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$2 THE DAILY TIMES-GAZETTE, Saturday, March 26, 1955 Painting Important Job Around Home When Six Cats Kibitz a Paint Job Siamese Paws Educate. Do-It-Yourself Apprentice By JOY MILLER [HERE'S nothing to painting a room anymore. Practically anybody can turn out a professional looking job 3 n not more than triple the professional time with not more than wice the mess if he: 1. Uses the more helpful of the-newer gadgets. 2. Possesses a soul of an artist® ind the precise tidiness of a TV woking expert. 3. Lives with cooperative, un- nquisitive cats. I am a case in point, in re- rerse. To wit: 1. I have two small, old brushes and it took hard experi- ence to talk me into buying a roller. 2. I never know what color Pm going to paint a given wall antil I've pored over charts in the hardware store for half an hour and the man finally says weliotrope mixed with chartreuse is the latest thing and I say give me a gallon of each. As for tidi- ness, my theory is to let the paint fall where it may and then | paint over THAT. 3. My cats . . . well, painting | wouldn't really be a challenge without them, It's American and thoroughly reassuring to know that there are a few frontiers left Six Siamese Overseers The large living room of the two-room 'garden" apartment in the old brownstone, into which the six Siamese and I moved, was painted sunshine yellow, under a cloud for lo these many seasons. The walls responded halfheartedly to scrubbing, but the sooty ceiling balked. There was no help for it. I would have to paint. The ceiling operation took the better part of eight hours--the plaster was rough, the brush was small and the paint thick. After an hour on the first two square feet, I made a few tenta- tive calls to painters listed in the telephone directory. No nib- bles--the job was too small, the men too busy. So I went to the neighborho hardware store to get thinner and tackled the ceil- ing again. The cats were fascinated. They sat on the floor in a group, watching every stroke, Except Dodo, one of the third genera- tion felines. Twice he brought me a pipe cleaner--his favorite I didn't overlook it, he carefully dropped it in the paint. A New Floor Design By the time the ceiling was finished, the floor was an inter- esting mosaic of fresh white paint on terra cotta worn the color of diseased cowhide. It HAD to be next. The business began quietly enough one evening. I moved the furniture to one half of the room and mopped the working area. The cats draped themselves cozily om chairs piled high on tables. I had planned to put the cats ; in the kitchen before starting, and barricade the doorless en- trance with an unassembled 6- foot-high cardboard chest, |} backed up by a heavy wooden chest of drawers. But the cats i looked so peaceful and settled . . . wait until I HAD to put them out. The floor was warped and pit- ted, but even so I finished in pretty short order. With a back- ward glance at the sleeping cats, I carried the paraphernalia to the kitchen. Ten seconds later I was back. And there was Mai Tai, my grandma cat, on the far side of the room trying to escape from the wet paint by scram- bling onto the baseboard. Her progress was charted by a series of dark red footprints on sun shine yellow. Up With the Barricades! "Come here," I shouted. She gave me one despairing look and turned and tried to climb back the other way. I squished across the shining wet- ness, picked her up, and came back in the same . footprinfs. Stepping out of my shoes, I cas- ried her to the bathroom, dipped her feet in turpentine, was them thoroughly with soap and water and rubbed her dry. She submitted limply. I put her on top of the highest kitchen cab- inet--a favorite roost--and hur- retrieving toy--and to be sure ried back to the living room. bucket of {% ed | poisoning when he "MY CATS . . . well, painting wouldn't really be a challenge with- out them. I's American to know there are a few frontiers left." Sitting upright on their perches, their blue eyes gleamin, with interest, four cats watch a fifth walking resolutely the length of the wet floor, fcking each foot as he picked it up. waded in again and repeated the same rescue and cleaning pro- cess. But Tammuz, another of Mai Tai's grandsons, is a vio- lently protesting cat when he's upset. By this time I was satis- fied he wouldn't empire from icked his paws, his escaping feet had put terra cotta smears on basi