It may be correct in this political year where reality is anyone's guess, but I digress. Today we're talking pintura (paint) and colors etc. and I'm sorry to say the painters here are much like their brethren NOB.

When we built the house in Lakeway I had experience with a paint company named Roach which seemed a good paint and more importantly you could match it later for touchup. So I went to the store in Austin and picked out a nice "builders white" and here's where perception comes in. White (blanco) is white right? - of course not, it's your perception that it's white vs. black or another color, but when you try to match it you quickly find "interior white" is anything but white. I also picked out a nice light gray called "City Lights" ( I remember this for a reason).

I gave the specific company name, paint colors etc. to the builder to direct the painters. Now, you have to understand if you've ever built a house that by the time it's painting time you've been through a continual cat fight for months upon months with everything and anything that can and will go wrong - going wrong, so when you see guys smearing (yes) something white on your walls, you don't look to closely. The house was built in the second half of '85 which was the beginning of the depression in Austin and work was running out so workers took any job they could get, when you asked if they were painters? - YES SIR and a week later they were pounding nails in a roof. So, the house got painted and I had been relatively hard on the construction, but I was tired by this time. I did notice they seemed somewhat unfamiliar with a paint brush as to which end was the business end, and which was the handle, so when I say "smearing" I'm not making this up.

We moved in and began life in our beautiful home. Now, I'm not real big on creams or beiges etc. and it didn't take long for me to start noticing the colors weren't what I had specified. The whites looked white, but the woodwork varied from somewhat an off yellowish sort of white upstairs to almost a cream downstairs, they had obviously used what ever they had on the truck and I was to live with it, needless to say I wasn't a happy camper and for 20 years I cussed their souls and finally in the final year as I painted I finally changed all the woodwork and doors to City Lights and it looked great, just like we had imagined it in the beginning.

It didn't take long for me to need to need to fill a hole in the ceiling from a hanger etc. and it was suddenly obvious the white wasn't the specified white either. That began a 22 year cursing streak that really hasn't ended yet because of what they did and what I didn't catch. I started working with Home Depot and mixing whites and all variations thereof for years on and off. I started getting an education on what you "perceive" as color when it may be only a difference in texture on the wall or between flat and eggshell etc. - and what an education in frustration is was. It almost looked like they had sprayed a "colored" texture on the walls/ceilings and then "knocked it down" so the micro shadows of each tiny blob of texture was adding to the overall perception of the wall.

After a time Chris began adding colors to the place and in the end we had nearly 50 different colors total - but I never ever matched the ceiling white and I wasn't about to paint the entire ceiling of the main house. It appears they mixed not only variations in white, but in textures so it had more sheen than flat, but less than eggshell etc. I eventually painted all the walls or used Venetian Plaster and did some individual room ceilings, but the main house remains a puzzle and I tried ever imaginable texture trick I could think of to no avail.

Why is this a problem now you ask? - well, here at this house the walls are concrete plaster over brick so to hang a pic you drill a hole and put in a screw insert and a screw and hang the pic. I would like to have seen what was hanging on some of these walls, there are hangers way high on the walls and large enough to hang a side of beef? - no idea what hung there, but I sure didn't have anything to replace it, so it was hole filling time. I found some "filler" that, after a fashion, I became pretty good at using to fill the residual holes and texture to match, so then it was time to paint.

I found some paint cans in the bodega and some were obvious, others not, but the paint here is somehow different. It's a water base paint, but not exactly latex, it smells different and acts a bit different and doesn't dry out in the can like latex. I found the remains of 5 gal of yellow which is what most of the house is and started "painting to match" - but, something was wrong and after a number of different attempts I realized the paint in the can was flat and the walls had a bit of sheen, so off to Comex the local paint store.

I wasn't looking forward to this as it's hard enough trying to explain to someone in English what was needed etc. and the potential for disaster here was much greater. But, I was pleasantly surprised, one fellow spoke English and I was able to explain what I needed, 1 liter of amarillo (yellow) paint to match a sample light cover plate I took in and it needed to be semi-gloss.

I returned and it was ready and I was excited, I immediately headed home and swabbed some on a wall - oops, too amarillo and didn't seem to have enough gloss? I headed back to buy a liter of gloss blanco to mix in with the yellow. After describing what I needed I ended up with a white sealer that really is glossy, I purchased it and headed home to mix it with the first liter. More testing and sure enough, just like the guys in TX apparently these guys mixed not only colors, but textures and it's glossier than semi-gloss, but less than gloss, perception was having it's way with me.

The second problem area is in the living room divider which is sort of a redish pink because it is a red either sponged or rubbed over the yellow base. Someone had tried to patch and touchup two (more) screw anchor holes with little success. I tried several times and today grabbed the can of yellow and started painting the wall from scratch, then I'll sponge the red over it (I guess) or whatever it takes to match.

Perception varies with color, texture, lighting which was a big factor in TX and several other things, but "my perception" is that painters are all cut from the same mold, smear some color on the walls and hit the bricks and hope you don't catch up with them in a dark alley later!