We recieved the keys to our new house friday night. Saturday morning, we picked up paint and supplies, rented a steamer to remove wallpaper, and headed out to the house. Here's the account of our weekend, complete with "before" and "under construction" pictures.






Saturday:
We got up and drove to my mom's house and to my grandparents' to borrow several dropcloths. Then we drove to the Sherwin Williams store and spent lots and lots of $$$ on paint and primer and rollers and brushes and a nifty little tool for cutting in around the edges of the walls. Then we went back to the apartment and gathered up a folding table and some chairs, a radio, some pop, some lunchmeat and cheese, a ladder, and old clothes to paint in. Chad and I stopped at Home Depot to pick up the steamer, and look at ceiling fans to put in the kitchen over the table. We agreed on one! But he didn't want to buy it right then. Chad's parents helped us with the prep, wallpaper removal, and painting.

Chad and his mom got started with the "paper tiger", DIF, scrapers, and the steamer on the wallpaper in the master bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. The guy at Home Depot told us to score the paper with the "tiger" first, then spray on the DIF and let it soak in for a while. Then use the steamer to further loosen the paper, and scrape it off. They tried this method on the border in the master bedroom first. It didn't work so well. The scoring just made the paper come off in tiny bits, and the DIF just made a mess. In the bathroom, they stopped scoring and just steamed it off. The top half of the paper came off leaving the yellow gluey part of the paper still stuck to the wall.

I started with the second bedroom, since there was no wallpaper or damage that needed repairing. I washed all the walls and Chad's stepdad took off all the outlet and register covers for me. We spread out the dropcloths, and Chad's mom and I set to work painting the ceiling. It's amazing how much better a fresh coat of white ceiling paint makes a "fine looking" ceiling look!

Then I moved into the bathroom to help Chad's mom with the scraping. Thankfully whoever put up the wallpaper had the sense to prime the walls first. However, the paper was stuck so good in some spots, that the primer was peeling off the drywall leaving loose and bare spots. No painting this room until we can fix that. Chad washed the glue off the walls in the master bedroom meanwhile, and then washed the bathroom walls when we finished. His mom moved on to the border in the kitchen, and I went to Meijer for some groceries.

We finished with all the wallpaper at about 1:00 AM, good thing since we had to have the steamer back the following morning. We drove home, went to bed after 2:00 AM, and I was woken up at 7:30 AM by the cat repeatedly pouncing on my head. I miss him while we're out there working...wish I could bring him along, but he would just be in the way.

Don't let the sweetness of his sleeping face fool you...he is such a little terror.

Sunday:
Sunday started with Chad and his brother heading out to patch the bathroom walls, and fix a crack in the master bedroom ceiling with mud. I arrived at the house a little later, and Chad's mom had almost all of the hallway ceiling painted. When she finished that, we primed the pink master bedroom walls. Then we were able to apply the first color! Gave the guest bedroom walls the first coat of "beacon gray" (shown at the top of this post). Then I painted both bathroom ceilings all by myself (I am proud of this!). We washed the glue off the kitchen walls and I got to thinking that we shouldn't paint the ceiling until we mount the bracket for the fan...so that if we have to cut the drywall...or get dirty fingerprints up there...it will get covered. So we decided to get ahold of someone who can help us with that, and while we're at it, we will move the white fan from the master bedroom to the guest bedroom, and get a new fan for our bedroom. We might also put a fan in the office. Chad likes his air moving...and thinks we should just do them all at once while we have the guy to help...I say sure...if I can pick out fans quickly that are within our budget. We finished up Sunday with a second coat to the walls of the bedroom...and almost ran out of paint. We were able to scrape just enough out of the can to cover the outlet plates.

Labels: cats are space aliens, homeownershipness