That Time I Painted My House Purple
Samples? I don’t need no stinkin’ samples. I knew what I wanted and I got my paint. A five-gallon bucket of it.
When we bought our first house, the one on San Pedro, the color was a “meh” shade of pink. I soon started fantasizing about a rich blue-gray hue that would surely make our new home stand out as particularly lovely on the block. “The house is only 1300 square feet,” I reassured myself on the way to Home Depot, “How hard can it be?”
Samples? I don’t need no stinkin’ samples. I knew what I wanted and I got my paint. A five-gallon bucket of it.
With both of us painting, we figured we’d be done by late afternoon. Why do people make such a big deal over painting a house? We started on the front, and by late afternoon, we were still on the front. With each stroke, sunburned and aching, we understood why people make such a big deal over painting a house.
But there was another thing. Did my house look a little… purple? Had to be because the sun was setting.
The next day we begrudgingly got out of bed, and over coffee and aspirin, prepared mentally for round two. That day we painted the sunny side of the house: the sure-to-look-fabulous sunny side of the house. As the sun dropped lower in the sky, we stood back to admire our work. And yep, it was purple. Really purple. Your favorite periwinkle shirt purple.
We’d already done two sides of the house. There was no turning back.
Several long, miserable days later, we were finished. At first, when I would tell people how to find us, I described our house as gray. When they arrived, our guests uniformly expressed variations of “This house is not gray” and “This house is purple.” I surrendered. My house was purple and I knew it.
But what’s the point of experience if not to learn valuable life lessons, am I right?
Here are the takeaways from that experience that have held me in good stead in the ensuing two decades: 1) It takes a lot longer to paint something than you think it will. 2) Don’t buy giant buckets of paint. 3) Always put up samples. Always. 4) There’s a fine line between gray and purple.
Christy Rosen Clement is a Pricing Strategy Advisor®, Seller Representative Specialist®, Military Relocation Professional® and REALTOR® at Palermo Real Estate Professionals in South Tampa
