22 August 2007

Painting a thousand reasons not to

Today has been a very busy day. Normally, I'm multi-tasking with the kids, you know how it goes. Well, today I was painting the upstairs bathroom while taking care of the kids. More like trying to keep the kids from getting in the paint, keep myself from spilling it, and keep it from getting everywhere I don't want it. Things would've gone well, it wasn't the paint that caused a problem, but the stupid putty.

It was one of those days I wanted to do harm to the prior owners. They redid the upstairs of the house, but it was a quick job. The bathroom has the tongue-and-groove paneling that goes half-way up the wall. Well, I think that it came primed, but the baseboard moulding didn't. Instead of doing things the right way, they just painted the baseboard close to the tile floor, leaving an inch or so of bare wood. They also left the nail holes there to glare at me every time I used the bathroom.

The bathroom is one of the things I wanted to fix when we first moved into the house, but we ended up moving my dad in the day we closed on the house since he was dying, my parents-in-law also moved in that day and my mother-in-law stayed living with us for three years. As soon as she moved out, we were pregnant (don't read anything into that). We have been dealing with infants for the past four years, so that hindered any hope of painting.

I'm not a patient person, but have waited for seven plus years to tackle this project. Went out and bought some white putty, white paint and a paint brush last night. Got up and puttied all the nail holes. Got the kids up, fed, dressed, etc., and starting taping. I hate taping. It takes longer than the whole job of painting.

When the kids took their nap, I started painting. Got everything painted, except for the areas where there was putty. The putty wasn't dry by midday so thought I'd wait until the kids were in bed tonight to sand the putty. It still isn't dry. I read the back of the putty jar. The stuff will NEVER dry, it isn't supposed to.

Why would you want putty that doesn't dry?

So, I had to go and wipe off all the goopy putty. My one-day job will now extend for another day. Argh.

Also, I had been trying to post earlier, but couldn't get blogger to work. I've had problems in the past where it won't save my drafts, won't publish my posts and won't publish comments. In between taping and painting and kids and what have you, I tried to get blogger to work. No go.

If you are reading this, I guess I finally got it to work. Attached is a picture of my daughter's room. I took it today because my cousin in CA wants to see it and I thought it would be a better picture to share than one of a bathroom. It's a castle theme that I painted on the walls. My dad was a wonderful artist, but liked things to be realistic like many of the Italian greats. I think he'd even give me a thumbs up on this. Too bad he's not here to do this himself...I can only imagine the wonders he would've done with my kids' rooms.

5 comments:

Mairin :o) said...

Wow!! That is a really fun room. She's so lucky! What a great mom you are.

Sorry to hear about your remodeling frustrations. I have a similar story about our kitchen.
Hopefully, everything else will go smoothly.

Anonymous said...

What a great blog!

God bless

Cathy said...

That is a GREAT ROOM!!

Just fantastic - what a lucky girl.
:)

swissmiss said...

:o)
Our kitchen has been in the process of being remodeled for going on five years! Our downstairs bathroom has a hole in the ceiling (recent repair) and the door is off (room being remodeled too). Both of the kids' rooms had to be dealt with before they were out of the crib in our room, because we have an older home (1923 craftsman-style bungalow) that had lead paint on the walls and trim. Walls were fine (not peeling, but had your typical cracks and such for being so old) but the moulding bothered my husband (the moulding is about 8" high on the baseboard.) So, he stripped all the paint off the baseboard, doors, and windows, very slowly, carefully and meticulously. Now they are beautiful and kids are safe to be kids in their rooms. Downstairs bathroom has the same problem. Outside of the house is a mess because we were removing the paint from around the windows (cracking, peeling, etc., so much that you didn't want to just paint over it). Rest of the outside is stucco. Our house is the house on the block giving the neighbor's fits since it has been in the process of being "painted" for over five years. We started when my MIL moved out, but then we were pregnant or had little kids, so work was halted for three to four of those five years.

Mrs Jackie Parkes MJ:
Thanks Jackie. I really enjoy your blog too, but don't comment often. Will have to make your blog a regular stop.

Ma:
You should've seen the room before it was painted. We had to patch the ceiling and walls, and deal with some really old water damage/peeling paint in the closet. The house has hardwood floors that had been refinished (the guy that owned the house had his own business refinishing floors) but this room had the original everything. Floors were a mess (cosmetically a mess, otherwise great) so we refinished them ourselves. Sweet hubby took out both radiators and hauled them into work and used their paint booth to shot-peen the paint off, prime and then paint. Much better.

I just wish I could paint myself a "patient mom." Would be much easier than having to work on it all the time!

gemoftheocean said...

I'm as impressed as all getout!