Adventures in spring cleaning.

[Penelope]

So a while back a friend told me about her dad's (and, subsequently, her) method of fire place care for the warm seasons: every spring, her dad spray-painted the inside of his fireplace black, with regular old paint, and it looked nice through the spring and summer. The paint burned off during the winter, but then when he cleaned out the ashes in the spring he'd paint it again.

Sounds good.

Today I got paint and decided it was time to repaint the mantle (white, but stained brownish from smoke) and the inside of the fireplace. Yesterday I cleaned it all out, and today I spent half an hour on my hands and knees leaning in there spray-painting away. In shorts. Can you see where this is going?

I spray-painted my legs black. Only from mid-thigh to the knees, and then a big patch on each calf, but still. I tried to scrub it off in the tub with minimal sucess. I am such a dork. What am I going to wear to church tomorrow? Pants, I guess, or a long skirt. I know it will wear off eventually, but sheesh.

The fireplace looks great, though!

[emptymug]

So there's no health conserns about burning paint off the interior? That seems like even though it's going up the chimney, it's still going into the air.

[Penelope]

I think it's such a minute amount of paint that it's not any worse for anybody's lungs than wood.