Math has never been my strong point

Wednesday night as I returned home from work, I was greeted by my mom and sister.


I knew Sarah was coming because she wanted to use my cricut to make some signs for a wedding.


Mom, supposedly, was coming to see the kids.


As I walked into the house unloading different items I had accumulated throughout the day, my mom asked me if we had sustained any storm damage from the night before.


As I was replying that aside from a few limbs and losing our power for five hours everything was alright, I noticed that the furniture on our deck had been moved.



So as I began to take that back.... "I didn't think we had any damage but it looks like the wind must have blown really hard....." I noticed that the furniture had indeed been moved, but not by any force of nature, but rather by my mom and sister. (On second thought, they just may be considered "forces of nature"). At the end of my deck sat a new outdoor love seat, two chairs and a coffee table.



A couple of weeks ago when my sister and I were shopping, I had jokingly told her that if she ever felt "compelled to buy me something"....ending the trailing thought with a gesture in the direction of this particular outdoor set.



We both laughed at the absurdity of it all....and I am sure that she also mentioned a few things I could buy her..."should I ever feel compelled to do so."


I never expected it to be sitting on my deck. An early birthday present.



As we sat on the furniture and talked about how nice it would be to relax out there.....something became painfully obvious to me.



My other furniture looked atrocious.


Seriously. Atrocious.


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As I laid in bed that night I thought about the different ways I could arrange the furniture on my deck.

(Of course, this is normal for the girl who, while in school, used to map out my bedroom and figure out different ways to re-arrange it.)


I also thought about how I must paint the other furniture so that it would:


1) cover the existing very attractive rust stains and

2) be the same color as the new furniture.


Both, being an obvious plus.

If I would've thought that I could round up enough shop lights to adequately brighten the painting area, also known as the driveway, I probably would've went right then and there and bought paint and started painting.

Because, did I mention that I had decided that it needed painting?

And when I get something in my head.....

Let's just suffice it to say that once an idea has started, I can not rest until it is done. Yesterday the furniture might have been fine....but today....I can't get it painted quick enough.

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I feel the need to interject that the furniture that was in need of some, lets say, refurbishing, was not exactly high dollar furniture.



My husband and I picked up the table and chairs at Orschelen's Farm and Home a couple of years ago and gave around $120.00 for them.

Yeah, you can imagine the exquisite workmanship.



As I woke up the next morning at 'six something or other', it was all I could do to restrain myself from waking up the kids, putting them in the car -with their pajama's still on - and heading off to Lowe's.


As it was, we headed towards Lowe's a little closer to eight.


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I found the appropriate color of spray paint and loaded up. I had no idea how much it would take so I made an uneducated guess and came up with eight cans of this stuff:

I returned home and quick went to work saran wrapping...yes, I said, saran wrapping, the seat and back portion of the chairs. Which would also be the area that I didn't necessarily want to paint.

(I hate prep work. I just want in on the action.)

Then came the time to see results. As I started spraying I was excited to see that the color was almost identical to the new furniture. Texture, too.

My enthusiasm died down with the emptying of each bottle. After eight cans and only two chairs and a table "completed".....I was disheartened at the prospect of another trip to town.

Disheartened....but not disillusioned. No sir-ee.

We piled back in the car and headed off again to buy more paint. Eight more cans, because I had two other chairs to add into the whole "Extreme Deck Makeover".

I got home just in time to finish up the two chairs left of the original set before it started to rain.

Yes, rain.

Steven and the kids had went on a buggy ride, so I began running with each piece to the garage to save my paint job that I had worked all afternoon on.

As I got the last piece in, under cover, the rain stopped.

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Since Miss L had a t-ball game in a little over an hour, and I had been spooked by the rain shower, I gave up for the evening.

Now, however, we are going to be out of town for the weekend and next week they are calling for rain EVERY DAY!

As you can imagine, I have already started twitching.

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Later as I thought about what I had, and hadn't accomplished that day, I realized that I had bought, and will use every bit of, 16 cans of paint. If not more.

16 cans of paint at $5.97 a can = $95.52 spent on painting a table and chairs that didn't cost much more than that.

Essentially, I could have bought a new table and chairs. And if you add in the new throw pillows I bought to incorporate the colors of my garage sale umbrella......well, lets just say that Suzie Orman will probably NOT hire me as a consultant.

I have never been so glad that my husband doesn't read my blog.

Ahem.