The Many Faces of Our Humble O'Bode

There are at least four coats of paint on our house.

The last coat was a layer of latex, applied rather sparingly in spots, and laid on with a trowel in others. I am not at all impressed with the way the house was painted last.

Before that, there was a layer of bright, minty green paint that makes you blink and rub your eyes when you first see it, maybe even shield them from the glare. It's the kind of color that makes you rack your brain for diplomatic ways to describe it, such as, "My, that certainly is eye-catching, isn't it?"

Under the green there's one, maybe two layers of white. These, along with the green, are certainly lead-based. Although we're wearing face masks now, we have almost certainly sucked in toxic amounts of it already. Just by power sanding the north wall of the house I'm sure I've exposed everyone in the neighborhood to ten times the federally set limit.

Lastly, there's another mint-green layer of paint right up against the cedar siding. Either somebody had a great big happy feeling for mint green, or that first coat was a primer and never meant to be seen by anyone for more than a day or two.

And now we've got to strip every layer off. *sigh*