Spray Paint- A How Not-to Guide

Today is our house-iversary!! One year ago today we closed on our beloved casa and began the process of making it our dream house. I had this whole post planned where I would have all these great pictures of all the changes we've made over the year, but it's summer and I have three boys, and upstairs looks like it's been taken over by squatters. I don't even go up there. Seriously- it's too horrifying. I just leave Boyland to them and I live on the clean first floor of the house. So yeah, maybe we'll get to those pictures sometime in the future.

In the meantime, I'm going to tell you a story about how stupid I am, but only if you promise not to tell my husband. I don't have to worry about him finding out here because he doesn't read my blog. He says, "I don't need to read it- I live it." So this little snafu needs to stay between us.

Yesterday I decided to paint a little metal bench that I had out in the yard. It was looking pretty tired, and what could possibly make it more cheerful than a coat of bright pink spray paint? There was a good chance of rain in the afternoon, so I decided to paint it in the garage. No big deal, I've done that before. But this time I decided not to bother moving my car. After all, I was several feet away- it would be fine, right? Well, it might have been fine if I didn't have a huge fan going to help with ventilation. But since I did, I got an unfortunate surprise when I was finished.

I stepped back to admire my cheerful pink bench,

Cute, right?? 

Then I looked around and noticed that everything around me had a fine, powdery coating of pink. I wondered if my car did, but it was hard to tell in the dim light. I ran my hand over the side and it felt powdery and came back vaguely pink. So I thought, "hmm, I'd better rinse this off before it sets."

When I backed it out in the driveway, it still didn't look too bad. Maybe it had a slight pinkish cast? Then I walked around it to find wherever the sun hit it, wherever the light caught it at an angle, it was a definite iridescent pink. I'm not going to lie, it was actually kind of cool, and I thought briefly about leaving it. But I figured that would not go over well with the aforementioned spouse, so I decided I'd better rinse it off. No big deal- except that when it dried, it was still pink....

I started to get a bit panicky at this point. I had twenty minutes until I had to leave to get to an appointment and I had a pink minivan. What the hell was I going to do???There was no time for a real car wash, so I had to give my car a frantic sponge bath in a desperate attempt to remove all evidence of stupidity. Thankfully it worked, and I headed off to my appointment with a sigh of relief.

That lasted until I got home and realized that the garage floor was sporting a delightful coat of pink mist. Hubs would probably not be thrilled about that either (though he'd be happier than he would if the car still looked like a rolling blob of cotton candy.) It swept out fairly easily, though there's still a pink patch where I actually painted it. But that's no big deal, because I paint in there frequently, and the floor is already a Rorschach test of previous projects. My secret is safe- as long as you guys don't tell him. And I have learned a valuable lesson- ALWAYS MOVE THE CAR!!!

I'll leave you with that good advice, and this picture to commemorate our very first house-iversary.