Monday, February 2nd, 2009
That’s two down and a bunch more to go.
I really don’t like painting. It’s not that bad once I get into it, but getting into it is the problem. I have found that doing short bursts throughout the day helps. If I put it off for a few days, I am in trouble. I won’t want to start again.
So everyone knows that pretty much the first thing to do when you move into a house is paint. In our last house, we had to paint over the smoke stained walls. That was nice. There were also many problems beyond that. It took me weeks just to prep one room. Everything came out nice in the end, but the whole project took longer than I would have liked it too. Just as I finished every last thing I could have done to that house, we moved.
This time, there really is no prepping. In this last room, I had to spackle 4 tack hole that I put there. It’s refreshing when people don’t smoke, have holes in the walls or wallpaper on the ceiling. Oh, the good ol’ days. I remember laying in bed a few years ago saying, “Pumpkin, we have wallpaper on the ceiling.”
Painting the red room didn’t take long at all. In just a few weeks, it was done. Most of that time was my procrastination. We closed out the era of the dark red and painted on a brighter blue/gray. Again, this is one of those paint colors that changes color throughout the day. I am sure all paint does that.
The dark red was okay, but we wanted to change up the wood grain trim and make it white. We also wanted to room to appear slightly larger. Brighter paint will do that.
I have said many times before, I love white trim. It’s bright and cheery and easily repaired when damaged. Just touch it up. My heart breaks when I paint over this nice wood, but it’s something that I have to do.
Here are some before and after pictures:
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Red room – before it was painted
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Red room – after it was painted
I think the toughest part was all the taping around the windows. I wanted to maintain the wood window frames, but paint all the trim around it. That way, they don’t get painted shut and they will look more natural. Also, taking the door off the hinges and closet doors down (and painting them) took a while. Other than that, everything went well.
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Wednesday, January 28th, 2009
Throughout this winter, I have been putting together a short mental list of things I am going to tackle once the good weather arrives. I thought I might share that list with you, partly to entertain you and partly to remind me what in the world I had on my mental list once I have the urge to do some of these things.
EXTERIOR:
1. Order tons of pine trees from ArborDay.org and plant them all over the place.
2. Get the lawn in order.
3. Begin work on Laura’s garden. Need fencing and shrubs.
4. Clean out under porch. Take nails out of 2×4s and stack somewhere else so they are hidden. Throw out vinyl lattice (unless of course you want it).
5. Order more pellets to restock basement for next year.
6. Repair driveway again from this winter’s damage.
7. Admire mailbox.
8. Order 30 yards of mulch.
9. Mulch front garden and top off last year’s mulch.
10. Enlarge garden in front to include those 3 large rocks. Mulch that too.
INTERIOR:
1. Finish painting upstairs bedroom.
2. Remove carpet and tile from downstairs (main floor) and install tile over the whole area.
3. Paint downstairs (main floor).
4. Continue wondering how difficult it would be to replace suspended ceiling in basement with sheetrock.
5. Continue fantasizing about turning the laundry room into a giant bathroom with a giant bathtub and a giant shower.
6. Finish painting upstairs.
Wow, that’s quite a list. Am I going to get all these things done this spring? Heck no. I think I might be able to get those pine trees though. I am getting tired just looking at that list.
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Wednesday, January 7th, 2009
I played a little tennis this morning. I didn’t know if I was going to make it, because the weather was kind of rough out there. I gave the club a call about 45 minutes before the clinic started and they let me know it was “on.” If I tell you one thing today, let it be that I love all-wheel-drive. This is like the tenth time I spun all four wheels going up the driveway. I keep doing it because it’s so much fun. This X5 freakin’ rules. I drive around in the snow like it’s nobody’s business. It also has descent control, so when I want to get back down the driveway, all I do is push a button.
I showed up on time, but the others were late. That was fine with me, because it gave me a chance to become acquainted with the ball machine. Man, about 5 minutes with that thing and I was whooped. I really need to get out there more. The older I get, the worse it becomes.
