Third (Fourth? Fifth?) coat of paint

The plan for the roof of the dollhouse was (was) to make shingles out of sandpaper. Which, I must say, I thought was a pretty clever idea. So, I bought a pack of sandpaper (5 sheets, 100 grit) and then I cut each sheet into a bunch of one inch strips, clamped them together and cut notches halfway through them with a hacksaw. You get the picture, right? No? Oh, well. Then I glued the strips together, and I really think they looked like a shingled roof -- not a very professionally done shingled roof, to be sure, but a shingled roof, nonetheless.

Except I didn't have enough sandpaper.

And the notches I cut weren't straight.

So I went back to Home Depot. They had plenty of 100 grit sand paper. And, would you believe it? None of it was the same color as the paper I had just spent two days working with.

What to do? Start all over:

• Buy three (THREE!) packs of a different, lighter color -- too light -- sandpaper;
• Buy a couple cans of dark brown spray paint;
• Spray paint all 15 sheets of sandpaper;
• Cut all 15 sheets into 1-inch strips;
• Have a friend cut notches in the strips with his table saw (I can cut notches with my hacksaw, but they look pretty crappy);
• Glue (a messy operation) half of them together to cover the largest section of the roof.

Realize that the remaining sandpaper isn't nearly --not nearly -- enough to finish the job. What to do? Buy 10 more packs of sandpaper, paint them, cut them into 1-inch strips, ask Chester to notch them, glue them -- or buy 1 can of paint?
Answer: Buy one can of what looks, in the store, to be one can of dark brown paint:

• Apply it to the dollhouse and find out that it's the same color as a cup of milk with a little -- a very little -- coffee added to it.
• Convince yourself it looks OK.
• Ask for the opinion of a disinterested Slovak.
• Consider said opinion.
• Buy another can of what looks, in the store, to be a dark brown paint.
• Apply it to the dollhouse and find out that it's as much purple as it is brown.
• Convince yourself that your granddaughter likes purple.
• Decide not to ask any Slovaks for their opinion.