Painting - Apartment Complex Style

               During my first days here in my Georgia apartment, the weather was pleasant, especially in the early morning, so I began to take my breakfast out on the small patio and enjoy the sounds of birds and the breeze in the trees.  Soon it began to get warmer earlier in the day, so I chose my times a little more carefully and with an eye to the thermometer and humidity.  Thus when the edict came down to clear our porches because the entire exterior of the complex was going to be painted, I cheered and happily removed everything, even the begonias, coleus, and potted herbs,  Challenging as it was to get the few pieces of furniture into the already stuffed storage area, I remained resolute,  filled it to overflowing, and hauled what didn’t fit inside, including the plants. 

                The patio remained empty except for pine needles used for mulch in the yard, creepy crawlers, and the occasional wandering cat.  It continued vacant for days and then weeks.  The indoor environment proved not conducive to healthy green plant life, with the coleus and parsley first fading, then drooping and finally dying.  In the meantime, the railings on the stairs and the doors received a couple of coats of beautiful shiny black paint, though there were a few little slips over onto the cream or beige or white.  Whenever I went on the patio, I made my contribution to the beautiful end by peeling more paint pieces off the wooden  railing.

                Apparently  they were painting somewhere on the , because there was a little construction area set up and fenced off for equipment and supplies.  One early morning, well at 8:30, the sounds of hammers outside my window indicated something was happening.  The crew was checking around windows and removing any trim or other wood that had any kind of rot and replacing it.  Hopeful , I watched daily for someone to be outside painting, but then a group came through a scraped.  By now the exterior of many buildings began to look a little forlorn with bare wood showing.  Building 19 just sat there.  Finally, one day all the bare spots were painted – no they were primed white, so now all was splotchy with off white and white creating a ragged polka dot pattern.

                Buildings across the street got painted; buildings in the front began to look crisp and neat with their fresh coats of subtly contrasting hues.  Work started on building 21, then 20, and then it all appeared to stop.  Last week I saw signs of work on building 18.  Yesterday, in addition to hopping birds and green grass, the lawn sprouted a roll of blue painter’s tape (They know the right stuff here.) and two five gallon buckets.  It’s not done, but finally the multiple processes, run though in order around the complex, will culminate with my porch rail and trim painted, and it will look charming once again – just in time for cool fall mornings on the porch.