Eggshell On My Face

"Who paints the walls with semi-gloss paint?!!" That's what hubby asks me when he gets back from the paint store with flat paint to 'cover' the patches we have everywhere from all of our electrical work. He'd like to do an international survey - and chances are he'd probably get a 98% return on people who choose to paint with 'flat'. Apparently everyone HE knows (aka -normal people) would use flat paint to cover walls and only semi-gloss if you're painting window sills and doors. Who knew? Not me! So when he came home with the wrong paint I was annoyed. As the story goes, I wasn't very nice about the wrong paint. So he marched back to the paint store and asked for semi-gloss. "Mwha!?" says the sales clerk. She thinks I'm weird too apparently. Sigh.

We regroup at home with the right paint. I apologize (sort of) for getting so upset over paint and we continue with our projects. I'm painting and touching up kitchen cabinets and he's touching up all of the patched walls around the house with three different colors of semi-gloss. Then the paint dries. and....the newly painted spots are SHINY! More shiny than the rest of the walls!! I'm thinking, how is this possible?! Hubby does a dance and gloats and reminds me of how mean I was to him and states that he'll be nice as long as I PUBLICLY apologize. I agree. So he pops open the flat paint that the paint store wouldn't let him return and starts re-painting.

It isn't until the next morning when looking at the dry spots on our walls that we realize what was shiny the day before is now very flat and still doesn't match the paint on the walls.

It turns out that when I was buying the original paint - the person selling to me convinced me that semi-gloss was indeed weird to put on your walls and talked me into buying eggshell (somewhat of a cross between flat and semi-gloss). It took a lot of digging to find the original paint receipt to realize this. Now we both feel a little silly. But I've learned my lesson. Write down what color and finish of paint your putting on the walls - and don't assume everyone does it the same....or else you'll be apologizing to your husband in a public forum and EVERYONE you know will think it's weird that you like shiny walls. Hmph!