Laura has been talking about a treadmill lately, so I have a feeling that is going to be making its way into the basement. There are days when we can’t walk because of the weather. I tell her that I have an allergy to the whole “exercise at home” thing. I have seen basements full of rarely used equipment all my life. I have to give her credit though, she is beating up that Bowflex. I have never met someone who actually does what she says like this. Amazing.
Tennis was fun. There were only three of us, plus the pro. Small groups are always a good time and we used our time wisely. I am still practicing my forehand, so things are a little weird, but I expect to get it one of these days. I remember back when I was on the swim team over at the town beach. I was the worst one in the whole group at freestyle. I was doing 22 second laps. I went to visit a family friend in Long Island with my father one weekend and practiced swimming in their pool. When I came back, I was doing 16 second laps. I remember the look on the coach’s face…”WHAT?” That ended up being my best stroke. I’m tellin’ ya Mike, I’m tellin’ ya.
In between other things for the past few days, I have been painting the purple room. If you forget what the purple room looks like, you can check it out here. It’s the one that’s purple. I decided to get off my duff and start painting upstairs of the house. It took a while, but I’m doing it. I cleaned out the room, painted it and then moved my office in it tonight. Here, you can take a look…
Office
Oh, you know I went down to the flooring place in town. I was going to go all out with the top floor, one room at a time. I was first going to put down new carpeting in each room, then I lost heart at during my visit. I brought back samples of pre-finished hardwood. It only took a few hours for me to completely change my mind and lose all motivation to turn this into a multi-week project. If we ever want to re-do the floors, we’ll do them. For now, we are only going to worry about paint.
By the way, can you believe I have that much stuff in the little office? Geez.
Now that the old office is cleaned out, we can start painting in there. After that, the bedroom and finally, Laura’s office. It will probably be spring by that point, so I’ll be outside for the rest of the season.
After I was finished moving all the furniture, I went downstairs to grab myself a glass of Brandy. I must tell you, after tasting that Scotch, I have admitted that I am a Brandy man. It’s the whole, “after dinner” thing, I think. It’s just the way I am. I don’t need any more hair on my chest.
I did a little looking around and decided that perhaps someone should buy me a nice bottle of Christian Brothers XO Rare Reserve Brandy. I would really like that. If you want to just drop it off, cool. If you want to meet me someplace, I can do that, just let me know when.
Finally, let’s talk about music. I am done organizing my albums into nice, neat folders on my computer (backed up, of course). I have a whole slew of them and they are mixed with most of Laura’s. She still has a while to go. As I was sitting here in the new office tonight, drinking my Brandy, I decided to cruise through some of the folders. I knew what all my albums were, but there are some of Laura’s that I really am not all too familiar with.
I first listened to one of my favorites, Christopher Cross. Then, after that was done, I opened one of hers. I listed to the first part of the first song and decided to give it a chance. I was in the middle of working, so I didn’t notice all that much after that, until the third song. It was “Days Of The New – Enemy.”
Now, I know you are chuckling under your breath, mumbling that I am not as “hip” as you are when it comes to music. You’re probably right, but I have already gotten over it. I really like the song and I would like to share it with you. Enjoy. (You’ll have to click here to see it. They disabled embedding.)
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Saturday, June 7th, 2008
Just a few minutes ago, I finished painting the basement. I feel like this is breaking news or something. Well, with the way I dread painting, I feel like it should be some sort of news.
I have been doing a little bit each day…chipping away at it. Luckily, the walls were in great shape. There were some pin-holes here and there, but no real spackling. I didn’t even have to sand, I just used a wet sponge. That is so sweet.
For this painting project, we bought two gallons of color and one gallon of white. When I began to paint, I noticed that I was going through the color pretty fast. I also noticed that I had no idea how much white I was going to use. We went back to the store and grabbed two more gallons of color and one more gallon of white. Now that the project is done, I have exactly two extra gallons of color and one and a half of white. Isn’t that funny? Not really. Now I have to decide which room gets to be the same color as the basement. I think my office may benefit.
It’s not too much of a change from what was here before. Just a slightly different color. I also changed the trim and doors to white. I love that contrast. It looks soooo HGTV.
