I so did NOT need to work my triceps at the gym this morning

They are perhaps the most dangerous words in any home improvement project. If not the most dangerous, the most expensive. If not the most dangerous and expensive, then certainly the most exhausting. The words? “While we’re at it…”

While turning an empty room into a small game room a couple of years ago, we said, “While we’re at it, we may as well replace the carpet in the room next to it, too.”

While replacing kitchen counters last year, we said, “While we’re at it, we may as well replace the oven, too.”

While pruning roses, vowing not to bend and get achy, I inevitably decide, “While I’m at it, I may as well pull a few [hundred] weeds, too.”

So last week, when I boldly decided to paint our guest bathroom, I should have known it would blossom into something much more back-breaking than anticipated. (And yes, I did anticipate a fair amount of pain. This is why God – or Merck – whichever – invented prescription painkillers.)

Way ahead of my houseguest-is-arriving-May-9 deadline, I finished applying Cloth to three walls and the ceiling and Dark Burgundy to two walls. It looks rather spiffy and I’m proud of the mostly straight lines where the two highly contrasting colors meet. Feeling charged and confident, I proclaimed, “While I’m at it, I may as well paint the other upstairs bathrooms, too.”

Well, that also went rather well and a lot faster than I assumed. The added project was supposed to keep me busy while Rob is on a 5-day trip. Instead, I raced back from the airport and finished rollering before Rob had landed in a much warmer, sunnier, golfier location. Feeling a bit drained and trying to ignore the bruises on both shins from the paint-splattered ladder, I logically concluded, “While I’m at it, I may as well paint the utility bathroom, too.”

I finally limped into the shower late last night with Cloth speckled hair and a knot on the left side of my back. I hoped that the splotchiness of my utility paint job was simply a matter of the paint not being dry yet. Sadly, this morning, it seemed more a matter of me having painted one too many bathrooms in one week and my semi-gloss being semi-gloppy in the blessedly almost empty can.

So, naturally, before heading to the gym at 9:45 this morning, I finished up my second coat on the last walls I will be painting this decade. I’ve declared the can dead and I’ve tossed my drop cloths. I still need to reattach all the towel bars and switch plates. But, well, since the bathrooms are completely empty, I figure…while I’m at it…I may as well mop the floors and clean the light bulbs first.