We got paint today. I primed the closet this evening. More tomorrow. WOOHOO!!
Home projects in the mid atlantic forum- May 2015
The end is near, Jan! :D
At least for our bedroom. Whatever gets done by June 29 will be it until we get back from our family reunion out in Oregon. Will be gone for the month of July. Hard to believe that this time last year we were on our Alaskan adventure.
Good news here: our basement project is officially done. It's been hard to work on since it's gardening season and all and my focus is on the outside. The guy who built the entertainment center for us had it repainted with 3 coats of paint but I put a 4th coat on it Friday. Then Sunday I cut out the piece of trim they ruined during the install and put in a new piece. I caulked over their 'non paintable' caulk (not sure why someone would use that inside), painted the trim on the top and bottom of the unit with high gloss white, painted the wall immediately next to the unit as there were a few inches of overlap from them painting the unit, painted the ledge and new piece of trim. All is good now and we're waiting until this weekend to put things on it so the paint has a full week to dry. The new couch is supposed to come at the end of this month. I'll take pics of all this when we get the tv back on the entertainment center. It's exciting that it's all done finally. It seems like forever ago I started the project although I've been largely done working on it since mid April.
Yay! Can't wait for pictures!
Sounds very nice, think how much you will enjoy it this winter.
WhooHoo!!!,
LOL Jeff, congrats on finishing the basement to your likes (the first time). We have rooms that were "finished" 3 times before we got to the great room, and it still doesn't have all it's molding. My personal space was usually the barn or garden.
In our jobs, we worked what was needed, my average was 60 hour weeks, with 84 being the highest during emergency conditions. It wasn't till after I retired that I was at home, 8 years later, I'm still trying to figure that out.
My problem is I like to do too much myself. I don't go buy moldings, the price p*sses me off. I make most of my own and I can't seem to get it all done. I still need to learn patience.
Wow Ric, that's a lot of working! I like to do too much of the work myself as well, in that, Darcy asks if she can help and I politely decline. She will sometimes sit on the couch and watch me while I work. It's nice, then we still get to spend time together. I can be a perfectionist when it comes to interior work and it's hard to have someone else working on it with you if you're worried about how they are doing things all the time.
I know.
It's great we can garden together.
Boy, I can relate. Hehehehe. I have learned to wait til I am asked to help.
I will tell you the new drywall is smooth as a baby's bottom. To get to that point was a L O N G process. We are babysitting at the moment. The plan was to finish priming this morning. Then, we decided to mow the lawn whilst it was still cool(I know that is a relative term. Hehehe). Then we got called in to babysitting duty for a bit. Jeff is cutting in the corners as I type. Usually painting is my domain, but he is stepping in to speed up the process. As soon as Thomas gets picked up, I'll jump in to start rolling.
My Jeff makes his own molding also.
I like to see your work. You guys do a nice job.
Drywall work is the pits Jan. I usually rush it and it doesn't look the best. It needs a certain amount of patience...
Thanks Jan, you're lucky to have a do-all hubby. It's so gratifying to say this is our home.
We just finished one of the larger beds down back. According to a friend that works at Hershey Gardens, it takes one worker full time to maintain 1 acre of garden. If that's true either Holly and I are lazy, or our place should look like a Japanese garden.
Oh, by the way Hershey only has 6 full time gardeners and some part time interns. For 23 acres.
This message was edited Jun 17, 2015 1:24 PM
Haha...then they're wildly understaffed! I guess it should only take me 10 hours a week to maintain our land then...sounds about right I guess.
How does that work if the entire 1 acre is a garden though? Hmm that's got me thinking.
I truly feel blessed that Jeff does it all. (Except gardening) hehehe I know whatever he tackles will be done well. Perfection takes time.
YAY!!! The priming is done for the two bedrooms. I can start painting tomorrow.
So does the training too right Jan?...LOL
Hehehe. Actually, he doesn't like to paint, so we'll see if he leaves it for me. I did the priming in the walk-in closet and the ceilings. I'm going out for breakfast with a friend. Any guesses as to whether it is started by the time I get home or not?
LOL He doesn't like to paint. My uncle hates to paint to the point he'd rather paper the whole room, ceiling included. He doesn't mind flooring or I guess he'd paper those also.
I'm a fair painter and once I was painting one of my in-laws apartments and my MIL brings us lunch and ask when was I going to start painting. I told her I was done and she said you don't have any on you. I told her the point was to put it on the ceiling and walls.LOL After she left my FIL said when she painted a ceiling she was covered with little spots.
I kind of like it. So, any guesses if he'll start it before I get back from breakfast?
Jan--
My LR and DR and entry hall (and the walls just go on and on) all need painting
badly. The last time these walls were painted was in 1994 when i was away
for 3 weeks to Latvia and my daughters and my EX decided to surprise
me when i got home.
They all had ripped up my horrible tan w-to-w carpet and painted all the
walls off white (safe). It has not been painted since then.
Now would be a good time to paint anything--as all my plants are outside.
I just can never decide what color to paint the walls--and where to stop
and change 'tones"--as all the walls flow one into the other.
Besides--there is a lot of heavy furniture to move---so I just have never done it.
Now that my other daughter from Seattle will be moving back this way (Rockville)
--maybe she and Mathew can come over and get it going.
I don't, actually, hate the act of painting---it is kind of artistic....a job of perfection.
Just seems too big a thing to undertake for me by myself.
