I have a teensy obsessive compulsive disorder.
I'm a chipper.
Chipper, flaker, scraper.
Different names, same illness.
This is how it starts:
The chips tend to be in places where there is an air bubble between the two layers of paint. So, pretty soon the chip tends to have gotten bigger, like this:
Which is about the time I get out my set of flexible kitchen paring knives and set to work.
Chipping.
And flaking, and scraping.
Depending on how much grip there is between one paint layer and the next.
Which wouldn't qualify as an OCD except for one thing.
Once I start, I can't stop.
I have been known to sit for hours flaking away.
"Honey, are you coming to bed?"
"Just a minute - I just have to finish this section"
But of course, just at that moment, the stubborn section I have been working on opens into what we call "the mother lode".
This is when you encounter large stretches of paint that have been attached to the surface of the woodwork with nothing more than the power of positive thinking.
All it takes one well placed point of the knife and the stuff starts coming off in sheets and ribbons.
Which means that the "minute" stretches from 11:32 to 12:45.
Or beyond.
I can't explain it to you. It's like popping bubble wrap.
I just can't stop.
So pretty soon we have this:
And this:
And this:
I think I currently have about 22 different spots around the house that are 35-90% chipped. The bad news is that those spots look pretty awful. The good news is that, once I get each section sanded and primed and repainted we wind up with this:
It just takes a while.
So one of my fall goals is to get everything that is currently sitting in a state of partial chippedness finished up and repainted before Thanksiving.
Ha!
Optimism!
Ya gotta love it!
Epilogue: A completely "chip free" fully sanded and painted house was achieved in the fall of 2012. Until the next chip fell....
Comments