Further painting-related deliberation
Sunday we got the expert advice of Pangaea, whose main qualification is that she loves to paint (colors only). She said, tactfully but with great certitude, that we could not paint the bedroom wall red. First of all, there was no way to sleep soundly in a room with walls painted red or orange. Bedrooms should be painted green, blue, or other soothing colors -- maybe a nice terracotta if we really wanted red. Second, a giant red wall amid all that white would be jarring.
I didn't buy the first argument, since nothing stands between me and my sleep, but I could definitely see her second point. We had been afraid of that too, in fact. In the end, notwithstanding all those helpful suggestions you all had (plus the Saab idea), we decided to paint everything white with an eventual plan of getting red shades (a dream of mine since I was 15).
Today I met with the painter, who happens to be our realtor's husband. Our realtor is an apple-cheeked, sweet-tongued Midwestern matron. Her husband on the other hand is a lanky, unsmiling Irishman, daubed in various shades of white, who does not mince words. He gave me the revised estimate, then some advice about the downstairs, which Colliculus and I and other willing and friendly parties are going to attempt this weekend: "Don't fuck it up." He then expounded on this theme. People think, "Anyone can paint." It's not true. Everyone fucks it up. Why, just look at this shitty job the previous owner did. (Points at smudged Grey Poupon in the corners, which I hadn't noticed before.) Couples call him, threatening divorce, asking him to come over and fix the crappy job they did. Anyway, he wasn't trying to get me to hire him to do the downstairs too, because in the end he offered me a tutorial on how not to fuck it up, insisted on buying all of our supplies at a discount and delivering them for us ("Everything they sell at Home Depot is absolute shit"), and urged me to call his cell phone at any time if the shit should hit the fan.
It's like having my dad around, if my dad used four-letter words and a cell phone. This should be fun.
