Too Much Awesomeness

Adventures in Skim Coating

I thought that painting the bedroom would FUN!  We'd take a day or two, do it ourselves and make the room OURS! instead of HIS!

I was wrong.

The house is old.  The bedroom hadn't been painted in 10 years.  Paint was chipping, plaster was cracking.

"It's a big job," Boyfriend warned.

"It'll be fun!" I replied.

I am a fool.

Or maybe he is the fool, because seriously why would he listen to me on home repairs?! 

When we started to clear the paint from around the cracks to fix them, the paint came off in strips.  We quickly realized that we were going to have to scrape the entire room - including the ceiling.  So that took a couple of days, because stripping an entire room ain't easy, and is mainly annoying.

This was when we had just begun the stripping.  I was joined by Riley, my hard-driving supervisor.

When the stripping was done, it was time to skim coat over the cracks. And then sand over the skim coat.  But because we had not stripped things completely evenly, we had to skim coat ALL walls and the ceiling in the hope of getting things even.  But things still weren't quite even.  So we skim coated some more.  Then sanded some more.  And then bickered about how tired we both were of skim coating and sanding, and who was more tired of it (a tie).  Then skim coated, then sanded, then skim, then... 

I have suggested stopping where and living in a room of skim coating.  Boyfriend has not given in.  Yet.

Example of why compromise is hard for me

"Why is it so hard to compromise?" you might be asking now.  But compromise is hard.  And you need a better idea of me to fully understand this.

Sometimes Boyfriend will agree with something I say, and will say "You are right."

I correct him, as the proper response is:  "You are right AS ALWAYS."

Now you get it, right?! 

Boy vs. Girl Decorating: the bedroom

Moving in together is a pain in the butt.  Why?  COMPROMISE.

I've been living alone for many years now, which means that things in my apartment are how I want them to be.  My bedroom is pink, with a green bed and a multicolored bedspread with birds and flowers.  I love it. 

Boyfriend has lived in his house for 10+ years (10+ years with no redecorating, and curtains still up from the original owners, but let's not focus on that).   His bedroom is white.  White bedding, white walls, black and white pictures.

So now it's time for my decorating style to meet his decorating style.  Which means lots & lots of compromise.  I understand that he doesn't want a pink bedroom (really I do!), but an all white bedroom feels so...  white. 

I convinced him to paint, as the paint from 10+ years ago was chipping down around us.

Then I convinced him to paint a color. 

COMPROMISE COLOR:
Gray.

Granite, to be precise, from the lovely folks at Lowes Hardware.

Pretty!  Neutral!  COMPROMISY!

And if some accent colors (blue! yellow!) slip into the window treatments or throw pillows...  I mean, obviously we'll discuss those things first and compromise on it, but I'm just saying....