The door guy is coming (hopefully) this week to replace the basement door. Also, the tile guy is coming out on Wednesday to give me a price on doing the floor. If everything goes smoothly, we should have a brand new basement in a few weeks. Then, I can call the pellet stove place and have that whole thing set up.
I wonder if I am the only guy on the planet thinking of a pellet stove when it’s 94 degrees outside.
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Thursday, June 5th, 2008
I have been pretty busy lately, between working, planting plants, getting the cars registered and, oh yeah, re-doing the basement.
I believe I told you about it in an earlier post. Then, I had the floor torn up and was considering what to put on it. Now, I am paiting the whole thing up.
I realized something along this short journey. That is, I hate painting. I mean, I can do it in short bursts, but I lose interest fast. One room is fine, two maybe, three weird sections and I’m lost. I have to say it’s getting there though.
We picked out a color that looks very nice when dried. We got a little nervous when I started putting it on the walls, but got over it. I am also painting all the trim and doors white.
You may be asking yourselves, “Why, Jay, are you doing this now? Why so fast…what’s the rush?” Well, I’ll tell you. The whole reason is that we are going to put a pellet stove in the basement. In order to put a pellet stove down there, we need a new floor. In order to put in a new floor, we need to remove all the base moulding. If the base moulding is off, we may as well paint the place. Also, since the moulding is off, we might as well take this time to replace the French doors leading to outside. They need to be replaced and it needs to be done before the floor goes in.
But “why now” you ask? The reason is that you need to get a pellet stove in the summer. Things are slower and more available. Also, pellets are cheaper. We will need at least three tons.
Yeah, all this just to put a pellet stove in the basement and get rid of the carpet. I told you how I feel about carpets. I also removed the carpet from the basement stairs last night. That was fun. I really like pulling up tack strips and pulling out staples. Good thing I am proficient at this type of thing.
I am setting up the date to have the door installed tomorrow. When the install happens, you’ll know about it. I am also having the tile guy come over tomorrow to give me a price on the installation. I was going to do it myself, but I quickly lost interest in that once I started painting.
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Sunday, February 17th, 2008
I decided to take this photo this morning of the wall I was working on the other day. I just finished painting it. I figured that some of my loyal audience was a little nervous about the taping and compounding job I did. It looked like a mess, but I actually knew what I was doing.
This morning, I did a bit of final sanding and finished up with the paint. I forgot to wash the paintbrush I used yesterday, so this morning’s paint was a little challenging. Either way, I got it done.
See, I told you I knew what I was doing. You may be asking yourself, “Who it the world puts a breaker box right behind the front door…in plain view?” The answer to that question is…a damn fool, that’s who. It’s not like I can hang a painting over it or anything. Oh well.
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Monday, December 17th, 2007
When I was applying the drywall tape for the kitchen, I noticed some bubbles forming under the tape in some spots. I was getting all mad because I thought this was going to make the entire project look bad. After the tape dried, I forgot all about the bubbles.
When I was painting the kitchen the other day, I noticed one or two areas of the tape where bubbles were forming, I guess due to the moisture of the paint. The spots were hidden pretty well, so I didn’t really care. I guess the paper tape was getting wet and expanding.
Last night, I was telling Laura how well the color paint hides anything and everything on these walls. I looked up to the spot where one bubble was pretty large and noticed that it didn’t exist anymore. I was so happy. I think the tape dried out and tightened back up.
What’s the moral of this story? If you get some bubbles in your drywall tape when you are taping or painting, don’t freak out. They will disappear after everything dries.
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Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
This place stinks.
I mean, it really does. I woke up this morning with a plan. My plan was that I was going to make a plan…no, I mean it. I am talking about the kitchen. I’m sorry, but whenever I think about sanding and spackling walls, I get very demotivated. It’s helpful to think of projects in small chunks. My plan is to tackle a bit of the kitchen each day…one wall at a time.
