MrsDrPoe: House Progress, Week 7

Another week has ended, and another Foto Friday has arrived!  I am please to announce that today I will both 1) continue with some helpful painting tips and 2) show you some finished house pictures (but not in that order)!

Here's what we've accomplished this week:

Kitchen: over 50% of the hardwoods are installed
Stairwell: second coat of paint was applied (two coats on the spots I couldn't reach)
Master Bathroom: remaining wall-paper removed, two coats of paint applied
Carpet: put down in all bedrooms, closets, upstairs hallway, and staircase

And the finished rooms: 

The "Guest Room" (formerly the "Boat Room"...11th in the before post)
-no boats
-newly painted room and closet
-newly carpeted
-no brass fan

The "Baby* Room" (formerly the "Front Room"...12th in the before post)
-newly painted room, closet, and trim
-newly carpeted
-no brass fan

The "Office" (formerly the "Blue Room"...10th in the before post)
-newly painted room, closet, and trim
-newly carpeted
-no brass fan

The Master Bedroom (9th in the before post)
-newly painted room, closets
-newly carpeted
-no brass fan

The Master Bathroom (8th in the before post)
-no lattice garden wallpaper
-newly painted
-no brass light fixtures or hardware
 

  
Hopefully we'll have some pictures of finished downstairs rooms to show you soon!  And, as promised, here is the second installment of Painting 101:

Painting 101: Measure Once, Cut Twice

Ok...so you don't really have to measure or cut to paint, but the principal still applies.  To make the most of your painting experience, you'll need to put in the prep work:

Remove Wallpaper - while it can be painted over, it will never come off if it has been.  Save yourself any future issues and get a nice, even finish by removing it before painting.

Spackling - unless you're reusing the holes in your wall, make sure you fill them in (but be sure to remove any wall anchors first).

Sanding - if your wall was previously painted, simply sanding over the Spackle spots will ensure a smooth finish.  If you've had to remove wallpaper, you'll want to sand the whole wall to help get off and/or smooth over any sticky backing.  Be careful in an older house, however, as sanding can release lead and asbestos into the air.

Washing - painting over dirt/dust/etc. can cause your paint to peal later.  Save the trouble by wiping down your walls with a wet rag, using solvent if necessary.


*Mr. Poe and I are not pregnant, but Lord willing, we will be one day.  Thus the "Baby Room" is currently as empty as the "Guest Room," but we're calling it that because the twin bed that my Grandpapa Wolgemuth built my dad that was passed to me and will be passed to my children will go in this room.

MrsDrPoe: House Progress, Week 6

Welcome to the Mr. Poe-Birthday-Edition of Foto Friday!  Sadly, we're celebrating with more housework.  This was our sixth week of work; although, it feels like we've been dealing with these projects for much longer (I guess that's what happens when you only have free time on the weekends).  Here's what we've accomplished this week:

Living and Sun Rooms: continued laying hardwood (only the to-be-ripped rows left!)
Stairwell: one coat of paint (except in places I can't reach)
Upstairs Hallway: second coat of paint
Master Bathroom: continued to remove wallpaper and paint
S End Table and Wood Shelf: one and two coats of paint, respectively
Upstairs Carpet: areas measured; new carpet and pad purchased


If you're frustrated that I don't have any "finished" pictures to show you yet, just know that I am too!  To add to the frustration, I'm also interrupting our three part painting series to talk about...

Removing Wallpaper

I hate wallpaper.  I honestly cannot understand how anyone who has ever painstakingly removed it can put it up again, but there are several folks near and dear to me who have.  I mean look at this: 

Ugh...hours of work, and it's still there.  Here are some techniques we've found useful in our wallpapering endeavors...

Water is your friend - spray the paper, spray it again, and then spray it some more.  Water helps the glue release from the wall easier, even though it's not the 'cure-all.'

A straight edge is essential - the first week I removed any paper, I was scratching at it with my fingernails to get a good "pulling edge" up; this wore my nails down to the skin. (Ouch!)  Make sure you have a straight edge to help you get the paper up: a used gift card, a spackling trowel, a spatula, anything.

Two is sometimes faster than one - when I first started removing wallpaper, I thought I was failing if I couldn't remove the decorative layer and the sticky layer of the paper at the same time.  But the longer I worked at it, I found that it took much less time to rip off the layers however they would come off (sometimes together, sometimes not) than it did to finagle the paper to try and get everything off at once.


Patience is a virtue - last week I shared with you that I've been praying for practice with patience...wallpaper-pulling definitely fits the bill.  It will take you much longer to de-wallpaper a room than you would have ever thought possible.  But "slow and steady wins the race" (and leaves you with fewer gashes in the dry wall)...sing along with a good comfort hymns if you get too worked up.

MrsDrPoe: House Progress, Week 5

It was another long weekend of work at the Poe house!  Here's what we accomplished this week:

Living and Sun Rooms: continued laying flooring (almost done!!)
Stairwell: removed all wallpaper, trimmed and painted most difficult-to-reach places
Upstairs Hallway: one coat of paint
Master Bedroom: painted (three coats...ugh)
Master Bathroom: removed wallpaper and painted over carpeted portion by closets
S End Table: one coat of paint


We still haven't totally finished a room yet, but we're getting so close!  For this Foto Friday I'd like to start a three part series on painting tips; today's topic will be...

Painting 101: "I Don't Think We Got the Tools to Pull This Off!"

