“My God this looks awful.” Hours of my life down the drain. Looking down at the wooden platform that juts out from the back door. The board line side by side nailed down with exposed metal. It’s just a deck but this deck looks terrible. Mr. O’Leary hired me to paint his deck. I thought it would be easy just come over and paint the boards. But the crack and warped old boards did not cooperate with me. They bend and bode out in all different directions. The roller would not roll correctly on some boards then roll perfectly on the next. Yet there are so many examples where the boards had a notch in the wood. A notch refuses to get painted by a roller therefore one must use a brush. A lot of time went into this stupid deck.

It was just supposed to be a simple job to earn a few bucks but it quickly turned into a nightmare. The paint can would not open. The large five gallon buck was heavy and full of thick fast drying paint. Sealing the lid to the can. The most I have ever used to get a paint can open is a screw driver. But this five gallon bucket was so difficult that Mr. O’Leary suggested a hatchet. So the bucket was problem number one and the second problem was soon to follow.

One the bucket was open the paint had settled, virtually un-useable. So I had to mix it. The paint was a very thick blend of exterior wood paint. Meaning it had to same thickness as an unhealthy milkshake. One paint stirrer breaking is annoying. Fishing the remnants out of the paint bucket is the worst part. But after the fourth one snaps out it is borderline aggravating. I consider myself a good person but once you fantasize about murdering a bucket of paint four times in two minutes, I start to wonder if I really have my anger under control.

The paint was thick so the thin wooden sticks just keep breaking while attempting to mix the paint together. Once the paint was mixed and ready to go I sank an hour into the simple job that was supposed to take a few minutes. Worst of all no paint found itself on the deck yet. Good thing that the deck was outside. Otherwise the blistering heat would have been wasted. Long after the scorching and unforgiving sun turned my skin red, I was still painting. Rolling where I could painting with the brush in others. The process takes long than one would think. The roller does not hold much paint. About one square foot is all one will get from a freshly dipped roller.

Three hours later and about three gallons of paint, the deck is done. With only one coat on the deck it looks bad. No matter how closely I paid attention to covering each and every inch of that deck with paint. Little spots and cracks in the wood prove to beat me. Four hours in that hot sun. You could not find a dry spot in my shirt or a part of me that was not sun burnt. To top it off the deck looks bad. But here he comes Mr. O’Leary to read me the riot act, spend me packing and tell me how disappointed he is. I came here think this was going to be easy. A simple job get put the paint on the wood. But the can was difficult to open. The paint was too thick to mix. It also was too thick to stay on the roller. The board were warp and hard to paint. I am beat and broken by working in this hot sun. All I want to do is go home.

“How did you make out?” Mr. O’Leary asked as he walked up to his deck and looked at the poorly painted boards. The notch were skipped and gaps and holes in the paint was common. Nodding his head up and down, “looks great.” He said and held his hand out for me to shake and he had money in the other. Does he see the crack the break in the paint? The mistakes are everywhere can he see them?

“Mr. O’Leary don’t you see the…” I pointed at a noticeable gap in the paint. He just smiled and said.

“Listen it the first coat. There are always mistakes in the first coat. That’s why you put two coats on. Nothing is easy on the first coat. But the second one is. See you tomorrow kid.” Mr. O’Leary went inside but he poke his head out, “Nothing is easy the first time. Suffer though it and the next one is easy and will look better, I promise.” I got the sense he wasn’t just talking about decks but all I heard was, “Second coat?”