Home Improvements

You know, I think I have a new hobby and it’s one that I never thought I’d have.

Home Improvement.

I went the hardware store on my lunch hour and was surprised to find that I was awfully excited and looking forward to it.

Oh my goodness, I’m turning into Hank Hill.

It all began when I moved into my new apartment and painted the walls. They looked so nice and it was the first time I ever lived anywhere that didn’t have white walls. I love it.

Then, I decided to paint the bathroom only to discover that some repairs needed to be done to the walls. I’m usually oblivious to my surroundings, but in prepping the bathroom walls, I discovered that there had been some water damage. The previous renter had done a really bad repair job – basically festooning large amounts of caulk over the whole deal.

So in order to paint, some repairs needed to be done. This was told to me by Speck who has become my home-repair-and-painting guru. She’s been a godsend and is obviously very knowledgeable about these things. She’s also been very gracious about my panicked phone calls to her while aimlessly meandering through the aisles of Ace Hardware.

So, today I obtained some more supplies with which to make my bathroom a stunning showcase. I’m presently learning about caulk. I bought the caulk squirt-thingy (which, by the way, looks like a huge tube of cake decorating icing) and made sure to get the clear, anti-mildew caulk stuff.

While reading the directions, I discovered that I needed a caulking gun. I really didn’t like the idea of purchasing anything even remotely related to a firearm, but I bucked up and bought one anyway. I sort of got the caulk squirty-tube stuck in the gun while trying it out in the store but managed to pry the two apart.

I’m going to do a lot of painting this weekend, so a bought a cool little paint bucket that has a hand strap and a magnet to hold the paint brush. They only had red ones and I really would have preferred a blue one.

My painting skills still lack the requisite precision so I also bought several touch-up brushes. They’ll come in handy, I’m sure.

I noticed that the the hardware store had a section of clothing, too. I almost bought some overalls and work boots but decided that I better not push it.

I hope I’m not overdoing this painting thing in my apartment. So far, I’ve got six different colors going on:

Van Deusen Blue
Burlap
Hazelnut Cream
Crushed Velvet
Tootie Fruity (which is really “apricot”)
White

So, yes, I’m all excited about completing these home repairs.

If the caulk around my bathtub ends up resembling a Cornelli lace pattern, you'll know that my cake decorating skills sort of took over.