Parts Un, Deux, Trois, and Quatre.
I…I….
That’s me, sobbing in the last Goth corner of my house, wearing my husband’s Nightmare Before Christmas baseball shirt, with Vader Bear and Blankie. It’s just outside the loo, in the hallway between the bedrooms. That’s one of the linen closet doors you see there at my knee. *sniff* I’m okay…really…I’ll be okay…*bottom lip trembles* OH GOD OH GOD IT’S BEIGE IT’S FUCKING BEIGE I CAN’T HELP HELP HELP
*ahem* *straightens back and lifts chin* It’s done. I did it. I have painted the loo. *drops paintbrush and stares vacantly in the distance* *single tear rolls down cheek*
YES, I’M BEING DRAMATIC! THIS IS TRAUMATIZING, ALL RIGHT? IT’S BEIGE! IT’S FUCKING BEIGE! THIS IS HELL FOR ME, LIKE GOING TO THE MALL! EVERYWHERE I LOOK IT’S BEIGE! THIS IS NOT MY HOUSE, UNDERSTAND?!
*ahem* Okay. Okay. I’m okay. I still have my tea, and my yarn, and my cats, and my Vaders OH GOD VADER IS GOING TO THE STORAGE UNIT I CAN’T NOT HIM TOO OH GOD.
It’s getting harder and harder for me to cope with all this…mundane. This normal. This hospital-hotel-shopping center color. I am trying to remember the ultimate goal – and how much I hate my neighborhood and the reasons why I’m doing this – but it’s getting really, really hard now. I didn’t expect it to be this hard, and the reality is, I’m probably going to have to endure this bullshit until next summer.
Yes, that is the sad reality. My realtor is coming by next week to see what we’ve done and what we have left to do, and to tell me whether or not it’s worth even listing this year. We’re not giving up – far from it. We’re going to continue the beige – three more rooms to go in the living space, plus the tiny, tiny bastion of Gothdom left in the hallway. I think I’ll save that piece for dead last. I need a place to run and hide. The hallway has no windows and I can curl up in the corner and close my eyes and pretend the beige isn’t there for a minute.
The utility room and workshop are the huge work areas, but that’s mostly just decluttering and cleaning. No painting. I mean, there’s white cinderblock down there, and we could paint it if we wanted to (and we might, if we have paint left over), but it’s not necessary. The painting is almost over. I’ll get more paint soon so we can start the dining room. This week is busy with Things Outside The House, so the dining room is scheduled for execution the second week of July.
I will say one good thing about the new paint – it’s very fresh and clean-looking. I like clean (anyone who knows me knows I have this obsession with a clean loo). With the decluttering, there’s a lot more space and less to dust and so on. I do like the clean look, even if it is bordering on “hospital.”
But you’re not here to listen to me whine about how this Mundane Makeover gives me an uncomfortableness. (It it seriously starting to damage my calm – some people find neutral colors soothing. My “soothing colors” are black, red, silver, and purple. NOT FUCKING BEIGE.) Points if you get the references there. Onward! Pics!
First, how it was before:
Next, the prep. This photo only shows a few spots where I filled nail/fixture holes and made other little repairs:
Next, as it’s the loo and filled with moisture and steam on a near-daily basis, a coat of KILZ is in order:
A couple hours for that paint to dry and it was ready for the beige. For a small space, there are lots of corners and edges and small spaces to paint, so it took a lot more time than I remember it doing the last time I painted it *mumblemumble* years ago. Notice the trim hasn’t gotten it’s second coat just yet:
Next up, taping the new beige so the white trim paint (Glidden Ultra-Hide, like the beige and all the white in the other rooms) doesn’t mess it up, and another coat of paint on the trim. The trim (I’m including the door here too, as it was originally purple as well, now it’s white like the rest of the trim/doors in the house) took three coats to cover. I didn’t get a pic of that, but we had to wait overnight for everything to dry.
A few touch-ups the following day, adding of new mirror clips and a new towel ring (there was originally a bar underneath the white bits on the wall in the corner that hold a shelf, and it was old and rusty,) take down the tape, put everything back, and done:
With the painting of the loo, the upper level is officially 50% complete:
I meant it when I said this doesn’t feel like my house anymore. I’m shocked every time I open the loo door (we keep it closed because animals) and am assaulted with brightness. The same with the foyer and living room. I have new beige curtains in the living room now, and while they look great for the room, they’re not mine. Going into the kitchen to make my tea isn’t terribly different because it was always white, but now it’s BRIGHT WHITE. Maybe just the lighter living room and foyer bring more light into the kitchen, but still. It’s going to be even worse when we get the dining room finished and the light from those windows brightens the kitchen even more.
And that’s the crux of it. Everything in here is so bright and open…you all know me. I don’t like bright. I don’t like light. My house was a cave. A lair. It was me. Now it’s…not.
I comfort myself with the knowledge that I will have another house I can Gothify, and since I hate this color/paint, someone else will absolutely love it. That’s usually the way it works – if I hate it, it will likely appeal to the general populace. And that’s the goal here.
I just really don’t want to spend a Sithmas in a beige living room. But at least I’ll have my Sithmas tree to help.