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SEP

17

2007

my father and i went to city paints on mass ave in west cambridge to buy a gallon of color paint. we decided on hibiscus with an eggshell finish, a light medium greenish yellow color. my sister really wanted pale avocado, which seemed too dark, or rainforest dew, which was too khaki for any of our taste.

the first thing i noticed when i cracked open the lid was how yellow it was, almost to the point of being fluorescent. putting it on the wall, my gut reaction was this wasn't the right color, like painting with pea soup. i did like working with latex again versus oil, less smelly and easier to clean.

i did the edges first with a brush, and it wasn't until i started rolling a whole section of the wall that i could get a better sense of the color. the living room itself has a weird lighting situation: the half with the southern facing window gets some sun coverage while the northern end is perpetually shady. the only ceiling light is single recessed above the dining area. with all those variables working together, sometimes hibiscus looked yellow, other times green, or occasionally somewhere in between.

my sister decided to help us today. she got the easier job of rolling, while my father worked on the lower edges along the baseboard. i had crown molding duty. edging took forever because we couldn't tape since it'd strip the primer from the walls. we started at about 11am and finished by 3pm.

my father was debating whether we should even bother doing a second coat. we only bought a gallon of paint, but there's still about a third left in the can. we could just do some spot touch-ups on any areas we missed. i'm still debating whether hibiscus is the right choice. maybe it's a color that'll grow on us. i just think it's a little too much for a yellow exterior house to be yellow on the inside as well. but sometimes the color looks green as well. if we do change the color, it won't be the first time: 5 years ago when i painted my kitchen an eye-hurting salsa red, i did a drastic color change 48 hours later to a lighter shade of red.

after stopping by the cafe for a quick bite, i went home, paying a visit to my garden for some watering. later i went with my mother to the supermarket to get some groceries (mostly junk food but i did pick up another bag of salad - as if that'd make a dent in my unhealthy choices). watching television from the living room i fell asleep, waking up intermittently to catch the red sox lose to the blue jays. i woke up later to heat up some of yesterday's leftover soup for dinner.