This whole house project has made me bite off my fingernails, lose weight, gain weight, lose sleep, lose sanity. I have accidentally miss the nailhead and hit my finger a few times, too. However, for the most part – I have come out in one piece.

Except, the night I cleaned the kitchen sink.

It’s amazing what you can get done with a couple cans of spray paint. At the beginning of the home project I bought two. Just a can of gray primer and a can of clear gloss sealant. About $8. Five projects went really well. Then, I ended up with a bloody nose.

Turns out, you get a bloody nose after ingesting too many paint fumes. That happened to me when the two cans finally ran out. It was not a DIY success. But, that’s what I get for not working in a “well ventilated area.”

Here are a few projects that did not result in bodily harm. Rather than causing blood loss, I imagine I only lost a few hundred brain cells.

1. Hardware & hinges on the kitchen cabinets.

2. A few door handles.

3. The hood above the stove.

4. The heater in the kitchen.

AHHHHH! Panic!

We cleaned that puppy right up! Yuckkkkky!

7. The “Threshold”

Finally, while still on my same two cans of paint I got to cleaning the kitchen sink. This was a few months ago. I am just now getting up the courage to share this story. This sink was giving me nightmares. So, I began cleaning. 

The newspaper was from 2001. So I am guessing this was last cleaned about that time.

I scraped out all the corroded metal that I could. 

Then, I took a break. I probably called my Mom for a pep talk.

After getting re-motivated, I was ready to spray paint. Coat one. I finally ran out of the gray. I had to stick my head way back in the corner of the sink to get all of the paint on the bottom.

I was sort of ticked that I ran out of gray (finally), so I continued with black. This meant I had to start all over. I pulled my shirt back up over my nose & kept spraying. 

I was thrilled with the dramatic effect of the spray paint. It looks clean now! Just to cover up the bumpy metal, I cut a small piece of linoleum to fit in the sink. 

Then, I lined the shelf with a rubber mat. Before & After. 

Finally, I put everything back! 

So, this resulted in a clean sink. Good project for an evening. I was feeling pretty happy.

Then, the next morning I was taking a shower and…I got a bloody nose. My thoughts were, “Ahhh. I’m dying. Okay, nope I am just fine. Gross. This hasn’t happened to me in years!”

It took me about half the day to figure out that my burning nostrils the night before while my head was stuffed in the back of the sink and the recent shower incident were majorly connected.

I’m officially a huffer/paint smeller. If I start doing strange things like spelling words without vowels, forgetting my grandma’s name, or stealing rubber cement from local schools…I’m going to blame it on three months of almost daily spray painting projects.