Thick Paint

I really had a lot to learn about my in-laws. They loved to show up unnanounced for a visit. Even though they lived far away, they travelled long distances whenever they could find some "business" to do.

One June day they showed up in the early afternoon just as I had put Heidi and Brandon down for a nap and was painting the living room. We had been in the house a short amount of time and the medium green walls were dirty from the former occupants smoking in the house. I had scrubbed them and realized I would need to paint. Where there had been pictures hung on the walls, there were brown squares that would not come off. The paint was poured into the roller pan, and I had already based in the entire room. They arrived and said, "We won't be a bother, just keep doing what you're doing." They then did their usual thing of taking over. They liked to be in charge, especially Lee. I went to check on one of the kids and when I came back Lee said, "Paula, that paint was too thick. I thinned it for you." He had poured a bunch of water into the can and into the roller pan. It was like soup now. I painted with it, respectfully not complaining. The first coat looked like thin whitewash. You could see right through it, and you could see the roller marks all over it. Second coat, third coat, fourth coat. Still not all covered and looking like the antique white I was painting it. The fifth coat did it. It took about 3 days to get it painted and he would come in and look at the progress and never once thought he had done anything wrong or that had caused a problem. I bore it patiently, but decided to never again let that happen.

Since the painting had gone on so long while they were there, Esther was not liking the smell of paint. She said, "If you want to get rid of a smell in your house this is what you do. Just fry up a little bacon and it will make it all better." Paint and bacon, yum.