And the painting begins...

So today, I felt well enough to go out into the world again! Unfortunately for Colin, he did not fare so well. I just MIGHT have given him my little stomach bug. Oopsie. Lucky for him, no puking has taken place. Just lots of sleep.

I left for our place in Kits around 11am, by the guidance of my trusty GPS. It took me smack into the middle of downtown. Hmmm this wasn't the way that Colin usually went. But right now I'm still in good spirits when I get stuck in traffic for the most part because it's usually new and interesting to see where I am and what's around me and gives me the time to take mental notes for later.

After swinging by the paint store to pick up some stuff and the paint we'd decided to start with, I headed to the house. I set up the iPod speakers, hit shuffle and off I went. Quickly, I realized that I was missing some key things...like a screwdriver to take off the electrical outlet covers, newspaper to cover the floor, and a bucket in which to wash the brush after I finished. But all of that was sort of not a big deal, so I just made do with what I had. Which was a lot of grey paint. We're starting with the middle room, which is the biggest and most challenging because it has panelling, a shelf thingy, and then a normal wall surface. This photo will probably explain that better:

The plan is to do it dark red on the bottom and light grey on the top. Right now, as you can see, it's a pea soup green. Apparently red is a really challenging colour to paint (go figure...) and so we needed to cover the green with a primer. However, the grey for the top works just the same, so that's what I'm using. I spent some time putting tape around all of the edges because I'm not exactly steady of hand, plus it gives me more leeway to be sloppy! Because of the different sizes from the panels, that involved more than just a strip of tape along the top and bottom. Rather, it involved about 30 different strips placed along each surface. It's always the prep that sucks the most, isn't it. Then I set about doing the top and bottom of each section. In about 2 and a half hours, I had finished one coat on half of the bottom. Yep, I have a long way to go. But after seeing those first results, I'm confident that it will be worth it.

Halfway through, I took a break and strolled up to W. Broadway, which is the main street near our house (one block away). I walked up to Shopper's (hooray, a Shopper's right nearby! Millions of dollars to be spent at that drug store in the coming months I'm sure...) and bought one of the things I'd decided I needed for a successful paint job -- paper towels to wipe up all my spills. The street has a lot of nice little shops and boutiques, a cozy yet spacious looking coffee/pub/food place called Calhoun's, lots of sushi, the aforementioned cupcakery, and a whole lot of other food places I can't wait to discover when I can eat again without feeling like puking. There's also a 2nd run cinema right around the corner but it doesn't look too promising...right now it's playing Wanted and two Brendan Fraser movies, and the upcoming sched didn't look too much better. But sometimes you just wanna go see crap, and if it's cheap, who cares, right? After a trip to the dollar store, I had a hot chocolate (in hindsight, not the smartest choice considering it's pretty much chocolate and dairy) at Minerva's Greek Emporium and listened to some Greek call in show that was on the radio yet showing on the TV? while reading The Georgia Straight, which is Vancouver's free Arts and Entertainment weekly. In it, I discovered two exciting upcoming events: The UBC Apple Festival, and that the Notwist are playing next week! It will be my first Vancouver concert. They're playing at the Commodore Ballroom, which sounds impressive? We'll see. Venessa says that I should take everything in Toronto and divide it by 10 and that'll be the size of what it is here. Not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to gigs!

So after my hot choco, I headed back to the house and resumed my painting. I decided I'd finish the first coat on that bottom half before going home, even though that would most likely have me leaving right during rush hour. Again, not a big deal to me right now because it's interesting to experience what a Vancouver rush hour is like. I heard the upstairs neighbours quite a bit...they like to slam doors it would seem. Good thing we decided against putting our bedroom in the front room right beside the entranceway. I'll meet them at some point...I think they are around my age or a bit younger. I looked around at my day's work and was pretty content. I look forward to returning tomorrow! It was also a really nice, much needed afternoon to myself where I could just explore and work at my own pace.

This evening I got to play Mario Kart with Michael, and briefly Aimee and Jen. I guess Rogers wasn't being very cooperative cause Andrew couldn't join up, and no one else came so maybe that was why? Michael and I also chatted on Skype while we played, so it was super fun. It'd be good to get a Skype conference/MK game going sometime with lots of people! Aimee -- get on that, would you? :)

Okay. Bed time I guess...still feeling a little off-kilter from my days of illness, so I shouldn't push it. Night night!