When we moved here, the lady who lived here before us decided to remove all the touch-up paint cans she had in the garage. There were some hard feelings about the ultimate sales price of our place versus what it appraised for, so I'm thinking this was a (brilliant) little way of getting some passive-aggressive revenge on us.
After all, her new place was NOT painted the same color, so by taking all the paint, she denied us 1) the ability to touch anything up, ever, because....2) we now lacked the information to determine exactly what the paint color was. After all, you can't exactly scrape off a piece of wall and take it into Home Depot to get it matched.
And so for the last few years, some of the rooms have been looking more and more beat up. Our son Groceries' room especially took a beating -- as all teenaged boys' rooms do -- but we also had a significant roof leak that left stains on another bedroom wall and ceiling after it was all repaired and dry again.
It was already on my schedule to paint those two bedrooms this winter, and since I was also having to paint the ceiling of one, I figured it would take about three days....three days of my life that I'd never get back.
Then, on a lark one day, I decided to call the home builder to see if they had any information on what color they'd painted the interior of the house when they were building it. It was a shot in the dark -- a home built over a decade ago by a builder who really has no stake in keeping the small details like paint color on record, being expected to have the information right at their fingertips.
Yet that is exactly what happened. The gal at the builder's office got on her computer, and within one minute flat told me the color: "Stunning" by Frazee Paints. All I had to do was go down there and order a quart, and as long as the sun had not faded it too much, it should be a good match.
Long story short, I did, the paint matched perfectly, and in about a half-hour I fixed what would have taken me three days to fix if I'd had to choose a whole new color to paint the rooms. And there are a lot of other dings and nicks which are now fixed in other rooms as well.
So I got three days of my life back....wonder what fun thing I should do with them? Maybe nothing, but it sure does feel great to have them!
Oh that is so funny! I have to give it to her, that's a good move. I don't mind painting walls *that* much. Trim is annoying. Ceilings? No f--ing way. I've been repainting to have my trim and walls the same color. I'm sick of the tedious work and worries during touch ups. It's liberating. Though the trim doesn't pop quite as much.
ReplyDeleteA agree ceilings are THE WORST, but I actually love painting interior trim and usually touch all mine up every 2 years. Just think of it...if we were sitcom roommates, we'd have a beautiful home due to perfect division of labor lol -- I do the trim, you do the walls and we hire someone to do the ceilings!
ReplyDeleteGlad you got the name/color. That's one organized contractor! When I paint a room I put the leftover paint in a glass jar, label it & store it in the room itself. It really helps to be able to open a closet or cabinet to find the exact paint to do touch ups. Especially in the bathrooms.
ReplyDeleteThat is a really excellent idea, DFW. The garage is a terrible place to store paint, as it gets so hot eventually the paint dries out and the label can fade as well. Of course I had NO paint, but thankfully, I finally do, so I am going to follow suit and keep the paint in the room it was used in. Thank you for that tip!
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