My Creative Therapy

Blogging. On a Monday! Who am I?
Before I get into my spiel from the weekend, I need to say THANK YOU for all the comments on all the social media outlets, texts, and phone calls I received over the past few days. Your support means the world to me. My family is a bunch of fighters. We will get through this together and I will be sure to keep everyone updated as we move along.

Saturday morning I found myself going over our budget for the year, trying to figure out how in the world we were going to pay for IVF and save for a car all at once.
Last year I could have sworn I had this all figured out, and somehow, over the course of a couple months, we are still in debt and I have no game plan for any additional money.
The more I thought about it, the more stressed I was getting, the more hopeless everything seemed to feel.
My mind is still cloudy from the news last week, and here I am, trying to pick apart our house because "it's not good enough."
We need a new kitchen, new floors, a new bedroom, updated closets and new furniture.
I NEED all new things but yet, we have absolutely zero money to do anything.
In fact we have less than zero.
We have negative.

I can't justify spending one dollar on myself or our home when we have so many bigger things to take care of and was allowing myself to get overly frustrated with this predicament.
Like I was in concrete, unable to move or do anything or go anywhere.

I knew if I left the house I would spend money.
But being alone, doing nothing, with my thoughts, is just as bad.

I needed an outlet. I needed something to make new. To make pretty.
When I'm stressed I find myself wanting to re-design or build something.

Over the last few weeks I kept asking Mark if he would be able to re-spray our piano because I was over the color black against our dark gray walls.
I felt as if that little corner of our entry was being sucked into a black abyss and it needed light.
Light people! Light.

It got to a point Saturday morning that I just needed to do something, and my best bet was to drop a few bucks on some paint and get to work.
If he couldn't spray the piano...I could sure as hell paint it!

Mark walks in the door and sees me sitting on the couch in my pj's and coat...crying.
I unload on him.

WE CAN'T AFFORD ANYTHING!
THIS HOUSE IS GROSS!
I'M SO TIRED AND I CAN'T DO ANYTHING!
I'M REPAINTING THE PIANO!

Yup....he is one lucky man to put up with this nonsense....I mean, does that train of thought even make sense to you? Me neither.

We resolved to take a nap.
So I did.
And when I woke up, I got to work.

Over the course of about eight hours, split up between the two days, I hand-sanded and repainted this old piano and gave it new life.

I listened to the radio....cried a tad...drank coffee...but mostly just focused on the brush strokes.
On the details.
On the ins and outs of that piano.

And I do believe it came out beautifully.

Unfortunately, I don't have a nicely styled "after" photo because this morning as I was getting ready for work, our hot water pipe burst just above this piano and we had to quickly move everything out of the way.
When it rains it pours, huh?

Luckily, it was dried already so no damage was done.
I can't say the same for our ceiling though.

The other event over the weekend, Crash turned 10.

Every day past Saturday that we get to spend with him is another blessing.
He's my old man.
I don't see him slowing down much any time soon.

For those of you wondering, the steps to refinishing a piano are rather easy.

Most importantly, using good tools and having a lot of patience is key.
Your paint is only as good as the brush used, so buy a good one.

I sanded the sheen off using 220 grit sand paper.
I used bondo to fill in any dents in the wood, let it dry, then sanded them down.
After I was done sanding, I wiped down and dusted off everything as there was black shit on most nearby surfaces (and myself)
Enamel Paint used was from Ace Hardware, Regal Outdoor Porch paint, in White Gloss
I painted on the first coat as evenly and thinly as possible using a thinner, angled brush.
You cannot roll enamel paint...easily...so I just didn't.
It takes 6-8 hours to dry to the touch, so I let it sit overnight and added the second coat first thing in the morning.

*The paint brush used for Day 1 can be reused for Day 2 just by wrapping it in plastic and putting it in the freezer. You can't wash away this type of paint with soap and water.
It has to be removed from hands and other surfaces with nail polish remover and/or paint thinner.

*And DON'T do what I did and fill the bottom of a utility sink with lacquer thinner, then mix with hot water. The running hot water shoots the fumes straight to your brain and I almost passed out.
So don't do that.

But, it was perfectly dry by this morning in our rush to move it away from the water damage!

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