There’s nothing like company coming to get projects done around the house. We have two rooms that desperately needed a fresh coat of paint and a nephew coming to visit in a few weeks. So, we painted. Two rooms. About 6 hours. Done. Since I’m fairly cheap, I chose a color I like (which is actually already in three rooms upstairs) and bought a 5 gallon bucket of it on sale. It’s called Silver Drop by Behr. It’s the prettiest color grey I’ve ever seen, which sounds like an oxymoron even to me, but it is.

I used to like to think that we were decent painters. I don’t think that anymore. We do work well as a team. I cut in. Cliff rolls. I start in one corner. He starts in the opposite corner and serenades me with his favorite painting song, “I’m working my way back to you, Babe” by the Spinners. Of course, that is the only line he knows. So, he sings it over and over until he actually does work his way back to me. I don’t mind. I love the man and his goofy songs.

I also love that he can paint an entire room with nary a spot of paint on him. Unfortunately, he’s not real good on coverage. It’s not the paint, because I always buy the one that is like a good pair of old lady underwear, full coverage. He just somehow misses big spots of wall that have “some” paint on them, but not nearly enough. Evidently, I do that, too and I am very messy. I wear more paint than I paint and I end up having to use a dish scrubby to get it all off of me. I also have an uncanny way of getting paint in odd places. Unmentionable kind of places, if you know what I mean. I have no idea how it gets there. It just does.

Like most people, we have friends. One of our dearest and oldest friends, George, can paint an entire room in his street clothes and go out to eat in the same clothes immediately afterwards without even washing up. No paint on his clothes, no paint on his hands, no paint anywhere but the intended wall, AND, he is a great full coverage roller! There’s an old saying that familiarity breeds contempt. I don’t think that’s true but; I’m fairly certain that familiarity does not breed capability, otherwise we’d be able to paint like George.

About twenty years ago or so, Cliff and I were in the process of painting our entire downstairs, about 1700 square feet total. Cliff was at work and I was finishing up. I was tired and had decided to let the paint dry and then touch up the spots that were less-than-full-coverage with a brush when George walked in.

The walls were Champagne Gold which is a fancy name for pale yellow. George was wearing a red and white striped shirt, like Waldo. You know, the guy who is perpetually lost. He told me he liked the paint color and then, as I was about to take my roller off to clean it, asked what I was doing. When I told him I was done. He just looked at me, took my roller, and began painting. Guessing that he’d seen my less-than-full-coverage touch up spots. I told him I’d just get the spots with a brush later. He didn’t listen. When he was done, in less than an hour with not a spot on him and full coverage on my walls, he cleaned up my paint roller and left.

I’ve never forgotten that day. We all need friends like George, full coverage friends, the kind that step in and step up when we’re tired. The kind that can clean up our messes without getting anything on themselves. Full coverage friends, they’re a very big deal!

Post Script ~

These are my painting clothes from our most recent endeavor. Now, in my defense, I did not accomplish this in just one painting day. Except for the pants. The pants I did in one day. My top is an accumulation of painting days. Not many but, not just one.