Salt Lake City: Friday, October 27: A New Home

I flew in to SLC, over the snow capped Rocky Mountains, and minutes later was in son Jeff's new home. It has a great lay out, three large bedrooms, two and a half baths. There's a great patio space off the living room and a nice size lawn area as well. Perfect for gardening. Jeff is a great gardener!

The inside of the house, when I arrived, was grey. Ceiling, walls, doors, trim, each room, all painted the exact same shade of pale grey.

Jeff said he would like it if I would suggest paint color ideas.

Bliss!

I had brought a paint sample book. We talked through complimentary colors and opposing colors and shades and all that stuff that is second nature to me and most women.

Did you know most men have very little ability to discern differences in color? Suggesting that one yellow is more brown or orange, or blue or grey than another...those terms have little meaning. Everything is a basic color: yellow is yellow is yellow in "Real Man World".

Of course the names they give to color samples don't help.

Exactly what color is "Porch Swing" anyway???

It turned out there was a lot for Jeff to learn about painting too.

First, that masking is a lot of work, and it is worth it to buy the better brand.

That it is a good idea to roll lightly rather than have drip runs on the wall. Less is sometimes more.

That semi gloss shows every drip, and slapping multiple paint layers quickly in order to see the deep color richly will mostly just let you see the irregularities of painting.

I, and girlfriend Erika LOVE how the living room turned out. Jeff is not sure the red tone on the kitchen back splash is his final choice, as it needs to be redone anyway. Right now it is exactly the same color as his grandparent's house.

Interesting how that worked.

The walls are now "Orange Glow", which is the color of butter if an apricot tint was included. Given that SLC has at least five months of cold weather each year, psychologically it should help make him feel warmer, and maybe result in lower heating bills.

I think it is a real improvement over the pale grey everything that was the decor previously. We did leave the doors, trim, and ceiling grey. With the kitchen floor and counter top being grey, it works just fine for now.

I would love to paint the front inside door and maybe the stair rail spindles a deep expresso brown to match his mirror frame. Jeff is not ready for that quite yet.

He does now "gets" the idea of color tints and hues, and has selected the colors for his office and bedroom. Sage green, the yellowish tone versus the bluer sage for the office (color of money?) and is deciding between bluish tans for the bedroom.

He said I can pick out any color I want for the guest room and guest bath.

I can't think of a nicer compliment than to that!


Added bonus: As we painted, my beloved Oregon State University Beavers beat his beloved USC Trojans, in an unexpected football game upset. I hadn't realized that was the game for that weekend, but almost wore my OSU shirt on the plane.

Guess I had a subconscious hunch?