SO, I'll get right to it! The master bedroom, originally the only bedroom in the house, was painted like the rest of them, in the bland cream the old owner must have been head-over-heels for. We debated quite a bit over what colors we were going to make this room. Green, leave it as cream, green and cream, green and grey, light grey, dark grey, dark blue, burgundy...It was a hard decision to come to, especially if you threw the idea of accent walls in. But ultimately the shape of the room and the desire for simplicity helped us to settle on just painting everything a dark grey...a REALLY dark grey that happens to be called 'fleece grey', which is a rather soothing, comfortable name. Just right for a bedroom where I want to be cozy and sleepy. :)
I chose to do the painting while Daddy was away on a ski trip (more on that later, he's working on his own post for that!) at the beginning of December. It wasn't a surprise for him this time...I just thought I would have plenty of free time to myself, so it would be the perfect opportunity to paint our bedroom and get whatever fumes came of it out of the room before he got home. Well...Monday, the first day of his trip, came and went, full of work, and I was too tired by the end of it, and needed to work on a Christmas shopping list. Tuesday, we had Munch's ballet class, then we headed out to Little A's house where the Munch spent naptime under the watchful eyes of my friend Little A's mama, while I did *almost* all my Christmas shopping. Felt VERY good to get it out of the way, I have to say! But by the time I got home, it was late, and I had the worst headache...I ended up going to bed at 8:30, having done nothing paint-related except actually purchase the paint! Wednesday, another full day of working, and I couldn't paint in the evening because I had my little 2-year-old coming the next day, and he would be taking his nap in there...I didn't know how bad or not the fumes would be... Thursday, he was here, we played the morning away happily, napped the afternoon away pleasantly, then I finally started prepping the room--removing all the extra stuff I didn't want paint to splatter on, taping over outlets, washing baseboards, etc. And I finally got started with painting by painting the crown molding--white, but a glossy white rather than flat ceiling paint white. It really does make a difference. But that left me Friday. Only Friday. To do all the painting that needed to be done in this rather large room full of 3 large pieces of furniture that had to be moved around. And I'd promised Little A's mama that I would watch the girls at their house Friday afternoon so that SHE could do HER Christmas shopping. A great exchange, but when exactly had I thought I would have time to paint?
I spent Friday morning caulking the windows...They're the old wooden style, and, like the Munch's room, partially painted shut...in fact, painted shut just enough so that they won't move, but not quite enough to actually seal the windows, and I discovered as I raised the blinds to inspect what needed to be done, that the window closest to my side of the bed was actually open by nearly half an inch!!!! We couldn't tell from the window sill, but only from the center sash where the latch was painted tight in an open position, and the front movable pane was sticking way up above the back one. MY GOSH, no wonder that room has consistently been so cold!! And all this time we thought it was coming from the unheated closet. Of course the window wouldn't budge, so I made an executive decision: We don't plan on ever using these windows, can't open them even if we wanted to, and do plan to replace them with properly insulated vinyl ones as soon as we can, which means replacing the surrounding trim as well...So I got the caulk out of our basement and literally sealed up every single crack and cranny I could find in both those windows, rope pulley system and all. I can't even describe what a huge difference in room temperature it has made, and the difference was almost instantaneous. Yet another large draft gone bye-bye. Hurrah!
But after that I had to hurry to my friend's house. I had a lovely, restful afternoon listening to our two girls sleep, but as soon as my friend returned, I had to hurry back home and start painting. I painted, and painted, and served a quick dinner, and painted, and painted, and put the Munch to bed, and painted, and painted...and waited for the paint to dry, and skyped with my brother until my internet inexplicably cut out, and then I texted with him for a bit...and I ended up not getting to bed until 3am after the last tiny bits of paint around the windows finished drying...I literally watched the wet spots shrink because I couldn't go to bed until I could rehang the curtains and darken the room once again! So much for having it done early so the fumes wouldn't be a problem...But I got lucky. The paint I used didn't actually produce much smell. When Daddy got home around 11am that Saturday, his nose could barely tell that painting had been done. Yay!
But if prep is step 1, and painting is step 2, hanging pictures and whatnot is step 3, and no room is really complete until that's been done. It was time for the big mirror that the old owner had left in what is now Daddy's office to get hung on the wall. That thing is HEAVY, and requires 2 people for it to be moved safely. I had found heavy-duty hangers called French cleats, slated to hold 200 pounds each, and had bought 2 of them...not because the mirror is *that* heavy, but because I felt better knowing 2 things were holding it up instead of one, since it's so wide. For the second time in my life (the first was for the shelving over my piano), I used a drill in the wall to place the anchors, then the screws, then the cleats themselves, then Daddy helped me lift the mirror into place...And it held! And it looks great! And it makes the room, somewhat shrunken from the dark paint, a little bigger again. A few more things here and there--jewelry box, knick-knack cabinet, the Scottish poetry banner above the bed, and our bedroom was finally done. Finally settled. It feels wonderful to sleep in there, so dark and cozy and warm!
I did the tiny hallway the next day, while Daddy and the Munch watched football. The final step in this long, long painting process, and it was finished relatively quickly--there's only a very small patch of wall that actually goes from floor to ceiling, as most of the hallway walls are actually doors. :) Still, it was monumental in the simple fact that doing that little room meant I was DONE. Done!!! I still have some deco and such to hang here or there, but for the most part, my house is my home now, and the former owner would not know it if he saw it. Mission accomplished! :)
The Master Bedroom
Before and After. The mirror hangs over my dresser. I still really, really want to replace that awful fan...Must...be...patient...
The bedroom as seen from the closet door. Daddy's guitar leans against his dresser, while an orange bulldog guards his trumpet on the other side. :) We normally have the cat quilt my mom made us on the bed...but Choko...well...ahem. It needs to be washed...
The Hallway
Before. The doors to the front of the house (open), our bedroom, and the upstairs (with a mirror).
After. I never got a picture of the one bit of actual wall-space in here before, so now you see--the kitchen is off to the left, and the door there is to the bathroom. The Munch's door shares a wall with the kitchen entrance, while the basement door shares a wall with the upstairs door. It's a compact little room, but vital to the flow of the house, since EVERYTHING leads to it!
Phew! I'm done! On to posts about regular life again! :D Maybe tomorrow...
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