Labor Day

So a few years ago I bought this house in the Lake Highlands neighborhood of Dallas just north of White Rock Lake. It was built in the 50’s and sits on a pleasant, tree-lined street. While it’s not especially large or remarkable, it has those elements that people have in mind when they say that a house has “character”. Whatever that means.

The decision to buy this house was largely influenced by my younger brother. Although he is 4-years younger, he always seems to have about a 10-year head-start on all of those general commitments that adults make: buying a house, settling down, raising a family, saving for retirement, the list goes on and on.

My brother bought his first house when he was just a few years out of college. He bought the house at the beginning of the real estate bubble in Northern California. He soon became “house rich” and used his real-estate windfall to buy progressively impressive residences while I sat back and rented. The downturn in the housing market has not been kind to him, but he’s kicking it in a beautiful house in a gated community that overlooks the 9th hole of some country club in Central California now.

When I moved to Dallas in 2006 I was still a renter and was saddled with some heavy California-real-estate baggage. The weight was lifted when I learned that a small house in a decent neighborhood didn’t have to cost upwards of $500k. There were actually quite a few homes in really nice Dallas neighborhoods that seemed like bargains compared with the options back home.

So I bought the house in Lake Highlands.

Now, another difference between my brother and I is that he seems to have inherited a “handy” gene from my dad. While I often have trouble just using common appliances and power tools, both my dad and my brother will even take them apart and manage their repairs (if something stops working I hide it somewhere in the junk pile in the garage and head over to Home Depot for a replacement).

So, while mainstream homeowners may feel that painting a room is a minor weekend project, for me it is a trial of blue tape and drop cloths.

This weekend I painted my hallway. It was my 3rd attempt in less than a year.
The first attempt was really not my fault. The guy at Restoration Hardware informed me that a shipment of “Stone” paint had frozen on a truck AFTER I had tried to smear the stuff all over my walls. Instead of the sophisticated earth tone on the chip, the result was a mottled mural of unintended swirls and textures.

I also blame the good people over at Restoration Hardware for the failure of my 2nd attempt at painting my hallway. “Atmosphere blue” is not the sophisticated grayish blue that you see on the chip. It’s the kind of blue that might remind you of peacocks…or eye shadow on a streetwalker.

After living with the “atmosphere blue” calamity for several months, I decided to take advantage of the long holiday weekend and try again. This time I went with Restoration Hardware’s “cappuccino”. I’m liking it. It’s not beige. It’s not khaki. It reminds me of a camelhair coat.

So, you could say that Restoration Hardware has hosed me a couple of times now. But when their color palette is true – as it was when I painted the den in “flax”, the colors have a very soft texture (RH calls it “subtle velvet”), especially when light hits it. They also have a very limited collection of colors…which works in my favor; I get overwhelmed trying to decide on “brown” over at Sherwin Williams because they have like a million different shades of “brown”.

Next home-improvement challenge: wallpaper. Maybe.