I got the primer coat painted in the computer room yesterday. The first product I bought was KILZ. It’s a primer and stain blocker. I found out that you should read labels when it comes to stain blockers. I just bought The kind of KILZ that was in the big display at the end of the aisle. It was in a two gallon container, which seemed handy. It wasn’t the right product though. It only covered light stains and scuff marks. The good stuff was down the aisle. I ran out before the room was covered, so I went back to the store. This time I got a Behr product. And this time I read the label – it was a premium stain blocker. I re-covered some of the stainiest areas, and finished the spots I hadn’t yet gotten to.
I’ve never primed before. This was my first time ever. Usually I just get a good quality paint and put it on thick. I’ve never had any trouble, even painting white over black. Not having any experience with primer, I was experiencing something weird: the primer wasn’t covering things completely, even when I put it on thick. Is that what primer always does? It seems defeating or something – you roll on a fresh coat of paint, and when you’re finished, it looks splotchy and ill-painted. Why would anybody use primer? Get good paint and put it on thick. It takes less time, less money, and it doesn’t make you feel like you’re a bad painter.
Today is Beth’s birthday! Happy Birthday, Beth! Yay!
Of course I haven’t gotten anything sent to her. I really do enjoy sending a card or a present, but for some dang reason I just can’t get them in the mail on time. I started thinking about Beth’s birthday a week and a half ago. That would have been plenty of time to get something sent. But I didn’t do it. In my defense, it is the single most busiest time of the school year. (can you say ‘most busiest’?) But really, I should have been able to send something.
A couple of years ago, my friend Laura from church gave me a card box. She is a big fan of sending greeting cards of all kinds. She saw some card boxes on clearance and bought all of them. Not knowing what to do with them all, she gave me one. I didn’t do anything with it for a long time, but one time when I was going to get a hilarious birthday card for someone, I thought: Why not buy two? I’ve done that a few times now, and now I have a small stash of cards. Thank you, Laura!
But I still can’t seem to get things sent in time for peoples’ birthdays! Sheesh!
As I’ve been adjusting to the busier schedule of school, I’ve been trying to keep up with things at home. I’ve decided that if I can just do one home thing per night, that should be enough.
This past week, I’ve come home and washed dishes or mowed the lawn or cleaned the back porch. Last night I put new light bulbs in my front porch pendant light. All the bulbs were burnt out, so my porch was in darkness. Fortunately I had new bulbs. Otherwise the darkness would have continued. I like to leave my porch light on all night. I think it looks cheery. And I think it is a helpful gesture… people who need their way lit will find my porch light is quite bright.
I haven’t visited my friends Chris and Janet for years. It’s a matter of no small guilt, especially because I’m godfather to their son. We’ve tried to call each other many times, but our schedules don’t ever match. At one point, I just started leaving long messages in their voicemail that resembled a one-sided conversation. I asked them to do the same.
But then Janet texted me. She asked if I was up early in the morning. I told her that I’m almost always up early in the morning. Ever since then, I get early morning texts from her. But here’s the weird part: she lives in Phoenix. Time difference? Minus three hours! When she texts at 6:51am in Baltimore, it’s 3:51am in Phoenix. Holy cow!
She’s a personal trainer and has several clients who meet her for early morning workouts, so she gets up at 3:30am.
My most recent conversion experiment is over. I have not successfully switched to diet soda. I thought things were going well. I had mostly adjusted to the different flavor of diet sodas. I was even zeroing in on some favorites (I like Diet Dr. Pepper and Fresca).
But then the bitter-metallic aftertaste of the artificial sweeteners finally caught up with me. Maybe it took a while to build up or maybe I slowly lost tolerance for it. I realized one day that I was tasting that taste and I hadn’t had any diet soda for hours. Dang.
For now I’ve switched back to regular. Experiment suspended…
Yea, it doesn’t look splotchy at all….it looks great!! Maybe splotchy is in the eye of the beholder.
So did you finish painting the whole room? Can we see a picture?
I see the splotchy. And I agree. Who uses primer?
Maybe fresher plaster absorbs primer differently than older plaster and produces splotchiness? Myself, I wash the surface good with Spic ‘n Span, bleach or use an abrasive as a deglosser (when I’m recovering a bathroom, kitchen, or classroom wall, for example) – then just paint. I always thought primer was for completely bare walls, first time, virgin, never touched by a paint brush. No?
But, bottom line, who’s going to stare at your ceiling except floor-bound insects fantasizing about being up there? Looks fine. You have plenty other things to obsess about now that school’s reopened, don’t you??
Congratulations on being the first person to utter the word ‘stainiest’.
You’re a wordsmith.
I’ve primed something before. Except it wasn’t a room, it was a bird house.It was hard work. But wow was it beautiful!