The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)
Sit tight because I am going to tell you the whole saga of my Paint Miracle-or-at-least-Weird-Coincidence-but-who-can-really-know-these-things-and-what-they-are-all-about.
Or else skip down to the links — that's fine too.
So I wanted to replace this little wooden shelf. It turned out to be hard to keep clean.
I ordered a glass shelf from Amazon (this one — affiliate link).
Naturally, taking down the wooden one left marks on the wall. But I wasn't too worried — I actually kept the old paint can in the garage.
Went to the garage: the hard winter meant that the paint had frozen into unusability. Mild annoyance, but…
Okay, I have a binder with notes about what paint colors I have used. Quick, to the bat-binder!
This is where the trouble really started (because, truthfully, I just wanted to touch this up like a regular person, not repaint the whole room like a crazy person who could have just left the shelf up).
Leave aside the incorrect note in the binder, the note of falsehood, that claimed that I used a color (and finish) that I, in fact, did not. Ignore the quart of the wrong color/finish sitting in the mudroom.
Skip ahead to me finding the OTHER note, the note with the actual label, name, and code for the paint I actually used. Phew, right?
No… of course not.
The paint line had been discontinued. Despair.
BUT the clerk had a chip book! She scanned the chip and voilà, right? Hope, right?
No… this is the color that she came up with. It's not the same. It's much darker. Despair. (Sorry, I don't have a pic of the paint on the wall. It was like shades and shades too dark.)
So back I went. For the third time. BUT FIRST —
I carefully removed a swatch of paint from the actual wall. I pasted it to the paint stirrer so we could talk it over.
We talked it over.
She thought they could scan that chip and come up with something. The guy behind the counter with her asked,
“Is that the gallon that was brought back over there?”
She replied, “No.”
I said, “No.”
He responded, “Really, it looks the same.”
She walked over to grab the gallon. She put a bit of it on my stirrer. See it there?
Hmmm… really?
Meanwhile, Observant Clerk said, “I'll mix you up a sample of the scan of the chip you brought in. We'll see.”
Here are the three paints, together (ignoring Bad Scan Paint on the back of the stirrer — above — and Dumb Paint of Wrongness Wrongly Notated in Binder — no pic).
Reader, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?
The random can of paint rejected by an unknown customer angel is exactly, but exactly, the color of my bathroom wall. Better than the scan.
WHAT ARE THE ODDS.
It's a paint miracle.
They gave me the gallon (which truly, I do not need — I could have been happy with a quarter cup) for $4.
I am leaving these pics here for my own future reference. Perhaps some day, who knows, I will need to repaint the whole bathroom. It's so tiny, this gallon will easily give it two coats. I will try to keep it somewhere where it won't freeze.
Here it is as its drying… there's always that moment where you're not sure it will be right…
Here it is this morning.
Right??
RIGHT??
I will try to post on Instagram when the shelf is up (that's what those two dark spots are — the screw holes into the studs). Not only are things complicated around here, they are slow!
So keep your eye out there.
And thanks for reading along with me in the Saga of the Bathroom Touchup. Mwah!
On to our links!
- A friend on Twitter directed me to this excellent lecture by Rabbi Meir Soloveichik on the subject of Rosh Hashanah and how parenthood relates to the kingship of God. I think your Old Testament students would get a lot out of it. I know I did.
- Good reinforcement of the need — yes, the need — to accept that enough is enough in what we do to educate our children, from the Ambleside blog.
- Another video your older (junior/senior in high school and above, who've had at least some introduction to basic ideas of philosophy and science) children could watch and re-watch: Ben Shapiro interviews Prof. Edward Feser about logical proofs of the existence of God and how atheism can handle them — or not handle them. Worth maybe a couple of run throughs — Feser is clear and accessible.
From the archives:
The Saga of the Copper Backsplash in that bathroom.
Should my kids play sports, and when?
Happy Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin! And happy birthday — and name day! — to our dear Natasha! (Can you believe that her name is Natasha [Nativity] Marie [Mary] and her birthday is today? Her parents are not Catholic, and yet, there it is! What a gift! Please keep her in your prayers today!)
We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).
caitlinloiko says
Wow– in awe of your paint miracle! That is really random and really quite astounding.
Nancy says
Enjoyed your serendipitous paint miracle story. Thank you for the links this week.
Stefani Mons says
Our towel hook rack broke (okay, I broke the wall anchors while trying to fix a spinning hook on it), but we just made sure to replace it with something a touch bigger. No paint problems then! Haha.
Leila says
Stefani, your life seems so uncomplicated!! haha
Sonja Maierhauser says
The paint miracle. Thank you for that hilarious slice of life.
Lisa G. says
That is truly a miracle – how else could it be described? There are too many dadblamed shades of paint in this world – it’s just impossible! So, only God could have accomplished it. And maybe for his mother’s birthday week, since blue is her color.
Mignon says
Whaaaat? I can’t believe this story. It’s awesome. And I loved the whole dramatic re-telling of it.
Mignon says
“Random can left behind by random shopper…..” yeah, right! Some random shopper!!! That was some special sort of random shopper….. :-). Isn’t it great that God cares about these kinds of things? If He cares about these things, what greater things must He also care about and act upon?
Kristi says
Fun story! I agree with another commenter, it’s awfully coincidental that the miracle paint was Marian blue on Mary’s birthday week. 😉 Thanks also for linking to the AO blog post, “Enough.” I needed to read exactly that today!!
Taryn B says
Oh my word! I can’t believe it! That’s wild!
Mary says
I’m happy for you but you do know that now nothing will go right for you (decorating wise) for at least another 1 years. Sigh.
Claire says
Paint miracle. Love it.
Rachel says
Can you tell me about the back splash? What is it? Did you install it & how? I need a quick fix for over the kitchen sink and that seems like an easy and (perhaps?) economical way to keep water off the sheet rock.
Leila says
Rachel, I wrote about it here: http://likemotherlikedaughter.org/2016/11/copper-flashing-backsplash-i-think-im-the-only-one/
Let me know if you need more details.
Bethanne says
When I saw this, I was probably even more impressed with a custom gallon can of paint for four whole dollars???!!! Happy Birthday, Mary, indeed!
Leila says
Bethanne — I know! It had been marked down to $9. I said, “I truly just need a quarter cup… ” “We can’t do that… ” Observant Clerk takes out sharpie and crosses it out and writes $4.
Now when I am thinking of favors I’d like from saints, I think, “If you could find me a can of paint for $4 that exactly matches my wall that I didn’t even pray for, surely you can do X, a truly worthy cause!”
Victoria says
If there was a “like” button here I would have clicked it.
I was sick enough today that I was able to sit and listen/watch that Rabbi’s talk about parenthood. Really beautiful!