Try not to
worry about it.
When engaged in the
decision-making process, it is important, naturally to give some
consideration to every
detail which is likely to potentially inform the best decision. But, it is equally important to avoid the
waste of time and effort and mental energy which comes with consideration of unimportant details. And a good example of such a detail is the color of the
primer in the
utility basement.
When
painting a
house, whether interior or exterior, it is the usual practice to first apply at least one primer coat, to seal the surface and provide key protection against the
elements, and then to apply over it a color coat, the
yellow or
blue or
marble-flecked
alabaster paint which reflects your aesthetic tastes and conveys what you wish observers to see. Oh, the color of the primer is of some indirect importance to such a sort of venture -- a dark primer may be seen through a light color coat, and so a light primer ought to be used if the intended color coat is a light color. But if yours happens to be the standard utilitarian basement, intended to be employed for, primarily, storage of knicknacks and bric-a-brac and housing of the
water heater/
laundry machinery/
mushroom garden, then what observers see at all shrinks to a pittance in importance. We're not talking about a basement made into a subterranean
rec room,
discotheque, or
love nest. We're speaking here of the basement into which people are not
supposed to go, of the kind in those scary movies where the
audience is meant to gasp, "don't go in the basement!!" And so, the builder who spends long hours comparing color swatches for primer coats does himself a most inefficient disservice.
Indeed, the tempered builder worries over this
facet not at all, his experience having yielded to him sufficient insight on this question that he already knows which primer he would use for a particular purpose before the particular purpose presents itself. To this builder, the first question is, what qualities of
durability and water-tightness and
insulation do I want in a basement primer?; the second is, which color is the cheapest?; and all those being equal, the third is, which can of paint is closest to the cart I'm loading up to take them to the
register?