Paint Job

The last of the scaffolding that enclosed the dome of the State House since summer will come down Friday — leaving Annapolis with an uncluttered view of its most famous landmark just in time for Christmas. For all practical purposes, the $800,000 restoration job is over. "It was just a good job well done and worked out great," said Bart L. Thomas, who oversaw the project for the state Department of General Services. The golden acorn at the very top of the soaring wooden dome has been regilded.

The Bay Lady is going upscale. New DJ booths, bars and dance floors, and renovated bathrooms and dining halls will greet cocktail cruise-goers and wedding parties when they board the 450-passenger vessel later this spring. The boat's leaky steel hull will have been repaired, and fresh paint will gleam from stem to stern. When the nearly $1 million refurbishing is complete April 24, the 20-year-old excursion boat will be rechristened the Spirit of Baltimore, the first overt sign that there's a new -- and deep-pocketed -- owner in town.

Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands.The Anne Arundel County school system had planned a much-needed paint job for the 47-year-old Glendale Elementary School -- for next year.But that would mean emotionally disturbed children in a program at the school would have to spend another year in peeling classrooms with no air conditioning and no bright colors."I'm coming in as a new administrator, and I feel very strongly that the climate is important," said administrative intern Paulette Tanoue.

Baltimore was known for things quirky and criminal long before Mark J. Adams opened what he claims is the world's only hot-pink bail bond office. And so the city's reputation should survive once the rain lets up and the "shocking pink" former florist shop that Adams moved into a month ago can be repainted. "We're going to paint it a stately green," Adams said. Fair Deal bail bonds sits at 2150 Boston, in a mostly residential neighborhood between Canton and Fells Point.

A $71 million project to clean and paint portions of the 4.3-mile eastbound span of the Bay Bridge got under way yesterday as workers began blasting away lead paint from the structure.It will be the first scraping down to bare metal on the original, two-lane span of the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge, built in 1952 at a cost of $45 million.But Maryland Transportation Authority (MdTA) officials promised yesterday that the project will not significantly interrupt beach traffic or rush hours.

All the Foslers know about the house across the street is it wasn't purple when they fell asleep one night three years ago. But it was when they woke up. How it happened is still a mystery.Like a hyacinth, The Purple House seemed to spring up overnight out of nowhere. A showy blossom, the 1 1/2 -story bungalow with white awnings stands out in the 300 block of Orchard Road in Ferndale among the traditionally colored sky-blue, gray and white houses."It was just an ordinary color when we went to bed, and then to wake up and see this purple house," Edith Fosler, 82, exclaimed, as her husband, Frederick, 80, watched the evening news on the living room television set. "We never saw it until it was completely painted."

THIS IS the season when the Bay Bridge attracts thousands of commuters hungry for a slice of good times on the Eastern Shore.But this old gray lady is in serious need of a make-over -- and quick.Your Intrepid wheelster last week took a ride over the bridge only to discover the eastbound span is rusty in many places, including guard rails. On the western section, potholes and chips in the road surface made the car rock and roll, adding to the anxiety of crossing the 4.2-mile suspension span.

When Bard Wickkiser first laid eyes on an empty Greenmount Avenue rowhouse on the edge of Guilford, he knew he had something special. For months, Wickkiser searched Charles Village and the areas nearby, looking for an older home that was sound but needed some tender loving care. "The house sat on the market for over a year and no one bought it," said Wickkiser. "I did a lot of homework and a lot of sniffing around before I found this. I thought someone had moved the decimal point on the price or maybe a `1' was missing.

The job looms over the Chesapeake Bay like the Bay Bridge. In fact, it is the Bay Bridge.The bridge's south span, sweeping 4.3 miles across the bay's choppy waters, needs a new coat of paint. A team of workmen is deep into the chore.It's a task likely to make a weekend painter or even most professionals feel faint -- 2.5 million square feet of rusting, peeling steel to blast, clean, patch, prime and coat. And that's only the center portion of the span.Just approaching the job each day is a challenge.

A Crofton substation operator was accidentally electrocuted Friday evening while working on a transformer in Bethesda, Montgomery County police said.Leonard Russell Ainsworth, 40, of Cambridge Drive died after he came into contact with a high-voltage conductor atop the transformer at a Potomac Electric Power Co. substation in the 4900 block of Del Ray Avenue near Old Georgetown Road.An employee of Pepco for four years, Mr. Ainsworth was preparing the transformer to be returned to service after it was decommissioned for a paint job, a company spokeswoman said yesterday.