The Birds

Last year we painted three rooms in our house. When I say "we" I really mean my friend Christina. Now I've asked her to tackle the dining room, but that room is problematic. It's pale yellow with a bright yellow border along the ceiling. There are also rectangular panels of molding embossed on each section of the wall, edged with elaborate curlicues. The molding is painted pale blue and the corner curlicues are navy blue blobs meant to resemble birds in flight. The overall effect is ghastly, but we've been living with it for years so we're used to it.

Our neighbor told us that the house's former tenant was a hippie house painter who lived here in some sort of menage with a couple of girls. They took off to a commune in the Southwest somewhere; she thinks maybe Colorado or New Mexico. According to her, he painted each room in bright Southwestern colors, (burnt orange, turquoise, and so on) before he and the girls took off for the actual place. When he moved out, the house's absentee landlords concealed the blinding colors with a couple of layers of yellow paint. Since our house is small and sunny, that was a good choice. It gives the rooms a light airy feel and makes the bungalow appear larger than it is. But what's up with the mutilated birds? The first time a guest enters our dining room, his jaw drops in horror.  After a while, though, frequent visitors tend to grow attached to the birds and protest when we talk about eliminating them. I think that's misguided. They could swoop down on you at any time.