Tra la tra la. My house is yellow. Huzzah. I’ve always wanted a yellow house. When my parents repainted our family home when I was 11, they asked me if I liked apricot or clover best. I said yellow. They said no. I said apricot. They went with clover. Hmmph.Now I have my very own house which I have been extremely fond of since we bought it, but I hated the color. It was the color of cat barf. You could almost smell cat barf just looking at it. One expected to see little flecks of grass and kibble in there stuck on the paint.We bought this house three years ago. In that time the houses on this street have all turned 15 years old and the original paint jobs have expired. The plain jane tract neighborhood rotation of light gray, blue gray, and cat barf was radically altered one day when a neighbor painted his house purple. Bright purple with magenta trim and huge wooden butterflies nailed to the outside. I cheered him on. Mr. Plumbeam has moved into the neighborhood. Right on! Over the years, the greys and cat barfs fell away to greens and blues and pinks. One little house down the block looks just like the Barbie dream house, my hand to god.
Shawn and I have been plotting our paint job for years. We examined houses, talked about trim, studied paint chips. The house painter selection was a painful and scary process. Some estimates we received were literally 300% the of others. The painters finally arrived and gently tried to talk us out of my color selection. Shawn told the painters what is undoubtedly the ten most feared words in the home repair industry: “You’re going to have to talk to my wife about that,” Shawn said. Damn straight. The yellow is awfully bright, they said. I’d strongly recommend going softer on the trim, they said. Really, green too?Yes, green too. And bright trim and lots of it. You’re lucky I’m not putting alligators in the yard. Go forth and paint.I held my ground. I want a yellow house, dash it all.And here she is. The painters did a very nice job and I’d recommend them to anyone.To any and all of my neighbors out there: Shuffle off your cat barf. Embrace color. Distinguish yourself from your grey surrounds.And sorry about the glare.But not really.