Shockingly, progress continues

The house does tend to get angry about large projects, and this time it vented its spleen by having the dishwasher spring a leak - soaking the joist below, a bit of the floor, and half of the island back.  The joist and the floor should dry without damage, but the island back is mdf and will need to be replaced before it molds.  I'll tackle that next week.  It looks like the water supply line just worked itself loose; has that happened to anyone else?  Dad?

But, there was a lot of positive progress, even though some of it was expensive.  The electrician came to center the light fixture box, leaving us with one junction box that I think we can easily disguise and a trustworthy attachment for the new ceiling fan (which should be arriving soon).  We booked a mason to fix the chimney as he was very reasonable in price and could do the work today (I think he was so reasonable because he was grateful to get a last minute job that he could do even though it's freezing since it was inside!) 

It also turns out Jaimee is much better at sanding joint compound than I am.  And applying it, really.  Thank heavens.  Because of her hard work, the walls were ready to be painted as soon as the ceiling was sealed.  I tackled the sealing with satin polyurethane, and Jaimee started painting once the sanding was complete.  The ceiling is sealed and the walls have their first coat!

It's hard to easily see the color, but this room is sort of a sky blue.  Tonight we'll will tackle the second coat - and begin the extensive cleaning required to get rid of all the demo dirt.  Weirdly, I find the cleaning much more fun than the sanding.  Or perhaps that's not weird at all - after all, you can see progress when cleaning!

More...painting...

I had my bedroom ceiling, office ceiling and walls, and dining room ceiling skimcoated. 

(skimcoat: coat with a mixture of gypsum and spackle; "he skimcoated the drywall", dictionary.com).  The bedroom and office had to be done as the paint was crackling and falling off.  Apparently the original primer didn't get a good grip!  The dining room ceiling was just ugly.  

The contractor did an ok job.  It's better than I would have done, but not as flawless as the guy who did my hallway ceilings.  Why didn't I hire that guy back?  Well - he made me uncomfortable.

Of course now I think I should have gone with brief discomfort - or had Jaimee deal with him ;) - as this guy didn't do as good a job, and he took nearly 2 weeks to finish.  2 weeks is a long time not to have a bedroom or easy access to your clothes... 

Anyway.  It's still a better job than I would have done.  Since I really wanted my room back, I took Friday off and primed and painted.  Max came to help, and by Friday night all 3 rooms were primed and the bedroom and office ceilings were painted.  Sunday I finished the dining room.  So after 2 weeks of work, a not -inconsiderable amount of money, and an exhausting weekend, I have 2 rooms that look...almost exactly like they did 2 weeks ago.  I mean, the paint is no longer falling off, which I think is great, but I'm reliably informed that many people don't actually notice that.

Phooey on those non-detail people!  I think it looks good.  And now I can finally paint the walls in the office - right after I pick the color.  And clean up all the joint compound dust that's all over the house.

In other news, my garden looks lovely.  New plans and some hard work from Hobs - it's coming along!  Pics soon.

The thing is, it's just boring.

I've gotten a couple comments from friends lately asking what exactly I've been doing, since I keep saying that I'm working on the house, but I'm not updating the blog. I have been working. Thing is...it's boring work.

I'm really trying to get the hallway walls done soon, which involves patching the walls (there were some good sized holes caused by loose plaster, as well as cracks), chipping all the loose paint off the ceiling and then spackling the edges of the remaining paint so you can't see where it came off, removing the paint from the medallion before repainting it (so you can see the detail), and then finally painting the damn thing. And that doesn't even include the work on the stairs, and painting the molding. I've spent the past couple weekends, with some help from friends, thank you!, just getting the walls ready. Another day, and I think the hallway walls themselves will be ready to prime and paint. The ceiling will need more time though. Lots of loose paint there!

I did have to buy one of those 22-in-1 ladders to get at the walls and ceiling over the stairs. That sucker is heavy!!! And just barely fits on the stairs.

In other news, the house is really complaining about the work. In the space of two weeks, the boiler refused to turn on one morning (apparently it just needed to be cleaned and greased), the washer has gone on the fritz (new control board coming up), and the deadbolt actually broke (fixed). Quit it with the little stuff house, I have a hallway to finish!

One painted kitchen

So many questions come to mind when painting. There are the philosophical (how many cracks must a woman patch?), the practical (can you really see that painting mistake from the floor?), the technological (why does it take 4 hours for the paint to dry?), and the anatomical (how did I get paint under my chin?). It also gives a great full body workout! I encourage you all to try it - should you need a place for the attempt, I can offer a dining room, an office, and a hallway... Kidding. Sort of.

Anyway, after four days of patching and sanding (over the past couple weeks), we finally primed and painted the kitchen! For those of you thinking to yourselves, "Damn, Erin and Sarah are slow! I can paint a room in an hour!" well, so can we. But these aren't your boring fresh smooth drywall walls - these are lovely used and abused plaster! Almost 100 years old. So plenty of nicks, cracks, bulges, and challenges to work through. One application of patching compound is never enough. In fact, in several cases I'm not sure four was enough...

But it looks great! Just imagine that for a bit while I try to remember to upload the pictures ;)

Painting Pictures!

Finally, sorry for the delay. The blue is the funny little room off my bedroom, the brown is my bedroom, and the gray is the living room. Erin's pink room was done(ish) already.



The living room took three coats, the blue room two, and the brown one two (I think?).

There was also a ton of cleaning done, and loose paint scraping - somehow I did not capture a photo of the brave (and well balanced) friend hanging off the ladder and over the staircase to get the hallway ceiling - but do not fear, I will capture the work before we patch! Yes, I must get better at using the camera. Somehow I'd rather actually work than photograph - which is just silly.



Slideshow for today:

Painting

Wall prep naturally leads to painting - lots and lots of painting. Which takes much longer than you would reasonably expect, but I suppose that's why I don't make a living estimating paint jobs... Once again, my friends came through in the pinch.



Slide show for today:

Wall prep

The next weekend was all about wall prep. The moms helped us finalize the colors - then my mom guided me through the longest hardware store trip yet, while Erin and Aunt Deb patched, sanded, and cleaned.

Our intrepid friends continued on with their sanding and patching, and finally got to move on to priming! The goal is to paint Erin's bedchin, my room, and the living room before we move in, and there's quite a way to go...



I spent a lot of time scraping the loose paint from my walls, and then trying to patch them. I've gotten much better at the patching, but there's just no reason for it to take so long!


Slide show for today: