Can I just say that I am really, really tired of renovating? How do I know? Even new paint on the walls doesn’t bring me any happiness. But a plan is a plan, so we are sticking to it and powering through. We made a good dent in our to painting to do list this weekend. First up, the stairs. Before any painting and priming, there was a whole lot of prep work – removing the carpet, taking out the nails and staples (a total time consuming pain). Appears that whoever painted the stairs before didn’t think it worth it to remove the painters tape…
The stairs are in somewhat of a rough shape, which was surprising given that the rest of the floors in the house are preserved very well. I haven’t taken up close photos (note to self – do that) but a few are splintering on the rounded edge. We might need to get a runner to conceal that. Thankfully, the hallway is in pretty good shape save for one board.
Once everything was clear of sharp objects, I sanded the treads – twice with 60-grit and 120-grit disks – washed the stairs and baseboards. Priming sucked (as always) because of oil based paint – stinky and terrible to clean up. Painting was much better, but still need a final coat of paint. Can’t cross it off the list quite yet. (Oh and see our newel post? working on stripping that – not sure if I will manage to get that completed for 22 December. Should probably consider professional reinforcements here.)
Sad but true story – we didn’t think through enough what to do first and second. Probably should have primed and painted the staircase wall before we took up the carpet on the stairs. had to put the (filthy) remnants of the carpet back on in order to prime. Problem was clean stairs became dirty, again.
Sergey’s excited by our 12 Days of Painting challenge. He did the small bedroom on Sunday. This also needs a second coat, at least in a few places, but it looks much much better in here. This room’s color is green-gray – a Benjamin Moore gallon from the mis-tinted corner at Fragers. Its a great deal at $15 a gallon if you are willing to take a risk and keep in mind that the color can never be replicated.
