These past couple of weeks we had the great opportunity to do an interior painting project! This was our first time heading up a project together, and it was a great experience.

The recipient, Charlene Greene, had recently injured her spine and had to stop working. Also, her elderly mother had just fallen and could no longer live on her own, so her mother had to move in with her. Greene called NeighborLink looking for some help painting her walls. With her mother’s health declining, there were many nurses and personal-care staff that had to come into her home and help her mother, and Greene was uncomfortable with how her home looked.

When she purchased the home in 2006 her walls hadn’t been painted anything other than the dull white they were when we first saw them. She was incredibly happy to finally get some help getting some paint on her walls. Greene provided us with three gallons of paint: two gallons of a light tan, and one gallon of a darker earthy tone. We had to get pretty creative and use what we had to get the job done.  We decided to mix all the paint together to get one color, and it worked out pretty well.

Her main desire was to have her main living and dining space get some color. So we decided to use the paint she gave us on those walls. At first we weren’t even sure if we would have enough paint to get the large living room finished, but in the end we actually ended up having enough paint to do two rooms instead of one! It took us a few days (coordinating with everyone’s busy schedules) to get all of the walls done. We then took some leftover white paint we had at our houses and tried to give a fresh coat to her trim and door. At the end the living and dining room walls looked very nice and Ms. Greene was very pleased and overly thankful. Along with having a great time helping out with some willing friends, we also learned some helpful painting tips and techniques. 

We filmed most of the process for footage for some upcoming NeighborLink videos on painting. Overall, it was amazing to see how just a couple hours of our free time out of a week could do so much for someone. We hope to keep in contact with Ms. Greene and build a long-lasting relationship with her.

Never underestimate the power of a paintbrush.