Primer time

That's Santos in the den, priming the walls in a dark blue-gray.

Don't worry; we're not going battleship. It's just that Roy is most comfortable laying down dark blue or gray (I guess he compromised) under deep red.

And note another of the plays of light: The room beyond him is the same color he's painting.

All of this comes as a result of one of the great debates among the prospective bidders on the paint contract. Some said the underlying primer color for deep red should be black. Another said tint it deep red. Roy has had great success with deep blue, and came back from the paint store with this.

It actually looks terrific on the walls by itself.

But all that aside, consider: They're priming!

The other colors are about to go on -- and as the second picture shows, they're priming outdoors.

Darren started turning our picket fence into a white picket fence today, and Roy thinks they'll be seriously "painting the face," as Arnold describes it, by early next week.