Paint Complaints

I LOATHE painting.  I like to paint the stuff I need painted within the same amount of time, that way I can put off painting for several more years.  We painted our entire first floor four years ago when we remodeled the house, and I'm not ashamed to say that after the last can got put away after touch-up day, none of them ever re-surfaced despite the cracks, scratches, and chunks that gradually appeared after typical wear-and-tear. 

Fast-forward four years.  We have now remodeled the second floor of our house after carefully saving for a long time, and I have had to paint again.  Ugh.  I think I'd rather staple my head to the floor.  The bad thing is that in addition to hating painting, I'm also pretty obsessive/compulsive about how it's done.  I guess I think if it gets done really, really well, then I'll be able to more effectively ignore imperfections...?  So not only do I hate it, but I also don't like to let anyone else (*cough, Kyle) do it because I'm so particular.  In my opinion, it's very rare to have a marriage consist of two people who are good at taping and painting.  

At least Kyle recognizes this.  He did help paint the larger part of the upstairs (thank goodness), but this is only because there was no division between walls and ceilings, so we didn't have to preserve lines.  I also went back and checked his work every half hour or so, which annoyed him to no end, I'm sure.  In his defense, though, he's always offered to help with the painting (I don't know if it's necessarily to spare me as opposed to baby), but I just shoo him away and make him go do the things I REALLY don't want to do, like lay flooring.  He does always demand that I take frequent breaks for fresh air and buys me the little masks to wear.

So, to recap on Phases 3 and 4...since the phases kind of overlapped each other, neither is completely complete yet.  I still have just a tad of upstairs painting to finish and we have the bathroom floor to lay and trim to do, but other than that, everything else is finished upstairs!  Too bad the painting's not over yet.  Let me tell you (complain) about how much painting/polyurethaning we've done and how much we still have to do:

Done:

1) Priming our 625 square foot, vaulted walled, odd-shaped main area (this took seven hours, believe it or not!)
2) Two coats of paint over same walls
3) Priming the bathroom
4) Two coats of paint in the bathroom (plus, I had to paint our exposed pipes! This smallest room in our house took 4 hours per coat to paint!)
5) Two coats of polyurethane over the exposed brick on the chimney (this was AFTER I scrubbed the entire thing with a TOOTHBRUSH)
6) Two coats of paint on the stairs
7) Two coats of metallic paint on the trim of the bathroom shower stall (took 9 hours total)
8) One coat of paint on the bathroom door and doorway (took 3 hours)

So the thing is that I'm NOT a slow painter...so I wish it wouldn't take this long!  So far, I would say we've invested roughly 50 hours of painting/polyurethaning over the course of 9 different days.  

Still to Complete Before the End of Summer:

1) Second coat of paint on the bathroom door and doorway
2) Touch-up paint upstairs
3) Touch-up paint downstairs
4) Closet doors in baby's room
5) Priming upstairs furniture
6) Painting upstairs furniture

We started our Prep for Childbirth classes at the hospital one night a week.  One of the men there complained that since his wife got pregnant, she "couldn't" do anything (he mentioned weeding the flowers, painting the nursery, cleaning the bathroom, make dinner, etc.  Apparently she just sits around and concentrates on growing an infant).  I'm still doing all those things!  Although, I'd have to say, if I could be that woman, I'd give up painting....no question about it!  If I tried to push all those things on Kyle on top of everything he's already doing, there'd be no way anything would ever get accomplished.  And ain't nobody got time for that!