In the past, I have painted my BR and the Club Room downstairs and the BR
down there too. Two coats each--plus KILZ primer as the club room level is
50% underground.
The Shop level is 80% underground. YES! It can get a bit "dank" and musty down there...depending on the weather.
I run my dehumidifier quite a lot. On humid, wet days--it can fill that 2 gal.
container every day. The joys of a 4-level split house.
g.
I hear you Gita. With the Reno of these rooms, nothing is against the walls which makes it easier.
I just got back from breakfast with a friend AND drumroll, please........wait for it.......Jeff painted the ceilings. WOOHOO!! Now, I will do the walls. Before I left deep down I had a feeling he would do them. He left a sweet note on the counter. Now he's at school to finish a few things and to pick up flooring.
Thankful that it is cooler today. Well, I better get to painting.
Just popping in to say how important it is to me at this time that you all are completing or near completion on some major room redos. Iwas in tears early this am when I opened the bathroom door to find that the special self adhesive caulking tape I put around the base of the bath tub had come loose in two places. The tub is not straight sided but has a bump out in the middle. Well I guess the product I used wasn't as 'flexible' as I hoped! At least it is easier to remove and possibly reposition than reg caulk.
So, I lost hope but being that hope is a renewable resource I have picked some up again.
Also struggle with 'making do' for lack of money, materials, tools, know how, time and energy.
Don't we all! Today we are ready to hang one of the beautiful wood kitchen cabinets that has been on the floor since being rescued from a house that was being torn down a number of years ago now...but we can't find the eight pieces of shelvingfor it or the other three! Or, cleaned and installed a window air conditioner last week. Worked fine for 4 hours and then died.
One of the reasons I like painting as a home improvement project is because there is immediate feedback and I don't have to wait til the end to see results. Also, I know that if I start in one spot and just keep going that I will get DONE. Seems less complicated than projects that hinge on other repairs or projects or (inevitably?) uncover same.
Anyhow, thanks for setting a good example for me and sharing some laughs along the way.
Edited to add that my project for this month is to get an FHA appraisal on my house without a lot of set asides or work to complete before funds are released. Have given up on appearances. curb appeal and staging and am going for good enough functioning systems. Roof ok, exterior recently painted, furnace ok, septic ok, There may be issues with plumb and elect and interior needs decluttering, painting and flooring. Wonder if they cite for trees needing trimming or removal? The 'value' of my property is basically the third of an acre and location, not the 900 sq ft house or my extensive plant collection! J
This message was edited Jun 18, 2015 1:44 PM
Sorry to hear of your misfortune with the tub. Did I miss this? Are you selling your home?
HUGS, coleup. I've been thinking about you as always... 😍😍
Sorry about the caulking and the AC. I got the milkweed planted as well as the other two.
I misspoke earlier. I misread the sweet note Jeff left. He did the ceilings of the two closets with old ceiling paint. I am taking a break while he gets another can of ceiling paint. If I had called him a little sooner he could have picked it up while he was still at Lowe's getting flooring. Instead he rode his bike up to the local True Value store. Oh, he's back. I better get cracking.
My home is almost totally paid off. I am trying to access as much of my equity as I can so I can create some alternate futures before I am incomeless. Not selling but definitely root pruning and looking for relocation nearer my grandies in Vermont if only for the summer! Hopefully though an intergenerational family 'compound' of some sort where I can transplant my hostas, and other zone 3-4 hardies and watch butterflies and birds with my offspring. Sunsets over Lake Champlain with the Adirondacks in the background would be nice with some fresh blueberries!
Sounds like a nice retirement if it all works out! I wish you the best on this endeavor.
Sorry to hear about the tub, coleup. I hope the rest of the process goes better for you.
Jan, the weather's been so much nicer these two days! So much better for working indoors and out.
SSG, it definitely was cooler today. Windows open with the fan on at the other end of the house to pull air through whilst painting.
Got the larger bedroom and closet painted with the lighter color. My sweetheart helped cut-in after dinner so I could keep rolling. Will be interested to see how it looks in the morning. One wall with a shade darker will be done tomorrow. The names of the colors in this room are Asiago and the darker color is Oatlands Subtle Taupe. The other room color is called Lamb's Ear. They are more in the brown family than gray, but those are the ones that jumped out at me at the store. If I went tomorrow I might pick something different.
It looks a LOT better in the light of morning than it did while wet.
Proof that Jeff is my hero. Cutting in for the darker wall.
Look how smooth those walls are. What a great time.
Hehehe, VERY smooth.
Great job!
OH BOY Jan, that looks WONDERFUL!! Yep, you were right, smooth as a baby's bottom! =)
Jan babysits so much, she oughta know!
ROFLOL!!!
Hehehe. I do babysit a lot. One still in diapers. I doo wish we could keep baby skin throughout life.
Jeff is working on electrical boxes this morning.
R'uh R'oh! Tell him not to forget his tester!!
Everything is turned off. I hope.
Got the tv moved back down to the lower level yesterday. It's all hooked up and we watch tv downstairs for the first time in 6 months or so. This weekend we're supposed to get our new sectional so I'll snap some photos after that. I also painted our new front door this weekend. It needed a coat of primer, the paint people recommended grey, and then two coats of red. I still have to paint the white trim around the window in the door and then some moderate sanding and repair on the outside trim. The new door was installed in January. It's a major improvement over our last one, which was a half window door with 9 panes, all single pane. I'm pretty sure that thing did nothing for keeping warmth in. The new door isn't even cool on the inside when you touch it in the winter.