House Painters….

From the moment we stepped into our house, Seejo’s latent handyman tendencies resurfaced with an interest in home improvement. After considering and discarding several wild ideas that he had to “improve” the house (replacing all carpets by hardwood floors, replacing the stairs with wooden floors, kitchen gardens and so on….) he settled on a slightly tamer idea to paint the house. After hours of bargaining with Seejo who was all set to color transform the entire 3 floors pronto, I cut it down to the main living area and the kitchen. This was our first do-your-own project. Seejo was super-excited and even I was a bit eager to start just to see how this project would turn out.

Americans make do-it-youself projects quite simple. All the raw materials are available in easy kits, directions and helpful hints are present on the internet. The most difficult job was to select the color shcmes in each of the rooms. So then followed days of color coordinating, choosing the exact shade of green that would go with the curtains in the living room, selecting the right hue from amongst the 500 shades of green that were on display in paint catalogue, figuring out the contrasting color that could be painted on the two pillars that separate the dining room and the living room. Much can be said about our marriage that survived these intense discussions, the distribution of workload and the erratic temper.

Then there were a few days of prepping, moving all our furniture into different rooms, taping up the edges, covering the carpet etc..The whole process took about a month of paint flecked clothes, aching arms, colored patches on parts of my body that should have had no contact with paint, and massive cleaning process. I almost think I have an alternate career, I think I’ll make a great manager for painters. Seejo can do the work and I have a veritable talent in shouting out orders. Though I have to admit, albeit very very reluctantly, that after we finished the living room and the dining room, there was a feeling of achievement.

But the bottom-line is painting is hard work and house painters: well they are sexy only in  porno movies.