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We closed on the house April 9th!!
This house, specifically.
And, being a new homeowner, what is the first thing that I can change about the house that is cheap, quick, and relatively painless?
If you guessed painting, you were wrong on the relatively painless part.
I decided to start with the kitchen (small painting area, much of it relatively covered up with tile/cabinets/appliances). I wanted a sunny, yellow kitchen: something cheerful.
oh yeah - YELLOW!
And now we enter the realm of MamaBug's adventure into painting. Let's start with step one. Or what I now know to be step one.
1. Clean every. Thing.
Bugs and cobwebs, while a nice accessory to any room's corner, do not do well being painted over.
2. Tape everything, whether or not you think to. If you are going to be painting within 8 feet of it, tape it. Tape the ceiling. The baseboards. Your clothes and hair.
And this is why.
3. Put down your drop cloth.
Or at least a small cat to catch drips.
4. Lock up all small children.
They will thank you for it later.
5. Corner the room with paint.
No one told me about this until I'd began. This is what caused me to need a third and/or fourth coat of paint. Cornering is taking this angled paintbrush thingy and painting the corners and other places the roller apparently won't reach, no matter how much you try to force the roller to go there, and end up painting the ceiling.
6. Paint!
Use these type tools, not your hands.
7. Allot several days and/or hours to pass between coats so they aren't streaky.
I went with hours...and it took days. Crap.
8. Remove tape and clean everything again once you're done!
This is because you've made a pretty good mess, dripping paint everywhere your drop cloth had a tiny gap between it and the floor.
9. Call a professional to fix your mistakes.
This is my current step.
i just stumbled across your blog via FB and i like. i've been considering starting a blog myself. i had them when i was like 12 and nothing interesting to say other than who i was in a fight with at school or who i thought was cute only using secret language codes or initialsof course. anyway i wanted to comment on your DIY post specifically bc we're just about to move into a new house also and its a fixer upper as well. we're only renting but we're doing some DIY improvements too and its fun but quite time and energy consuming... ahh the woes :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading! This is a fun thing for me to do in my spare time - mostly a record of my family and our mishaps :) Glad you enjoyed my adventure - don't make the same mistakes I did, and good luck in your new house! It's a ride.
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