Humble House Progress

For the last 2 days that Susan was here, she graciously babysat the kids while John and I began painting the house. It is such a long process with so many different surprises and extra trips to the store. But it's much cheaper to do it ourselves, and is a fulfilling task--you see results right away and typically get a little better at it each time. We decided to aim for completing all of the upstairs first, so we bought all the different paints we would need for that floor (ended up getting 16 gallons---didn't use it all though). We bought all the supplies we needed, and brought our step ladder and drill and cleaning supplies. I tried to learn from the mistakes I made in VA in painting that house. That house was ~1600 sq ft and all one color. This house is ~2760 sq ft with lots of angles, and I tried to be a little adventurous with the color schemes in each room. Fingers crossed that it will look good. The great thing was that we didn't have to waste time and energy worrying about getting paint on the carpets since they're all goin---I got pretty sloppy!!

   My camera can't really convey what a difference the paint made...so come visit! The fresh paint makes the house look and feel new! The blue carpet still throws it off a little, but as soon as we get this paint done, the floors are out!

A walk thru...not sure what is more accurate to see the results...probably a mix between pics/video...I also wanted to show the layout of the house since the pictures are kinda hard to put together in your mind:

A short one of the upstairs bath:

And the first floor before:

  The first step was to clean the baseboards. I didn't bother scrubbing too hard because they were dinged up and the previous owners got paint on most of them. So I figured after we finish painting, we would do a little touching up with some off-white paint, and then re-caulk the baseboards neatly, to cover up their paint. We will also have to paint a little off-white to cover up where they got paint on the ceilings.

   After the cleaner dried, we taped up everything we could, and unscrewed outlet and switch plates. Then I used this :

which was alright...I was looking for a roller with a flat edge-guard type thing to do a straight edge or corner...guess it hasn't been invented yet. The edger worked fine, but this house has textured walls, and all the corners and areas where walls meet ceilings at all different angles etc, it was all uneven and bumpy. Sometimes I let one wall dry after painting, just to be able to put the tape directly on that wall and create my own straight line. Basically after cutting each wall in with the edger, I had to use a smaller brush to fill in the cracks.

  We were looking for an electric paint roller machine but they only had sprayers at lowes and home depot, so we tried out this roller with a pump tube. It worked pretty well the first time with the "Toffee Crunch" color in the game room, but no matter how much time we wasted cleaning it, it didn't work the next time because there wasn't a complete tight vacuum to be able to suck up more paint, it just kept sucking in air. So  rather than waste precious baby-less time messing with it, we did the rest manually. We are sore in our legs and feet, and have callouses but I say it was worth it :)

   First we did the game room. I decided to do an accent wall for where the TV will be on the wall. I picked a gray color. For the rest of the room (and probably will use it downstairs too) I picked this "Toffee Crunch" color. 

Game room Before:

Game room After:

Music room Before:

Music room After:

Then the little room off the game room, I call the music room, we painted a darker gray. I think it looks good against the white trim and white french doors. The ugly carpet makes it look blue so once the carpet is in, I am sure it will all come together..here's the carpet we chose:

   Oh! Also, when I picked the colors, I was using Behr's color palette, but when we got there and saw samples of how well Glidden's all in one (primer included) covered in one coat, we decided to get it--was also a buck or two cheaper than Behr. So they did color matching with the Behr colors I picked. Glidden worked very well; most colors only required one coat. Only the light yellow color in the kids' room needed a second layer. Their room had these gnarly flames, but we took off the red tape and painted over it all with "Gobi Desert" and really liked the color. I picked this manilla tint color to go with it--I like the combo...but Lucas was PISSED that we erased his flames lol. I am gonna put a better decal on it soon though!

Also, the dark purple didn't seem to adhere very well in the guest room over that horrid green...I started wondering whether the paint the previous owners used in that room was possibly oil-based or something? idk. I put two layers and I think it covered well. When I opened the purple paints for the guest room, I started regretting picking such dark colors. But John and I are trying not to judge anything fully until the paint is fully dry and everything is put back in place, with the new floors.

Still wet and has tape--may have to do second coat on lavender color...

  Today was very overcast and the lights in the bedrooms are dull so it was hard to see the colors. I hope it looks good...dont wanna have to paint over all that dark purple! John started taping off the fairly large closet in the guest room, but I didn't start painting it yet. not sure what color to use yet. Don't want to use that purple. Any color suggestions?

   The hallways we used that "Gobi desert" color we liked in the kid's room. I think it looks really good in the hallways especially with the recessed light. Also used Gobi on the stairway.

   The bathroom upstairs is gonna suck...a lot of painting in between narrow spaces etc...I think I will use that gray color from the game room accent wall. After that, the whole upstairs will be done!

  I am gonna work on my drawings tonight to pick out a final color scheme for the first floor. Once John has some more time off, we will take turns painting and entertaining the babies. It's pretty fun actually! It's really exciting to be transforming this  house together and I'm so grateful we found this house when we did. :) I think having all this room will make me a better wife...I'll be more inspired to clean and organize and cook! The kids and dogs will have room and a yard. John will get his lazy boy! lol. Thank you Texas!

  And thank you Susan for really getting us that head start on this project. We hope to see you in another few months and have the house ready for you to really have a dance party with the kids. :)