kitchen gtove, refrigerator an me. In the meantime the others what I was doing to Tammuz, so I put up the barricade immedi- ately. I carried the paint back to the living room, repainted my tracks on the fresh floor and went to bed. But not to sleep. The Cats Protest All night the cats sat on the other side and discussed the mat- ter bitterly, punctuating their complaints with leaps at the top of the barrier. They would al- most make it, their claws would cling, then they would slide down with a ripping sound. The next cold damp morning, the floor was sticky, although the label on the paint can had had come to the kitchen to see said "will dry overnight." Not until was I able to leg spent the night among paint fumen, listening to hurt feline wi For awhile thereafter my painting endeavors shaped up like an anticlimax. The living room walls, a "must" after ceil ing paint trickles and Mai Tai's escapade, were almost a pleas- ure t0 do with a newly pure chased roller. And the quart of cocoa brown to a gallon of white turned out better than I had any reason to hope. Before Plaster Fell The long narrow kitchen bee came a tidy green in two hours with the roller. And the bathroom took on a gray sheen from leftover ceil- ing paint tinted with carbon black. But I probably should have saved it, One Sunday afternoon the live ing room cei fell--or at least a circle of plaster seven feet im diameter did. Which goes to prove you should never under- mate power of the neigh bors over you. Oh, I could go on--there was the repainting of the kitchen doors a dark green because soot streaked the light green. And there was the whitewashing of the garden fences which, after the first rain, washed off. 1 could 5 on--but you get the general idea. Detergent Is Best For Cleaning Tile Soap is not recommended for cleaning 'tile work in a bath- room. hard water areas, the combination of the soap and wa ter can form an insoluble film on the tile work. A water~ softening detergent in warm water is more L Joints between tiles can be kept clean by scrubbing with a fiber brush. Some tile men rec- ommend the use of lemon oil te prevent mildew and keep ti work sparkling. COLORS FOR MASONRY An easy way to color maso! walls is use dry nw! cement-base paints. These usual« ly comprise Portland cement, lime and mineral pigment. When mixed with water and applied to a dampened surface, they create a finish that is similar to concrete or mortar. -- IT'S FUN TO PAINT, BUT CARELESSNESS CAN BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN IT'S FUN TO SLAP AROUND WITH A PAINT BRUSH-- TORR So BUT WHEN YOU'RE FINISHED DON'T LEAVE SOAKING BRUSHES OR TURPENTINE SOAKED RAGS OR PAPERS AROLIND -- =You DON'T NEED A MATCH 10 START A FIRE WITH PAINTS, AND | THINNERS AROUND! SoLyY WHEN the most attractive house on the block burned to the ground, residents in trim little neighboring homes weren't surprised. They'd been expecting it. Years ago onesey had turned his basement into a workshop, filled it with stores of paint and a clutter of old furniture and junk picked up at auction sales. He liked to paint and make repairs. The neighbors liked him for it. Many of them were U- Jonesey's basement was a mess fixers themselves. Only they |---a combined factory, chemical knew when to stop, when to re- | laboratory, storage warehouse place worn appliances, when to seek professional help. Yew VETERE E FELL LPS USERAEFENS FRUITS TRS VE PL LAT PAF RA ET TERITAT RR) TRESS SRNL PENI YR RL 00 and recreation room. He was careless, too, in handling paints and solvents, even failing to pro- vide good'ventilation. And there wasn't an ash tray to be found. No wonder his house burned down. " The likes of that guy Jonesey, says the National Board of Fire Underwriters, cause about 90 per cent of all fires. Their careless- ness will cause 800 homes to burn today, tomorrow and every day. Not all will be lucky Jon- eseys, Many will die. What is the hazard? The oils turpentine, mineral spirits and other common ingredients in paints. Lacquers contain acetone and amyl acetate (banana oil) and occasionally some benzine (petroleum naphtha). Paint re- PAE 5% movers usually contain some benzol. Even kerosene and ture pentine give off flammable va= pors when hea! Rags containing paint or line seed oil or almost any vegetable or fish oil are subject to spon- taneous hea under certain conditions. You're wise if you keep these metal cans, or destroy them. © NEPWND HER ERE ee