Miss Independent

I can now add Weekend Warrior to my new collection of life experiences since moving to Japan. This deployment is forcing me to attempt doing things that I would normally rely on James for. One of those is home maintenance and decorating. I've really been wanting to paint my office a fun, bright color but the timing just hadn't worked out with Lisa's schedule (she's kind of been my handyman stand-in all summer. ;^) I didn't have any plans for this past weekend so I decided to do something daring (or stupid) and do the whole thing myself.

I bought a can of yellow paint at the Japanese home store and picked up a whole load of other free painting supplies from Self-Help on Friday afternoon and set to work. I had a yellow room growing up and liked the idea of creating a more sophisticated version of "my room" here. It was quite a work-out removing armfuls of books so I could scoot the furniture to the center of the room. After that I got out the step ladder and took down the curtains so I wouldn't get them dirty. Then I raided James' tool box so I could remove all of the outlet covers before taping around the room. Finally, I laid out the tarp I had left over from painting the living room.

Saturday morning I got up and put on some clothes I didn't care about in preparation for my first attempt at painting solo. (Good thing too because my clothes were completely spoiled...) Because Japanese stores only sell super bright, primary colors I knew I would need to mix a lot of white into the yellow in order to achieve the light, canary yellow color I was going for. Then I set to work. It turns out painting is a lot more physical than it appears when other people do it. The combination of really having to apply pressure as I was rolling on the paint with having to drag my step ladder around the room for the edge work really wore me out. BUT, at the end of the first day, I was still on an independence high and loved my yellow walls.

That was before they dried. A few hours later I walked in to survey my fine work and got a shock as the walls glowed back at me with a glaring shade of Big Bird yellow. It probably could have been tolerable as an office after the furniture and pictures covered it up. But as we also plan on using this as a guest room when/if people come to visit, I knew I needed to tone the paint down A LOT. So, Sunday after church I added another can full of white paint to the mix and set about correcting my mistake. It quickly became evident that the white wasn't helping. There was just too much yellow pigment in the paint and the second coat still reminded me strongly of rubber ducks...

Thankfully my new neighbor Yachen came to the rescue on Monday morning. I knew I did not have the strength or positive attitude I needed to do a full third coat, so she volunteered to come over and help me out. This time we poured the yellow bit by bit into a big bucket of white paint until we got the shade we wanted. This third coat was the exact color I was going for, which immediately improved my mood. And it was a fun way to spend some quality time getting to know my neighbor. There were many lessons learned through the process - namely, big projects like this are always easier and more enjoyable when you have a friend to help. (I should have known that based on my first round of painting with Lisa, but I suppose I had to try it for myself to fully appreciate what a big help she really was.)

I loved the yellow walls so much that I could hardly wait to get back in there and put everything back so I could start enjoying my new office! Once I was confident the paint was dry, I set to work removing the tape and tools and moving everything into place. I slightly changed up the lay-out in terms of where the bookcases are located, which makes the room look much more complete. Then today (Tuesday) I spent the afternoon hanging picture frames so the space is finally complete!!

It was A LOT of work, and I had to scrub all the sweat, grime and paint splatters off after each coat. But it was completely worth it! I now have a bright, inviting and inspiring work space that I actually want to spend time in which should help my motivation. AND I have a greater sense of confidence in my ability to manage a household on my own. GIRL POWER! B^)