In an effort to liven the place up and get a little color in the house, Jenn and I decided to paint the downstairs half-bathroom red.

On Sunday we bought the primer, bought the paint, got rollers and stir sticks and all the stuff needed to get it underway. Last night we put down the drop cloth, got everything out, and Jenn poured the primer into the pan. It was time to begin.

Jenn worked on chipping in the details, getting close to (but not touching) the baseboards, behind the sink, etc. I got the roller and covered the big stuff. Halfway through, I’m noticing that the primer seemed a little thin and wasn’t covering these stupid wall decal things that the previous homeowner had put up. I figured it was just going to take a little extra effort, but no biggie.

I got to the last wall and it was time to refill the roller pan for the second time. It looked pretty good, but was really uneven. That’s why you buy primer, though, right? So you can smooth it all out and get a nice even topcoat. I told Jenn to pour some more into the roller pan and she told me to do it myself. Fair enough.

I got down from the ladder, grabbed the screwdriver and the pour spout, and then grabbed the primer.

It seemed a little heavy to me, but I sort of figured it wasn’t covering very well, so maybe we were spreading it on a little thin. Popped the top, and…

“Hey, Jenn… I’m looking at this primer…”

“Yeah?”

“How come we haven’t used any?”

“Sure we have.”

“Um, no, the primer can is entirely full.”

“What?”

“This can - see - says ‘Interior Primer Sealer.’ It’s totally full. This other can… yeah, see, it says ‘Interior Eggshell.’ It’s half gone. We’re priming with our paint, honey.”

“No, no,” said Jenn. “That can says ‘tinting base.’ That’s the primer.”

“Jenn, they both say ‘tinting base.’ That means it’s white and they can add tint to it. The key here is that this one says ‘primer.’”

“Oh.”

So there went like two hours’ worth of work and half a gallon of Ralph Lauren red paint. We started over with the primer and, lo and behold, it created a much more uniform look and actually covered the stupid decals a little better. We’ll still need a couple three coats on there, but it’s much better looking now.

We didn’t actually complete a full single coat on that bathroom. After all of that, I got all the roller work done, but Jenn didn’t finish the cutting in on the detail. I’ll have to finish that tonight while she’s at a meeting.

I could’ve killed her… but I have to laugh. I mean, the two of us, jammed into a tiny half-bathroom with ladders and everything, totally in each other’s way, and two of the three hours we spent in there were basically for nothing. We could never go on The Amazing Race, we’d kill each other the first day.