When Did We Become Painters?
A personal story we want to remember - 2015
Four of our farm buildings have been painted. We did a lot of it, but we also had help. I’m not sure where Larry bought that paint, but he wasn’t completely happy with it, and thereafter became a loyal Sherwin Williams customer. He frequented one of their stores and soon had the status of preferred customer which means he always gets 10% off plus notification of sales. He likes the manager and the other workers, and enjoys going there. When he wore his NRA cap, a worker noticed it and they had a good talk about guns then and ever since.
Larry became a little obsessed with buying paint when on sale that could be taken back and the color mixed in later. We don’t know if Larry or the salesman made the mistake, but we discovered that we had six cans of paint purchased for our next jobs that were not the kind that could be mixed. Although we hadn’t had it for long, Chris, the manager, could tell what year it was made on the cans and they were considered old. He took them back but wasn’t happy about it, and we felt really bad that the relationship between him and Larry had deteriorated.
Soon after, we had a problem with floor paint at the farm. It wouldn’t dry. Ever. Since I was doing the painting, I called from the farm and did the explaining. Chris said to paint another board without priming it first and put it in another room without window air-conditioning. I brought the board back to Omaha and the paint store and Chris and I had a good talk. He called the manufacturer a second time. Long story short, although the board was still tacky, Chris thought it would dry, and using primer first was the culprit. The can didn’t say to use primer, but neither did it say not to.
Then Chris asked us some questions, and said that he had commented to his workers that he wondered where we were using all that paint! We told him about painting the outside of our house in Omaha the fall of 2013, inside the farmhouse the winter of 2014, many ceilings and walls in our Omaha house the winter of 2015, and the outside of the farmhouse plus a room this summer. I guess we have done a lot of painting, and we aren't finished yet! He asked us many questions about the farm, started smiling, and seemed downright happy when we told him how old we were and how long we had been married. We went from our story to hearing him excitedly tell about his marriage, how they had been good friends first, and what they did for fun.
When we got in our car, we talked about the difference in attitude from when we went in and when we came out. Larry said that Chris is always sober, and he had never seen him smile and talk so much. We left knowing the tiff between us was mended, and we had made a good friend. He had also made us feel good about ourselves by going on and on about how active we are for our age.
Much to my surprise, after Larry replaced the trim boards on the chimney, he said he didn’t want to paint that upper third level. So, when I went to Sherwin Williams to get more paint, I asked if they knew anyone that would just paint the scary part. Sure enough, three guys came out and did it in no time for a very reasonable price. Larry said, “Mary, come out here and see this!” The guy was on the very top of the ladder stretching out to paint above the windows. I asked him if his mother knew where he was! He said that the guys always gave him that type of job because he had the length. We gave them a nice tip!
