so this is why you don't paint in the dark...

Hi there.

Just thought I'd pop in and give an update (and a warning!) about painting.

Oh sure, everyone knows the real big rules- use a ladder that really is tall enough so that you don't have to stretch and contort yourself, be sure to always tape off your trim, cover the floor and all furnishings with dropcloths, wash your brushes out right away to prevent them from turning into hard little scratchy bristles, etc...

Oh? really? what's that? you don't follow any of these either? Well, then I'm in good company! Here, though, is something you really shouldn't do-

I was making pretty good progress on the bathroom. Yesterday I got 2 coats of a lovely light gold color onto the ceiling and got the walls all cut in with a dark tan color. Loving it so far. By evening, I noticed that the ceiling still needed another coat- as much as I wanted this part of the job to be over, I figured that I'd gone this far and should go ahead and do it right.

We're up early in the morning at our house. Really, really early. The Husband left for work this morning and by 3:30 a.m. (yeah, really, 3:30) I was already pulling out ladders, paint, brushes and was on a painting mission. I painstakingly took care so that I didn't mess up the walls that were already cut-in... I sure didn't want to have to go back and touch up. I wanted this job done! Got that last coat on the ceiling and thought I'd go downstairs and relax with a cup of tea.

By about 6:00 my shoulders and neck were so sore and cramped up I decided I'd take a nice, hot bath before having to start the whole school drop-off, run errands, finish painting the bathroom routine. As I sank down into the water and looked up at the ceiling I almost screamed- instead of a final coat of the ceiling color, I'd painted the whole thing with the wall color. AAARRGHHHH!!!

The moral of this story is- wait until the sun comes up before painting your ceiling.

Guess what I spent the whole day doing???