Spreading It A Little Thin

So, the old adage is that something particularly boring is "as interesting as watching paint dry." Does the same apply to reading blog posts about paint? Hope not--for your sake.

So, we're painting the bedroom. After one false start--and several nights of "We'll move out the furniture after this one episode of Mythbusters"--I began painting the ceiling Wednesday night. The original plan was to have 3-4 days to allow for 1-2 coats on the ceiling and 2 on the walls. Ha. Don't you love those original plans? They're so fragile and naive, like newborn kittens.

I bought a gallon for the ceiling, knowing full well it was more than enough. I've painted enough rooms in my day to make up quite a mansion, and I've painted several ceilings in the rest of my house, so it's not like I don't know what it takes. Then again, I didn't account for the Paint-inator.

We bought a power-roller awhile back, and I hadn't had a chance to use it yet. So I thought, anything that makes the tedious task of ceiling-painting faster and less drippy sounds like a good idea. And it was--it worked really well, and I was astounded at the little amount of paint that dripped--the most that got on the floor was from me putting the roller down when my arms got tired. But apparently it also puts paint on thicker than your manual-rolling technique. Which is great--it means I probably won't have to paint two coats, hooray! But, um. I used the whole gallon. And, um--there's still about 9 square feet of my ceiling that isn't blue. And I didn't find this out until 10:30pm last night, so of course I get to buy more paint on the way home--my last day for painting, btw, and walls are on the schedule.

So, either I have the thirstiest ceiling on earth, or a gallon just isn't what it used to be anymore, or there is something bizarre about power-rollers. In any case, word to the wise when using one--buy lots of paint. Lots and lots of paint.

Also, I must note that if you haven't listened to the audiobook Chronicles of Narnia, do so. I listened to them all in the spring, and last night while painting brought out "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" again. It's even better than I remembered--Derek Jacobi's reading is simply genius.