I found more stuff to paint

I'm not like, all about decorating my house. I mean, I go stretches of time where I don't try to decorate a single thing at all.

But I do have a decorating gene that activates from time to time. I get this from my Mom. She is an expert decorator. (In fact, rumor has it that recently, a lamp in their house went out. And while my dad had it out of it's normal place for two days to fix it, my mom wanted to find something to put in it's place against the wall until the lamp came back, because she doesn't like any blank wall space.)

I have a reliable source on that, but to protect him I will keep his name out of the press.

Anyway, I take a bit of a different approach to decorating. I don't like to overdo it. I like basic, simple things. And when the mood strikes me to decorate or move something or change the look of something, I consider these two things:

1. Can I paint it?
2. If it costs more than about $15, I can live with it the way it is.

For instance, for awhile I've wanted to change the planters I have around the outside of my house. They are basically big wood logs that hold in my flowerbeds. I like them. But they just look really old, and the wood is rotting in places. A bit white trash-esque.

So, I put this project through my simple project-worthiness process. Because pulling out all of those logs and replacing it with something else that is fabulous = about 1 billion dollars and a whole lot of work.

1. Can I paint it? YES.
2. Cost: One gallon of redwood stain and one paint brush = $12

I paint anything that will hold paint, and it's amazing, really, what all can be painted. Wood, plastic, metal. Just about anything can be painted, and trust me I've tried to paint just about everything in the house. I've got my eye on my china cabinet for my next painting project, but that's a big one. I'll save that for a rainy weekend.

So, after my afternoon nap today, I ran to Home Depot and purchased the can of redwood stain and a paintbrush, then came back home and started staining the wood flowerbed keeper-inner thingies.

I started on the side of my house that no one sees, in case I didn't like it. Admittedly, some of my brilliant house projects don't turn out exactly the way I picture them in my head....

But, I have to say, after about halfway through the first one, I took a step back and looked and it is pretty genius. It makes the whole thing look brand new and just pretty much awesome.

So I kept going. But I don't have a picture to post because I finished at about 8:30 when it was dark outside. I didn't start it until 5:30, but I'm all for immediate gratification sometimes. I wanted the front of the house completely transformed by my spur of the moment wood staining idea. And yes, I'm THAT neighbor, the crazy one, painting in the dark with a flashlight.

See, I was almost finished with the side and all of the front yard, and I just didn't want to stop. So the last part next to the water hose might not be exactly, um, perfect. I'll check it in the daylight tomorrow.

But (and this is how silly I am sometimes) the REAL reason I wanted it finished so that in the morning when I come back from the gas station where I buy my Sunday paper, I'll drive up and see how beautiful the front of my house looks now. I'll get the full impact of the amazing transformation that took place today.

The good news is that if it really does look terrible in the daylight tomorrow, that wood is well on its way to rotting away. So in another 10 or 15 years, it might all be disintegrated anyway.

C.T.