A Simple Project?

I am finally getting Daughter #1's room ready for guests to use. This is happening, not because I was ready (or had the time) to tackle the job, but because my father-in-law is coming to visit next week. While I was out of town this weekend my husband decided he would surprise me and paint the room. I arrived home Sunday night to find large pieces of bedroom furniture in my living room, books lining the hallway and every available surface in my home, c.d. racks in my bedroom, a trunk by the den door (which husband forgot about and ran smack into on Monday morning), and not a drop of fresh paint anywhere in sight.

I can certainly sympathize with his plight. He is experiencing my cleaning nightmare. A seemingly simple project turns into the twelve labors of Hercules. Innocently, he thought painting one bedroom would be an easy job. I bet it happened something like this:

• He decided a fresh coat of paint would make the room look nicer for his father's visit.
• He went to the paint or hardware store, looked at paint chips, and chose a nice neutral wall color, stocked up on brushes, rollers, trays and drop cloths.
• He came home, thinking he'd be finished by the time I arrived on Sunday night.
• He goes into the room to remove the 1980's grunge-rock, classic rock and Texas alt-country posters from the walls and ceiling. Goodbye Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins (you will be missed Billy Corgan). You're out of here - John, Paul, George and Ringo. You too, Jimmy Hendrix and Bob Dylan. Hate to see you go Rhett Miller. Removing the posters becomes a painstaking process because he has made a solemn vow not to damage anything, to roll them all into poster tubes and save them. Why? Because she is my daughter, need I say more?
• Once the posters are down there is much more wall and ceiling damage than he anticipated. The mirrored disco ball he removed has left a hole that now must be repaired.
• Then there is the matter of the padded wall. In 1984 I covered one wall with quilt batting and a beautiful fabric (at least it was beautiful in 1984). If he's going to paint the room he may as well get rid of this and paint the entire room.
• As he pulls the fabric off of the wall he realizes I installed it using industrial-strength staples from a staple gun - lots and lots of staples, thousands of staples. He spends hours with a screwdriver removing staples out of the wall.
• Then he notices something on the ceiling he hadn't seen when the posters were covering it. The entire ceiling is covered in miniature glow-in-the-dark stars, planets, comets, suns and moons. The adhesive has only grown stronger over twenty-five years and each one must be scraped off with a razor blade.
• Now the window treatment, balloon shades made from the same fabric that was hours ago covering one wall, must come down. They are attached to a massive cornice apparatus that has been bolted to the window by professional installers.
• A search for the right screwdriver ensues and the eight-foot, bulky (heavy) shade comes down revealing mini-blinds that must also be removed.
• Now the furniture must be moved. For a small room there is an inordinate amount of massive furniture and every surface is covered with books. There are also several bookcases full of books - these are not cheap paperbacks, these are scholarly "tomes" (heavy).
• The books must be moved (carefully, as these are the prized possessions of my well-read, intellectual child) before the furniture will budge. Ergo books covering every surface in the rest of the house when I arrived home on Sunday night.
• Books moved, he can now move furniture. Daughter #2 is enlisted to assist. What they can carry is distributed through out the rest of the house. What they can't move (this is all massive mission-style, heavy wood stuff) is scooted to the middle of the room awaiting shrouds of drop cloths.
• Once everything is moved away from the walls he notices the baseboards and all of the wood trim around the windows, closet and doors has been painted metallic silver. (This was a Junior High era decorating choice.) This must be repainted as well.
• Sanding, Spackle (lots of Spackle), more sanding brings us to today.

It is Tuesday. The quick, weekend project is scheduled to begin today. I'll keep you posted!