painted last time and didn't need a redo. Ceiling paint makes such a mess!

Everything is very neutral now. The next challenge is decorating. I'm not very good at that and tend to just leave things rather blank.

We Did It! (finally)

It's been six months now that the drapes have been laughing at me since I first hung them up. You can see my original post here. After considering many ideas, we finally went to the home store and got a rod worthy of the drapes. It took some wandering through the store, but my dear hub'n also came up with a perfect solution for the sheers since the cafe rod was bending across the large span. He found an 8 foot aluminum U channel and it fit in the fixture perfectly. I painted it white, so it wouldn't leave black marks on the sheers. Now things are hanging straight! The drapes can also be opened without having to tug against the bump in the rod.

Not only did we hang the drapes properly, I took the time to clean the window and the track the windows open in. These window tracks collect the most disgusting dirt, bugs and whatever in the track. It makes me wonder how much other stuff gets in the house and goes beyond the window tracks.

It was quite a process getting the sheers and drapes rehung. Since the sheers still had the folds from the original packaging, I decided to wash them. I thought a trip through the washer and dryer would get rid of the folds, but it didn't. So, I had to iron them, too. Not only are they hanging straight, they also are clean and wrinkle free. Grandma would be so proud!