A Whole New Woman

We enjoyed our annual long holiday weekend over the 4th of July. We had an exceptionally busy Friday and Saturday last week and so I think all of Team PJP appreciated the extra day off.

You might remember that our daughter has been fairly insistent that we paint PJP Nifong to make It more cohesive to PJP West. And also, she has been adamant for at least the last 30 months that she disliked the yellow wall at PJP Nifong, deeming it “hard to merchandise against”. And this is the girl who loves all aspects of interior design, so she was never going to let the idea of a repaint go (she’s also total dupe of Jeanne when it comes to a lot of things, including not wavering on an idea once she’s settled on it.)

And that’s just a long way of saying that we found ourselves at PJP Nifong on Sunday morning with three gallons of eggshell finish paint, rollers, and trim brushes. The goal was paint the two yellow walls, leave the mess, and then return today to put every thing back in place before re-opening tomorrow.

As it turns out, we painted the two walls, the wall with the fireplace mantel, the mantel, and the pie display. Nothing screams entrepreneurship like spending a day of a holiday weekend painting, right? And as with most projects, one small thing led to another small thing until the day had passed quickly and Jeanne was on a ladder cleaning the tops of ovens and Jason was mopping under the merchandising cooler and freezer.

(As a side note, we did spend a lot of time wondering why we ever painted the pie display in the first place. Jeanne and her husband built that display and for at least a few years, it was the natural wood. And then Jeanne painted it red - I don’t remember why. And then she painted it a gray color a year or so before we moved from Buttonwood to Nifong - I also don’t remember why. At any rate, we gave it a refresh.)

And then we left wet paint and a total mess in the store, preferring to spend Monday floating around in the above ground pool we purchased for ourselves at the beginning of summer.

Today, we returned to find we were thrilled with the color upgrade (for posterity, this is where I confirm our daughter was correct about the color change.). And then we spent the next five hours putting everything back in place and cleaning. If you follow our TikTok account, you can watch Jeanne scrubbing the floor with an SOS pad and a scrub brush from her perch on a milk crate.

So, the only cons were that it took two days of our four day weekend. And we realized that this is at least the fourth coat of paint on the display in eight years, which seems excessive overall.

But the pros to this project? SO MUCH. Nifong and West look more cohesive and Nifong looks like she’s a whole new woman with a complete refresh. Here’s a little before shot…after pics coming soon.