When I told folks I intended to paint the shutters and front door before the birthday party, they all said, “You know you’ll never get that done, right?”  Ha ha, probably not.  But then GREG said I’d never get it done, and there you have it.  (I hear wives everywhere nodding).  The gauntlet had been thrown.  6 winters, especially last year’s, had done their worst to the chocolate brown paint that I never liked anyway.  To my quote my Father, “From a color perspective, it’s accurate, but it’s uninspired”.  I brought home several paint swatches, sure that I wanted a dark red.  After holding them up to the house, they looked horrible.  Lastly, I held up my least favorite from the sample pack, called “Brownberry”.  Why would I want to go from brown to brown?  I wanted red, and this little card looked brown to me.  But when I held it up, it matched a tone in the brick.  It was clearly the best fit, and having no decorating ability whatsoever, I figured the color I hated was the right one.

I opened the can, and found myself staring at a bright red-orange paint.  I grabbed the sample, and when I held it to the can, it matched.  What?  OH WOW, AM I BAD AT THIS.  I painted the door.  YEP.  Red.  Dad was coming the very next day to reach my upstairs shutters, so onward I painted.  With 48 hours to the party countdown, Dad and I came to the same realization Greg had told us many times: no ladder we own can reach those top shutters.  The angle is too steep, because a very tall planting bed sits against the house.  As luck would have it, no ladder owned by my father would reach either.  Oh happy day full of self-created drama.

I called Greg in a panic.  He said, “Well, what can I tell you?  I told you I’d break my neck trying to reach those things.  I think you should call it a day.”  To which, I not so calmly replied, “I have 2 brown shutters and 2 bright red shutters and 50 guests arriving in 2 days.  Let’s just say I’m COMMITTED AT THIS POINT.  I’ve got this, call you later.”  As it turns out, professional painters don’t want to paint just 2 shutters, and let’s not even get started on my deadline.  But I called Larry over at 5 Star Painting, and let me tell you now, these guys are AWESOME.  He gave me a very fair quote, told me he’d be in touch soon, and in no time whatsoever, his Project Manager called (shout out to super great Walter…love that guy).  Their team on my side of town was finishing up a job a bit early, and lickety-split, they showed up, pulled out the largest ladder I’ve ever seen, and had my shutters done before I could clean up the mess I’d made on the front porch.  By the time Greg got home, Dad and I had already toasted with beers out on the street, congratulating ourselves for a job well hired out.  Larry’s team is REAL.  They are the kind of painters who take all your drain spouts down when doing an exterior trim job.  I wish I would have just called them from the beginning and let them do the whole thing.

Is it bright?  Of course it is.  Is it better than living in the big brown square house? OH YES.  I love it.  It’s very…me.  But, you know…when you freshen up your paint, your exterior lights suddenly start to show their age…