Putting the "pain" in painting
Well, another weekend's come and gone. Hearts were broken, but progress was made. Walls in two rooms that required a second coat received it. Saturday, my sister pointed out that the ceilings we painted last weekend were horribly uneven. They were so uneven, in fact, that they almost looked plaid. Apparently the previous owners used a brownish shade of white on the ceilings, which contrasted nicely with our movie-star-teeth white.
So yesterday I spot-rolled two ceilings and brushed around the edges. They still don't look great, so I'll just thank my guests in advance for not scrutinizing or commenting on the ceilings.
All that's left now is trim touch-ups, assuming the paint we matched to the existing trim does actually match. I discovered yesterday that the molding near the ceiling is flat, whereas the shoe molding, which we have matched, is semigloss. So, the top molding (it's too thin to qualify as "crown molding," which is why I'm not calling it that) will likely remain unpainted. I thank future guests in advance for not noting that someone got over-zealous with the roller and smudged the molding quite a few times.
The security door is another story of heartbreak. Specifically, it's too big and opens on the wrong side. (Didn't think a door could open on the wrong side, did ya? Well, it can.) Also, it's extremely heavy so making the exchange is easy but transporting it back and forth is not. Because someone else in my family who shall remain nameless insisted on getting the larger door although I cautioned against it, that person now is figuring out how to transport it. And he is very, very cranky.
Other news: I totally wimped out and paid some people to do more work in my yard. They cleaned out all the beds and did major weed removal and spreading of the giant compost hill that used to be a tree. It was so worth the money.
posted by shorttina @ 7:02 AM
2 Comments
2 Comments:
Don't feel bad about wimping out! Most people pay someone to paint their house and you slaved away. That's quite an undertaking.
And I am not just justifying it when I say the gardeners probably could use that money. It's not the best economy, so having somebody do your lawn once so you can get settled in is actually helping the economy.
Your pocket might lose out this time around, but you're keeping your sanity and you won't burn yourself out at your full-time job this way. Once you get settled in, you can focus more on "the joys of gardening."
If you think it will bother you to look at the ceiling, you might even consider having professionals come in to deal with the molding and ceiling while you have all the stuff down on the floors. It's probably a small job that they can handle pretty quickly at this point. You could take bids and I'm guessing you have measurements of all the rooms. You're supplying the paint, so it should be cheaper. Does your brother-in-law know someone who could do it? My suspicion is he would.
Am I being evil? I hope not! But maybe I am...
Hey girl!
No, no evil detected here.
Actually, I don't feel bad about paying the men to work. They're my bro-in-law's men, and I'm sure they were ok with doing it; they got paid their same usual rate. My brother-in-law was nice enough to line them up and just let me pay them directly, so I got his service for free. I am going to buy him an ice cream cake today to thank him, because really, he did a lot of work too. He dug up some plants and orchestrated the whole thing. He is a GOOD man. Plus, he was involved in delivering the wrong-size door and other tasks.
So, he'll be getting an ice cream cake from Stone Cold Creamery. I'll probably also get him and my sister a gift cert for dinner somewhere eventually, b/c they've both helped out a lot.
I need to do something special for my parents, too, but with them it'll be something more personal that they can't refuse. (They're like Jerry Seinfeld's parents, and wouldn't accept any gift on the grounds that they don't want me spending money on them.) I'll have them over for dinner, but I want to do more than that. Once I eventually have time, I could make something for them (knit or otherwise paint/construct something). Or maybe do some work in their yard. Any ideas? Mom is allergic to plants in the house and basically doesn't want store-bought stuff....You see the challenge here.
As for the ceiling, I have made my peace with it. It looks substantially better now and it's just in the bedrooms and office. I made sure the area over where my bed will be looked decent so I don't have to stare at it in bed.
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