Well, today I painted the ceiling. It’s not exactly a wall, but it did need to get done. There wasn’t really anything wrong with the old ceiling color, besides the fact that there was something along the lines of spaghetti sauce spots on it. Laura and I kept looking at a rather large one for about two years, until I got the courage to wipe it off. Who knows how these things happen. Anyway, now it’s a nice bright white.
The other thing that was wrong with the kitchen ceiling was its yellowish tint. I think someone who lived here was a heavy smoker. They had to be…all the walls were yellow. At one point, I’m sure the white ceilings were whiter, but the tar in the cigarette smoke took care of that. I believe the people who lived here had kids too. Good luck with that. The kitchen is the last room that needs to have the yellow covered up. It felt great to roll a new shade of white over the yellow white.
Also, today I bleached the walls of the shower/bathtub. I needed to really clean the grout so I could seal it. If you have ever used straight bleach to clean with, you can understand what I am talking about. Those noxious fumes can bring you down. I tried to hold my breath, but had to keep running in and out of the bathroom so I wouldn’t faint. That’s all Laura needs to come home to.
That’s why this place stinks. There is a wonderful mix of drying paint and bleach floating through the air.
I took this picture of Simon the other night. He was sleeping with his head up. Sometimes he does that, so I thought it would be interesting for my readers to see, especially if they don’t have a cat capable of doing something like this. He is for rent. Call me.
In other news, last night was a windy sonofabitch. I hate the wind. I kept getting up to see if the recycling cans on the porch blew off. If they did, I would be spending the day cleaning up paper. Good thing they didn’t.
The picture above is the front yard with a little bit of snow on it. It actually was snowing, but the camera didn’t pick that up. You will have to use your imagination.
I miss you.
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Thursday, November 1st, 2007
I have gotten quite a bit done. Laura and I decided last night that we are not going to buy a new vanity. We will keep the white one we have. We don’t love it, but we keep thinking that the next people who move in this house won’t appreciate all the time and money we are putting into it. We have little faith in them. We keep having visions of them rolling carpeting over our nice floors and lighting up a cigarette for a nice smoke on the couch, while watching the game on their huge screen TV.
On the cheap it will be. Well, not exactly cheap.
Tonight we are going out to Lowes to pick up a mirror/shelf type thingy. I think they are called medicine chests. I found one online last night that I liked. We are also going to try to find some sort of shelf system for above the toilet. We are keeping the current lighting too. I am just going to clean it up a bit and reinstall it.
Ok, time for some pics.
Remember what this looked like before? Here is a reminder. I finished up the crown moulding last night and finished the painting today. It’s not perfect, but then neither am I. The color came out nicely. After we get the shelves and all that, I am going to set up a time for the tile people to come to install the new floor. We have some choices to make tonight.
I am going for the grayish one in the uppermost left. It’s hard to see in this picture. I went down to the tile store in town this afternoon and wanted to take some photos, but of course, the batteries in my camera went dead after two.
There were way too many to choose from. We want a darker floor than the walls. Right now, it seems like you are floating in a sea of “light” when you go in the bathroom. It’s better than the dark though.
The tile store was kind enough to let me take home the sample boards. We will make a choice tonight and I’ll bring them back in the morning.
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Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
I tackled the crown moulding in the bathroom last night. Have I told you that I really hate hanging crown moulding?
The room is almost exactly 5′x9′. It’s not too big, so I couldn’t cheat with two pieces of moulding per wall. I had to cut one piece each. This was easier than I thought, so it wasn’t too bad. I cut the pieces a little longer than necessary and then just kept trimming them until they fit snugly. I did run into a little issue though…For each piece, I drilled the holes for the finishing nails. I hammered all the nails in all around the room and wham, the last one didn’t go in. I kept hitting it and it bent. I use caulk to fill the gaps and nail holes anyway, so I tried to hammer the bent nail so it would sink into the moulding. Well, that didn’t work out too well. The nail is slightly sticking out. I am going to cover it up with caulk, paint it and give it a name for character. It’s in a hidden part of the room anyway. Otherwise, everything came out pretty well.
I will take some photos when I get it all painted up and looking nice.
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