To do any job right, you need the right tools.  Here are some tools we've found useful (and not so useful) in our painting endeavors:


Primer - we've heard mixed reviews for the paint-with-primer; but it's pretty costly (plus the folks at the store will tell you "it's advised to coat with a primer before using the paint-with-primer to fully cover dark colors").  For dark rooms, we apply one coat of primer first; be careful, however, in selecting one.  Oil-based primers can be painted over with Latex paint, but the fumes are terrible, and they only clean up with mineral spirits.  Latex primer smells much better and cleans with soap and water.


Angled Brush - this is the best brush for edging/trim work and for getting into corners.

Rollers - rolling the paint on the wall gives it a much smoother finish than brush painting.

Tray - if you're rolling, a paint tray is a must for getting paint onto your roller (and your edger).

Edger - these special rectangular devices for creating smooth, crisp lines around the ceiling, baseboards, and molding that you may encounter when painting and a blessing and a curse.  They greatly reduce trimming time; however, loading the right amount of paint on so that you get coverage without oozing paint onto the trim is difficult.


Wet Rag - no matter what you're using, you're probably going to get paint somewhere where you don't want it.  This trusty tool can help you keep your white trim white (not white with orange splotches).


Ladder - for trimming (and rolling without a pole), you'll need a ladder to reach the high spots.  I have found that there is no better ladder than this:

It has a place to both set a paint can on top, with grooves to keep you from knocking it off, and a hook to hang it from the top of the ladder, so you don't cover yourself in paint trying to reach.  Multi-position ladders are also great for hard-to-reach places like our stairwell.

Pole - to save time and ladder climbing, you can purchase a pole that screws into the bottom of most rollers to extend your reach.  We've had different people tell us that a broom handle DOES and DOES NOT work well for this job...personally, we've always used a pole specifically for painting.

Do you have any painting tools that make the job a lot easier?

MrsDrPoe: House Progress, Week 4

It's another Foto Friday on the blog!  As promised, here's our progress from the fourth week of home renovations:

Kitchen: painted the hardware black
Living and Sun Rooms: began laying flooring
Upstairs Closets: trimmed and painted white (2 coats where necessary)
Upstairs Baseboards: painted white
Spare Bedrooms: trimmed and painted 2 coats of brown


We're super close to being able to put carpet down upstairs and also to show finished pictures of the living and sun rooms!  The picture I'd like to share with you today comes from Mr. Poe's closet:

This section is about 2.5 feet deep and has a maximum width of 8 inches.  I have no idea why it exists.  So for something a little different today, I'd like to poll my readers...

what should we store in this very narrow, awkward space?

MrsDrPoe: House Progress, Week 3

It's another Foto Friday here on the blog!  Here's our remodeling progress from this week:

Living Room: fireplace grate painted black
Kitchen: hung curtains, tested painting the kitchen hardware
Dining Room: hung curtains, painted fan
Stairwell: removed all the super-high wall paper
Spackled: all upstairs closets and bedrooms
Painted: all light fixtures in office, baby room, guest room, and hallway

We still haven't totally finished a room (sadly), so I thought it might be more beneficial to you readers out there if I shared some more do-it-yourself tips.  Today's topic: the oft necessary pre-painting task of Spackling.

Upon close investigation of most of the rooms in our place, we found all kinds of holes in all kinds of places where things have been previously hung.  We didn't want to keep them, so Mr. Poe sent me about with trowel and Spackle in hand.


Step 1: Carefully inspect the wall for holes:

Step 1.5: If the hole has a fuzzy-looking portion of drywall sticking out, lightly tap the drywall into the hole with the trowel handle (you may enlarge the hole slightly, but this will make for a smoother finished surface).  If the hole happens to have a plastic screw anchor in it, firmly but gently pull out the anchor with a pair of needle-nosed pliers.


Step 2: Apply the Spackle over the hole using a trowel.  Be sure to start with a small mound of the compound on the tool and 'push' it into the hole (as opposed to smearing it or spreading it):

Step 3: Run the smooth side of the trowel across the wall over the hole and surrounding areas 1-2 times in order to smooth it:

Step 4: Let the Spackle dry for the recommended period of time before sanding the area with a light grit sandpaper (320ish) and then wiping the entire wall down with a cleaning solution:

Happy Spackling!

MrsDrPoe: House Progress, Week 2

As promised last Foto Friday, here's our house progress after the second week:

Kitchen** - walls finished, bead board finished, outlet covers put back, fan painted*, curtains received, curtain rods painted
Sunroom - fan painted*
Living Room** - fan painted*
Entry - walls finished, outlet covers put back on
Dining Room** - walls finished, outlet covers put back on, curtains received, curtain rods painted
1/2 Bath - walls finished, hardware painted, light fixture painted

We still have the floor and a few small things to do downstairs (**in these rooms), so I won't show you any finished pictures of these areas until the remodeling is complete...but the 1/2 bath is finished for now with it's tan walls and new grey hardware (though in the years to come we hope to tile and revamp the vanity):

*As Mama Poe can attest, when our house was built, brass was the thing to have...everywhere.  It is literally on every light fixture, door knob, etc. in our house, and I strongly dislike it.  After successfully defeating the brass in the 1/2 bath with a trusty can of spray paint, I decided to wage war on our ceiling fans:

While perhaps not the ideal solution, this idea was definitely an inexpensive fix until we can afford something a little more modern.  I love that the all-white fan against the white ceiling is much less obtrusive than the shiny brass.


Do It Yourself Tips: 
-First clean and dust the fan parts, and sand shiny surfaces with a fine grit sand paper (320ish).  
-If possible, remove the fan from the ceiling and disassemble before painting; however, painting the fixture while it's intact is do-able.
-Have mineral spirits or paint thinner on hand for cleanup.
-Apply paint in several thin coats to avoid drips.