WPJE

When I was a child, my uncle Mark gave me the nickname 'WMPC' which stands for, obviously, World's Most Perfect Child. I probably didn't even have to tell you that. As it turns out, after climbing up (and tumbling down) Fool's Hill more than a few times, the nickname doesn't really ring true anymore (to anyone but me, that is). In the end, a nickname is a nickname, and usually- regardless of the truth associated with the moniker- a nickname sticks. And to answer your question, yes, you can call me WMPC.

I share that not to delight in a fuzzy childhood memory but to illustrate that I feel like acronyms are everywhere. For instance, when I was known as WMPC, I was wearing a WWJD bracelet, attending a school called GPS, working at the YMCA, taking the SAT, and probably making plans with my BF or BFF. Do we live in a world where there are an acronyms out there for everything? It's easy to sometimes feel like Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle when he's looking for Jonah and the only thing out of the mouth of Jonah's friend Jessica are letters.

Tara's main bathroom has recently been bestowed with her own acronym, WPJE. Let me first say that initially I thought this sounded like some sort of rehabilitation center, but it's not. However, this we can learn from any rehab program:

The first step on the road to recovery is admitting that you have a problem.

For us that problem has a name: Worst Paint Job Ever.

OMG. Our bathroom paint was a mess. Overall mistake: we selected it in a hurry. After all, let's remember that I was 8 months pregnant and we needed to get in the house. So, when it came time to tell the painters what color to paint the bathrooms, we told them to just paint the beadboard white and paint the walls the same color as our master bedroom, a silvery sage green from Restoration Hardware (tip: don't buy your paint at Restoration Hardware, but do grab the chips of the colors you like. Then take the chips to a paint store and they can usually match the color perfectly.)

There are several issues with this bad decision. First mistake, the color was all wrong. It's a muted green that *should* have gone with everything, but no color REALLY goes with everything the way you think it might, no matter how much you love it. Second mistake, the finish was all wrong. We have an eggshell finish in our bedroom, and bathrooms need a semi-gloss, no exceptions. Third mistake, the painters were terrible, and we were so anxious to get in the house that we let their careless mistakes slide. For instance, they didn't sand the beadboard before they painted it, resulting in a rough mess. Sheesh.

Fortunately, this is all fixable for just about 30 bucks. PTL. Not all mistakes are so easy to fix, but if your paint job is all wrong and you have your own version of WPJE, no worries. We used a power sander (clarification: I thought it was too loud so Rhett used it) to sand down the beadboard and we then repainted it white (so smooth now!).

For the walls, we found a color we liked (hooray!) that looks beautiful with the existing decor and *voila* our bathroom nightmare was saved. TG!

Out with the old, and in with the new.

TTYL, WMPC