Did I Say… A Quick Job???

Last week, I do believe I used these somewhat similar words "I’m going to slip in a quick 1 day job…before I start the Master Bath project." HA! That was the job where I was going to the Fitness Center of a new apartment complex to paint some large silhouettes on the wall, of people doing various sports. To do this job, the plan was to project the figures onto the wall. I have a great portable projector I use for this type of job. The night before the job, I set it up in my living room to test out the size of my silhouettes. All seemed fine, UNTIL… I knocked over the projector and the 2 bulbs broke. Now it would not work at all. I frantically went on line, in search of replacement bulbs in my surrounding area. No luck,but it looked like MAYBE Staples would have the bulbs. They open at 7 a.m., so I was over there around 7:30 the next morning, praying they would have the bulbs in stock. Unfortunately, they did not. I returned home to call two friends who I thought might have access to an overhead, again no luck. Back on line to search for rentals of overhead projectors. Apparently, no one uses these anymore. I finally found a great company, SmartSource in nearby Waltham that had one. And I mean one. (again, apparently not a big demand for overhead projectors these days!) The guys were very friendly and helpful and even loaded the projector in my car for me. 🙂 .

First, when I arrived on the job, a temporary wall had been constructed to block access to the wing where the Fitness Center is located. This required me to move my car to the side of the building, enter through a side door, crawl under some scaffolding, and walk up a flight of stairs to get to the Fitness Center. I had to make 3 trips with my supplies. This building is still very much under construction. I completed the wall I was commission to do in 1 day… almost. The first 2 silhouettes that I put up, looked great, until I peeled away my one time use, paper stencil. This is when I realized the paint was just too light against the background wall paint and the silhouettes just were not showing up well. I continued on with the remainder of the silhouettes in a darker tone. After I was done with that, I went back to the 2 light silhouettes and taped them all out using Flex Tape. This tape is very flexible, but has a high tack. I took some of the tack off, but after I had repainted the silhouettes in a darker tone and pulled the tape off, a lot of the wall paint came off with the tape. Now it was late and I had to leave. I returned the next day and patched all the peeled paint areas. As I was doing this, Marc showed up and said he thought I should do the adjacent wall too. I had limited time that day, so I projected the silhouettes on paper and traced them out to do this week. I returned on Monday of this week and completed everything. This was a very fun job and I love the look! I am already thinking for some new, fun ways to do more of these silhouettes in another fitness center that may be added to my schedule in the near future.

On a side note, I am now out in western Massachusetts staying with my Mom until Friday. She suffered her second TIA ( a mini-stroke) 2 days ago. 🙁 She spent a few hours at the hospital, but they did not admit her. My cousin spent the first night with her until I could get out here. She seems to be doing remarkably well with no damage from this episode. One of my brothers will relieve me on Friday and stay with her through the weekend. Today my Mom was more concerned about her out of control hair than anything else, and promptly drove down the street to get her hair cut!