paint, remodeling

Test patterns

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Saturday. Before dawn. Out the door and up to Anderson High School. Put Jadin on the bus. The Girls Volleyball team is scrimmaging.

It’s still dark when Jacquela and Steven travel five streets over to Emerald Hill. Unlock the gate. Open the house. By cellphone flashlight. Steven hooks a sprinkler to the hose, trying to save the grass. Jacquela carries in a box of sample paints.

At the back of the garage, in the back yard, we start with the potential grays for the body of the house — the original yellow brick and the factory-primed Hardieboard siding that, ironically, mimics the yellow paint that held together what was left of the nearly 50 year old cedar siding that demo removed from the house.

Then six different reds to find the candidate color for the front door. Positive Red — Sherwin Williams 6871 wins. The other are too pink or too dark.

Then up go Snowbound SW 7004 and Naval SW 6244 — the white and blue, respectively.

We quickly eliminate the light gray in the middle. It’s too light. No personality.

The sun’s coming up. Instead of standing around watching paint dry, off we go to breakfast with our friend Brenda. Steven gets his hair cut while Jacquela turns off the sprinkler at Emerald Hill.

For round two we shift to the front wall of the garage that faces the street — to see the paint colors in different light.

Jacquela ponders Wall Street, the gray at upper left; Positive Red; Naval blue; Snowbound white; and, at bottom, Cyberspace, a dark gray.
Jacquela ponders Wall Street, the gray at upper left; Positive Red; Naval blue; Snowbound white; and, at bottom, Cyberspace, a dark gray. We did not intend to paint a red, white and blue American flag. Really. Steven realizes it’s the wrong vibe — and Jacquela eliminates Naval blue. Things you learn only by doing …

After lunch, after a trip to Ikea, after picking up Jadin and feeding her lunch, back to the house we go. It’s now five hours after we put up the paint samples. Daylight changes everything.

The front wall of the garage faces north and east. It gets no direct sun -- only sidelong streams filtered by the oak trees overhead.
The front wall of the garage faces north and east. It gets no direct sun — only sidelong streams filtered by the oak trees overhead.

Naval blue will not make the cut. Positive Red does. But which gray will we paint the body of the house — the lighter Wall Street or the darker Cyberspace?

The color scheme for the exterior of Emerald Hill. We think.
The color scheme for the exterior of Emerald Hill. We think.

 

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