The house was built in 1972. The exterior was of Brown County rock and red cedar siding. When we added on we could not match the cedar siding (unless we wanted to rob several banks) so the contractor used cedar siding in panels. So there were two colors of wood on the house. In my infinite wisdom I demanded the new siding be painted. Was overruled by husband and contractor. “The new wood will weather and blend in.”
The house with the two colored siding and red garage wall.
Well last summer was the “weathering” summer. NOT! So this year we decided to paint. Because of the different textures and colors we could not just stain it, so are using a ‘solid’ stain – a stain that covers. Of course we could not agree on colors at first but finally settled on a deep rust color. Went and bought the paint. As the painter was preparing the outside for the painting I suggested Bill ask her, the painter is a she, to do the garage wall so we could see if we really liked the color. My first mistake was telling him instead of her. So while I was inside he was busy painting the garage wall. I happened to look out the window and could not believe what I was seeing. Went out and asked him what he was doing. “Well you wanted to see the color,” was his reply. He added, “It will dry darker.”
“Well I sure hope so as it is tomato red now,” I shrieked.
To make a long story shorter – as it dried it got redder – kind of the color of McDonalds’ French fry holders! I could see the headlines in the weekly paper “Crazy couple has big tomato on top of hill.”
So we loaded the paint can into the car and rushed into Columbus to the Menards and informed them that they had made a big mistake coloring the paint. They were very nice about it and gave us another can of paint ‘the right color.’ But they did mention that the label on the can we returned was an “old label.” I piped up, “It can’t be we just bought it a couple of days ago.” Didn’t have to pay for new can of paint. Brought it home and tried it out – ah yes, that looks much better.
A while later Bill came inside looking very sheepish. “Um guess what I did? When I went in the garage to get the paint to do the wall I picked up the paint we had mixed last summer to paint the Japanese in the side yard.” The bridge is the brightest red we could find at the time. “I feel so bad,” he added.
The really really red bridge - picture a whole house!
So the next time we went to Menards he confessed his mistake and offered to pay for the other can. The people were very nice, said they knew he must have made a mistake but we’re such good customers they didn’t argue with us. And not too worry and we didn’t have to pay for the other can. So we bought 20 more gallons of the right color mix.
In the mean time we had several neighbors almost wreck their cars as they passed our ketchup colored house. And the painter has told Bill not to touch any more paint. Part of the house painted as it should be. He picked out the trim color!
So little by little the house is getting painted as the weather cooperates. She still has a lot to do and then stain all the decks.
P.S. They are still laughing every time we go into Menards.
