Starting on the Living Room!

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Today was the day that we started to work on the living room remodel!   Mostly we are doing some serious painting in there with a little touch of furniture, hopefully.  We decided to start at the top and I think you will see why!   Apparently, three years ago, when we painted the ceiling last, we did it while drinking and in the dark.  Because we thought we could use two different types of ceiling paint and achieve a suitable result.  We thought wrong!

And then add in a whole season of using a big old wood burner in the house for winter heating!   Well, that was it.   It made the whole place sooty and we have been cleaning the walls and everything for a year afterwards!  I never suspected the ceiling would be so bad but it was!

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Take a look at the startling difference with the first couple strokes of the roller and the new paint!  Holy cow!   Ugh!   We were mortified!  No wonder the place is so dark and dingy in there!  I could easily see that we were going to need at least two, maybe three coats of paint before we were done.

Now, there is not much in this world that I dislike more than painting ceilings.   In fact, I suspect it is not a favorite thing of very many people.  It’s hard work.   And this room is equally hard because it is 10 foot high!  That means a good upper body and shoulder workout and a hot shower and a little motrin when you are done!  Thank goodness the three of us were prepared to chip in as needed.

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I’ve had the paint for this redo for six weeks!   Yes, that is how long it has taken me to get my nerve up and say, today is the day!   I am sure glad we got it down in a few hours, though.   About five hours really…  three coats, edging and all that.  The first coat was really tough, it was going on so thickly and just not covering great.   But then, look at the shade difference!  No wonder!

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Once we got the first coat up and gave it a while to dry, it did start to level out a bit.  Still, it really needed another coat at least.   Maggie came to help out and that was fantastic, because she is the tallest of us all and a good painter.   Jessy is good at trim paint but Maggie can do ceillings and walls like a pro.

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She got the second coat up and said it needed another, so away she went.  I am so glad that my dear daughters are good about helping out and making things nice.  Maggie said I was going to need her help anyways, she might as well just get it over with!  Haha…  my kids.  They have learned resistance is futile.  Aw, but to be honest, they were impressed as well at how nice it looks now.   Without a wood burner in the house, I think it should be good for at least four or five years now, so we did our best and took our time and got it done right.

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And as you can see, it looks lovely!  It started to get a little dark out, but still, it was really nice and bright in there.   I can’t wait to see it all on a nice sunny day with the new opening, the bright white ceiling, and utilimately, the nice paint on the walls.  I will be getting the paint for the living room next as well as the three boards to box in that opening nicely.  Hopefully we will have enough of our free trim to boarder in the opening in there.   If not, we will make it nice without it if need be!

Right now, we plan to paint the floor as well, probably a light brown color of durable porch paint.  I really really want to try and find a nice big oriental rug for this room, it would be our dream solution!   But of course, like that church pew we are hunting, suddenly there are no good deals on Craigslist for our dream rug in our budget price.   We want to keep this room under $200 total.   And we need paint, flooring, our fake fireplace and hopefully a chair or two!  So far we have spent $42 for the two gallons of sanded ceiling paint.  SInce it’s an old house and the ceiling has a few little flaws, we went with a textured paint to help even it all out.  I think it did a great job!  You really have to hunt for the little issues.  It’s not exactly like a popcorn ceiling at all, just a little light texture…   it looks lovely.

Wall paint should be about $25.  Floor paint, another $25 or so.   Sometimes floor paint is a little more pricey.  The floor is in such rough shape the idea of sanding and staining it is just not in our budget.  It’s really old and worn and there are some really damaged areas.  I think a good painting will seal in some of the issues, make it all one uniform colors and give us a nice backdrop for our focus rug.  There is a local carpeting outlet store in Pioneer, just six miles away and we’ve never been in but I hear they have very good deals on remnant pieces of carpet.  And if you ask nicely, they will bind the edges for free!  Nice…  I guess we will just have to wait and see…  watch Craigslist and pay a little visit and see what they might have.   The room is fairly large…  13 foot wide by 16 feet long.  Most carpet is 12 feet wide!  We will just have to wait and see what comes about.  Patience is our middle name!

In the meanwhile, we are just so happy to have a lovely nice, bright, white ceiling again!  Common’ sunshine!   That room is going to be nice and bright soon!

 

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About Mobymom

the banjo player for Deepwater Bluegrass, and the editor of BuckeyeBluegrass.com as well as the main graphic designer of the Westvon Publishing empire. She is a renaissance woman of many talents and has two lovely daughters and a rehab mobile home homestead to raise.

Comments

Starting on the Living Room! — 3 Comments

  1. I just love how you and your daughters work together to improve your homestead and work within your budget. You are a real inspiration as we live the same way. We live in an old farmhouse built in 1883 and have been here for 27 years. We’ve done a lot to the place. Luckily my husband is a remodeler and can do anything. But I do know the work involved. Money has usually be tight especially when we were raising our 2 kids. Keep up the good work but don’t overdue especially considering the rough end of last year that you had.

    • Thanks! Yes, we are taking it easy, just doing projects as we can do them… trying not to get materials for too many projects at once… that way we can finish something before moving on. That does seem to help!

      Sherri