South Philly Paint Crew. Yo!

Last Saturday was painting D-Day on Lambert Street. I spent the previous week patching and priming the walls, covering the furniture and removing cat paraphernalia. By late Friday night I was ready--all the walls were washed and white. (Or as I like to call it, The Night a Liberal Slept in the White House.)

My crew--Erika, Amy, myself, Tai, Nick, Jessie and Ray--arrived in drips and drabs after 9:00 am. I stuffed them with doughnuts and put them to work. Because I'm anal retentive, I organized people into teams with a leader and mascot. Jessie, Erika and I comprised Team Tug, whose assigment was to paint the downstairs yellow. Tai and Amy led Team Mookie, responsible for painting the bedroom blue. And Nick and Ray harnessed their powers on Team Nanuq, which worked on the pale purple guest room. (I will now reveal just how anal retentive I am. The mascots were assigned to rooms based on their coloring.)

My friends are very industrious. By 1:00 p.m, every room but one had its first coat of paint. There were very few mishaps. In one incident, I put the wrong ceiling color--a light green--in the bedroom. Fortunately, Amy picked up the problem before she and Tai got too far. Blue dots also inexplicably appeared on the walls in the guest room. We guessed that a sprinkle from one of the cupcakes somehow got into the paint. I think it may have been some of the magic marker the children of the previous owners used on the walls.

At lunchtime we enjoyed pizza from the local joint, followed by enough candy, cupcakes and cookies to kill a horse. Then it was back to work. By the time 7:00 p.m. rolled around, every room but the office, where I put the cats, had two beautiful, clean coats of paint. All I have left is the trim, which I'm painstakingly painting on the weekends.

To thank my wonderful friends, each got a green-ringed T-shirt that read "South Philly Paint Crew. Yo!" Anthony, my neighbor who paints for a living, found the Ts very amusing.

I am very, very lucky to have such great friends. They not only painted my house, but they did so with enthusiasm, energy and pluck. I couldn't believe how much sweat and labor they put into making my house a home. It's days like Saturday when I know how fortunate I am. It's days like Saturday when I know I have a great life.

See more photos of the painting party here!