Close to Nowhere - Linda Jones


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Close to Nowhere
By Linda Jones

It’s too cold to paint

It’s too cold to be painting, so why am I, along with several of my co-workers, painting?

Barbara is smarter than the rest of us. She had someone paint her bedroom for her.

Beth is still in the planning stage, so maybe it’ll be warmer when she makes up her mind what to do.

Me? My paint may freeze on my walls.

We started redoing the inside of the house about four years ago. Right smack in the middle, Pop decided that he might as well have heart surgery again and then a horrible staph infection and be really, really sick for a long time.

That will really put a crimp in any remodeling. But at least the kitchen wall had already been knocked down and the floors were done.

Now, four or so years later, I’ve decided during the coldest part of the year, that I’m ready to put new curtains up finally. The only problem with that is that all the window and door facings still need to be primed and painted.

I cannot put up new curtains with unpainted facings. Just can’t do it. Of course, I couldn’t do anything until I finished the new quilt that I have planned to hang in the living room since I bought the pattern and fabric in 2004.

Finished the quilt a couple weeks ago. Turned out splendidly. I hate it hanging where it is. I’m going to rearrange the quilts hanging around my house and then make the new curtains.

But first, I have to finish painting the facings.

My first attempt at priming the stupid facings ended in disaster. I’m so glad my brother was visiting so he could help me clean it all up.

I’ve been the “house painter” since we’ve been married. I like to paint. I’ve never used oil-based paint before though and that should give you a hint about how horrible it all was.

Everything went well at first. I got the first coat of primer on the sliding door facings and then on the big window in the living room.

I didn’t notice any problem but the smell of the primer. I thought, “oh, that’s just the way primer versus paint smells.”

Ha! I did notice a problem when I took my paintbrush and my very paint covered hands (and glasses and face) to the bathroom, turned on the warm water and watched the paint on my hands and brush thicken and turn even yuckier.

Oil-based primer does not wash off with warm water. Does not come off floors or faces either.

I’m too old and too cold to paint! I’m heading back to my sewing room!

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