I got up early on Saturday and headed down to the lagoons to do a little snorkeling and try to get some pictures with an underwater camera. There were so many pretty fish! The sky was a brilliant blue, an October blue, fading to turquoise near the horizon. The ocean was a gorgeous indigo. A perfect day to paint! ha!
Later that morning, we headed out to Home Depot to buy painting supplies. Even though we both loved the main paint theme of the house, blue and cream, the 4th bedroom / den was painted the harshest shade of yellow I've ever seen. I can't even quite describe it. It wasn't a gold, and it wasn't quite orange. It wasn't a sunny yellow. It was just ugly. It had to go.
I'd discovered an extra can of paint for the creamy sand color they'd used in the large main hallway, so I knew we were after Raffia Cream from Behr. But of course we also needed painter's tape, a paint can opener, a roller, brushes, a paint pad thingy, a box of painter's rags, and who knows what else for $143.
Chris didn't want me to do any painting, which I actually found a little frustrating since I thought it would be kinda fun. I've been watching all those decorating shows on HGTV and was ready to give it a whirl. But he convinced me we'd just have to buy two sets of equipment, so I relented.
While he was prepping and painting, I worked on the kitchen. The cabinets were pretty clean inside, but there were a few spots here and there. The stainless steel appliances also had some spots on them, esp the fridge where water had run down the front from the ice / water dispenser in the door. The previous owners had left "stainless steel magic" and to me the only magic was that the company got people to pay for the product, since it didn't do a thing. I made a mid-afternoon run for lunch and supplies and bought the old reliable "Brasso" which did a great job.
I set the oven cleaning function and it did just fine, though the funny silver stuff in the bottom of the oven remained. It didn't smell funny, smoke, or flame, so it's welcome to stay. Did discover that the stains on the oven door are actually inside the door. They seemed to have spilled something down the vents of the oven door, so the stain is actually on the inside of the outside pane of glass of the oven door. The only way to clean that is to take the door apart or buy a new one. And I might do one or the other - with the way the rest of the kitchen sparkles, having that ugly stained door just makes me wince.
I also wandered around outside and watered a few plants that aren't on the irrigation system and plucked off some of the dead palm fronds. I couldn't help examining them more closely. Even though they were brown, they were still supple, not brittle. I can see Tammy weaving a basket out of them.
One of our side yards is very narrow, and currently has a concrete walkway and a narrow strip of plants. It's a hodge podge. Starts with a nice little evergreen and then a very pretty little tree w/ variegated leaves. Then comes several scraggly rose bushes, a hibiscus, a plumeria, a grape vine (yes, a lonely little grape vine), a large succulent looking thingy with big pointy leaves, and ends with a couple more rose bushes.
We're going to get our future landscape guy to just put in a uniform set of easy-to-care-for plants. I'm hoping the pretty tree, the plumeria, the hibiscus, and the large pointy thing can be transplanted somewhere else. Those poor ol' rose bushes are like the yellow paint - gotta go.
As the afternoon wore on, I so enjoyed spending time in the house, seeing how much sun came in, experimented with ways to keep some of it out, and just watched the light change in general. We had a lovely sunset with the mountains in the background. The only thing that mars our view is a restaurant nearby that has a large sign on its facade "Korean BBQ Buffet."
Chris only needed to put one coat on the yellow, and it looked great. It's amazing how much difference a coat of paint can make. The room, large to begin with at 13X15, looks even bigger now.
After dark, I turned on all the outside lights, including the light in the pool. Wow, it was gorgeous out there. We just have the prettiest house on this island. I didn't want to leave. Kept thinking of excuses to hang around. But finally hunger took hold and I went to the nearby shopping center for Chinese take out, and then we headed back to Ko Olina for the night.
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