August 7th, 2008 - Painting the den
For the last two weeks, we’ve been having the den painted. We thought it would be 2-3 days. It took 9. We called in Reeves to do it because we’re 100% certain there was lead paint underneath the wallpaper. (I don’t have a pic of the wallpaper, but it was really old and falling down. We took down the old doorbell a couple weeks ago. The paper behind it hadn’t even faded. Durable, but ugly.) Plus, we just aren’t very good at painting and I refuse to tape our woodwork again (there are like 14 corners per window or something like that). The den, AKA Eric’s room, is the only room that hasn’t been refinished something in the last 30 years (although the kitchen is likely right around that point!). So it’s about time….
That paint wasn’t in great shape. And, as we found out, there were lots of cracks (expected) and even a hole:
Ralph spent the first 3 days tearing off the wallpaper, putting up a bonding agent (which had to be redone many times due to the amount of wallpaper glue–as we expected and told them to expect given the living room), and fixing the holes (they had to cut out one area it was so bad) and cracks.
Then he skim coated it all on Thurs. It took way longer to dry, despite the heavy duty fan in there for hours (and overnight). They had planned to put up the orange peel coating in the afternoon, but couldn’t. It was hot and humid outside.
Then he got an abscessed tooth early Friday morning–sudden and requiring something like 6 stitches. So nothing was done Friday.
Monday, they put up the orange peel. That hadn’t dried by evening, as I found out when asked to check it. Everything was dry, except one small area that I put my fingers on. See how well they covered the woodwork and floor. Far more than we would have done if doing this job on our own. I appreciate the care that was taken.
Tuesday, it got the primer and the first coat of paint, Sherwin William’s Derbyshire (just like the street my Mom grew up on), in their low VOC version! (Couldn’t get the no VOC one as the color was “too dark” for it. It did not look dark with one coat and we were afraid.)
Yesterday morning, the final coat was put on and most cleanup was finished, with a bit left for this morning. Ralph also said he could put the woodwork back on that was removed for the floor refinishing. Way cool! (unfortunately, we still have to have someone else come in for the living room as it’s too crowded with the den furniture for Ralph to do it this morning.) I like the color; haven’t asked Eric yet.
At some point in there, the ceiling was painted white, too. I have no idea when. All of the ceilings in our house are white. Except for the two that are drop ceiling tiles like you see in office buildings. (The LR, DR, and den also have ceiling tiles, but the kind that are attached to the ceiling itself.)