My endless painting saga continues. I guess that is no surprise. As long as I have rooms in my house that haven’t been repainted and I haven’t found the right new work environment, I will continue to update the way my home appears. As I have mentioned before, doing physical labor helps take my mind off of the all consuming job search and it makes me feel like I am accomplishing something useful.
I’m doing all this painting for a few reasons. First, my house is over 10 years old now, and some of the rooms (and all of the ceilings) have not been painted since we moved in. Clearly it is time. After a while walls get dings, dents, and scuff marks and ceilings tend to look a little dingy. In my case the tallest ceilings are also having issues with the sheet rock tape coming loose at the angle joints. Talk about a nightmare. My sheet rockers and painters weren’t the best I’m afraid and I have been repairing their work every time I paint a room. Second, as my job search continues the likelihood of me having to move my family grows. A clean and freshly painted house sells better, pure and simple. I try not to think about the second reason, but it is there, lurking in the back of my mind. This economy might force me to sell my dream home and relocate for a new position.
I don’t know about you – but I never knew the right way to fix loose sheet rock tape before. You’d think that you could just slap on a bunch of spackle and it will stick back down. It doesn’t. I thought maybe I needed more spackle. Well, that made for a lumpy looking ceiling joint, but at 14′ off the ground, it wasn’t *that* noticeable. I sanded and painted it, and figured that I would get to painting the walls today. No dice. While I was up on my ladder taping the ceiling to wall joint (makes for a really clean straight paint edge) I noticed that my patch job wasn’t looking all that professional. It was already starting to crack a bit. I’m sure that it would have held up for a couple of months – or longer. I just didn’t like it, I didn’t feel like I had done my best. I surely wasn’t proud of the job, more embarrassed I would say.
In the meantime I figured out the right way to fix ceiling joint tape. You cut it out and replace the entire section that is coming loose. Between the fact that I didn’t like the way it came out, and the knowledge that I had done it WRONG in the first place it really began to eat at me. I kept hearing that little voice in my head – “You did a crummy job. You really need to do it right. So what if nobody will notice it besides you – you notice that it looks bad.” I have a hard time shutting up that voice. Most times I can’t. I always feel the need to do the best possible job that I can. I guess I need a caveat here – there are times when I don’t have the resources (money, time, expertise) to do the best. I still strive to do the best I can based on the circumstances. Even with that caveat I sometimes am not happy with myself. There are different levels of best – unlimited time and money sometimes can bring a much higher level of “best”. In this case, I had the time. I had the tools (power sanders etc). Joint tape and spackle is dirt cheap (<$10). I had leftover ceiling paint for touch up too. After some learning I now had the expertise. Clearly it was time to tear up my work and start over again. Ouch.
It's had to tear up my own work. I know how hard it was to do in the first place. Even though I wasn't happy with it, I still didn't want to start all over. I thought I was all done with that ceiling. Besides, I had never done this correctly before. What if I screwed it up even more? I just had to jump right in and start yanking up joint tape. So I did. Once I got started, it really wasn't that hard. The worst part was holding an orbital sander high above my head standing on the top of a 10' ladder. Sanding wasn't too bad, it was all the junk that floated down and managed to get under my safety glasses that bothered me.
So now, I wait. The new tape is up and spackled. I'll need to sand it tomorrow to see how it looks. Right now it already looks better than my last attempt. I'm feeling pretty good. I did the right thing.
Reflecting on my work life, I've torn things up and redone them more than once. It's part of who I am. I've rewritten large software subsystems that were showing their age. I've tossed entire designs when an ah-ha moment has hit me. If I am presented with the right opportunity that gives me the time and resources to improve on my work, I will seize it. Sometimes I have had to bide my time. Sometimes I have been very fortunate and have been able to take care of a problem in short order. I've been known to keep lists of things that I am planning on addressing in the future. What can I say, my work is a reflection of who I am. I want my work to be something that I can be proud of.
