03 January 2014

Making my rondavel-house a rondavel-home

I live in a rondavel. A rondavel is a thatched-roof, circular one-room stone house. Mine was painted a salmon pink on the inside, and while I do not object to salmon pink, I have always wanted a green room. This is not to say my parents forbade my painting my room green as a child, but I did have a dark blue carpet, and I'm not some sort of troglodyte.

But now that I've got a home of my very own, one I will live in for the next two years, I decided that it should be decorated exactly how I want. I had stenciled up RFK's Tiny Ripple of Hope Quote as a border around the circumference, and had bought a can of "Brilliant Green" paint from the local hardware store. However, when I started painting in the letters, it appeared that they were not brilliant green, but in fact only a darker shade of pink. I decided that I had to go through with the painting even so, because while it would look very silly to have dark pink letters for my quote, it would look even sillier to have just one dark letter. But I was not happy, and I spent some time pacing around my rondavel, huffing and saying things like "Brilliant green? More like... more like... not so brilliant green!"

A few days later though, I was painting another quote, from The Old Man and the Sea ("But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated."), and the paint did look brilliant green. I reassessed my approach, and realized that I had not properly shaken the paint can, and that perhaps it was me who was not so brilliant. I have since painted about a quarter of my room, but the process has stalled due to funding issues. I'll get that green room someday!

Now, some people have informed me that my Hemingway quote is perhaps a little much, and have asked me why I chose to paint it on my wall, and I am forced to look them in the eye and patiently tell them: "Because it is true."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6n34E2vXzs&feature=youtu.be&t=2m25s

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