I’m not sure if I mentioned it before, but I’m working part-time for a friend who owns rental houses and apartments. I’ve done some yard work for him and some painting for extra cash.

I’ve learned something about myself — I really enjoy painting! I used to absolutely abhor it. But I figured out it’s not the painting I hate. It’s the prep work and cleanup that makes it miserable. But I can learn to live with that.

First, he asked me to scrape and paint a garage for him at one of his houses. This job was pretty awesome, because it was in the spring and it wasn’t too hot yet. I put on my headphones and rocked. I’m sure the tenants enjoyed looking out their window and watching me dance while I worked.

It took a couple of months because I could only work in the mornings and it rained a lot. But in the end, it was a pretty good job.  I had to endure a  creepy neighbor watching me only once, but then he came and talked to me. He was nice, but it made me a bit conscious when I was working on the side of the garage facing him. Ew. I made sure to have my “don’t talk to me” headphones in.

I wish I still had the pictures I took of the paint job. I saved them to my phone, but they were lost when my phone broke and I had to get a new one. (Thank you, Samsung!)  Next month when I (hopefully) have a tenant in my house I plan to paint my own garage, now that I’m not intimidated by the process.

On to my next project, I painted a tenant’s kitchen. She is a nice retired lady with a lot of spunk. I instantly enjoyed her. We got to know each other while I painted, and we had fun teasing each other about college football. She’s a South Carolina Gamecocks fan (ick) while I’m a Georgia Bulldog. She had a sticker on her door that said, “I eat tiger (and my veggies).” I want that sticker, only without a Gamecock on it. She also had four cats, so I can get along with just about any animal lover.

Anyway, here are a few before pics.

(Sorry for the phone camera images, and the blur!)

The walls were kind of a battleship gray, which doesn’t make for a very nice kitchen. She had the place fully decorated, though. She’s one of those people who has the walls covered with knick-knacks. I’m not a fan of that style, but to each her own.

I didn’t get very many before pics, and now I wish I had. Oh well.

It took several days and a couple trips to the paint store, but I finally got it done.

The walls are an older Porter Paints color, called Shell (the tenant picked it out).

The trim is an off-white from Porter, too.

Porter Paint is a lot more expensive than my usual go-to, Valspar. And I don’t think I like it any better. The first coat didn’t cover as well as I thought it would. What I do like is that they sell paint in quarts, which is handy.

In the end, it looked a million times better, and the tenant was very pleased. She said she would give my name to some of her friends who would like to hire me to paint.

Some after pics:

I warned her that I’m not as good as a professional painter, but I also don’t charge as much as a pro. I wish I could find a way to make this my grad-school job in Richmond after I move. If I can get enough work in Louisville, maybe I will feel bold enough to call myself a pro. Eh, we’ll see.