It's just painting... or is it?

The original texture of our wall was a pretty old-fashioned look called "skip trowel" I believe, but just imagine the look of a dry, ashy elbow. As attractive as that sounds, it didn't look that great to us, so we got quotes to make the walls "smooth". Making a rough texture smooth is as the locals say, hellllllla expensive, so we opted for a less expensive but still nice look, "orange peel".

The texture guys basically sanded, then applied plaster to all the walls and ceilings of the house, over about 3 days. I unfortunately didn't get a picture of it, but apparently the main guy was wearing these stilt-like things to reach the ceiling. He brought his son to help him out too and he was a cute little 10 or 12 year old. It was nice that he was helping his dad but I felt bad that he fell off a ladder one day. :( He came back the next day so I guess he wasn't put off from the experience. After letting the plaster dry completely, the guys sprayed the walls and ceilings with a machine called a "hopper" that blew flecks of plaster onto the walls to create the "orange peel" effect.

Jai spent lots of time and $$$ at the local Benjamin Moore paint dealer, getting paint, primer, brushes, rollers, tape and other little things for the big job of painting each room. We were going to get a painter but he sort of flaked and we felt that painting was something we could do ourselves (i.e. Jai would do it all during the week instead of waiting for the weekend so I could help him!). The first application of primer on the texture was the hardest because the texture was pretty sandpaper-like and didn't allow for a smooth spreading of the paint over the surface like a painted wall would. Poor Jai has been randomly sporting white paint flecks all over his hair, face, arms and hands for a week. Oh, before I forget to mention it, the tenants living in the house used to smoke so there were smoky, gray areas at the tops of the walls. I used a mixture of water and TSP to clean the walls before the plaster was put on. I probably didn't have to do that for the plastering, but it's a good idea before painting/priming.

Last Sat we finished painting the first room, which we carefully taped off, and painted together. Paint dries really quickly (these days anyway) so we had to keep moving quickly to make sure we always kept an even coat on the wall. Jai used the roller while I painted the corners and edges and tried frantically to wipe out our mistake smudges on the ceiling or trim. There's no "undo" button when it comes to paint. :|

Lastly, we pulled up the carpet in the first room (future office) and anxiously awaited our first glimpse at the condition of the hardwood underneath. The floor in the office wasn't too bad. We're not re-finishing the floors yet because of the cost and other projects going on right now. With the dust generated from the refinishing we'd have to move out for three days. The worst part of pulling up the carpet was the burden of pulling out the nails and staples from the floor afterwards. The carpet installers were apparently worried that the carpet would spontaneously decide to get up and walk out the door if they didn't put 1000 staples and an equally insane number of nails to attach it to the hardwood floor underneath. Have I mentioned how annoying some of the design decisions of the previous owners have been?
This is the ongoing list:
1. Nailing carpet to the hardwood floor
2. Putting an impenetrable metal grate over the family room window with one-way bolts that can't be drilled out
3. Making the hinges on the side garage door on the outside
4. Putting up a second antenna and tying it to a gas line
5. Planting 9 trees in a small backyard, including one that blocked almost all the preciously needed sunlight to the master bedroom
6. Making two gaping holes in the drywall of the kitchenette and covering them up with a big ugly cabinet
7. Putting linoleum over the original kitchen tiles
8. Gluing bookcases to the dining room wall
9. Intentionally making the family room fireplace monstrosity
10. Making a random water pipe in the kitchen that didn't go anywhere but continuously leaked water for years and created a soft water-damaged area in the kitchen.
11. Building in all the appliances into the cabinetry... including the world's oldest microwave! I'll have to post a pic if I have one.

Whew, too much complaining... don't worry, still happy with our house! :)