Putting Things in Order

For an obsessive compulsive disorder, renovationism takes a lot of planning--or it ends up costing more and requiring rework. I don't know about other sufferers, but I don't like to ruin what I create in order to get my next project done. So, I really think through the steps and what subs need access to what and who is going to be who's way while the work is getting done. And that includes when Alan and I are doing the work ourselves.

In the case of our new house we knew the floors should get done first. You have to have an empty room when they do that work. There is also a significant amount of dust, that I will say they managed to minimize very well. But, you don't want to have to get sawdust off your stuff. So, it only made sense to wait to move in until those floors were finished and cured just enough to move furniture in. We had that luxury since we were in a lease on the apartment anyway for a couple more months. The floors are easy to protect when you begin the other work and I highly recommend taking that step. When we get lazy on this something always gets damaged and we have to pay to get repairs done. We put construction paper down on the floors since it was mostly paint and ladder feet we would be dealing with on the floor. If more extensive work is being done you'd be better off with something more substantial, anything from cardboard to thin plywood or Masonite to cover your beautiful new floors.

I got a little anxious and started ripping off wallpaper. I thought it made sense to get rid of it right way since the house was empty and we didn't have to move things out of the way. That was just the sickness talking. The wallpaper was in the bathrooms and the kitchen. No real furniture of substance, if at all, was going in there. So, I should have waited. Patience is not my virtue. The bathroom paper came off and the backer paper just fell off the walls when I sprayed on the remover. We did find some nasty surprises in the powder room and the master bath, but I'll get to that later. The kitchen was the biggest setback since the backer paper would not budge. I would have been better off living with that paper until we renovated the kitchen so it wouldn't have looked so torn up for so long.

The project that seemed the most logical to do next was the ceilings. Most of them had some sort of color, which can look fabulous, but I didn't like any of the colors. And, the rooms seemed dark in some cases, which lead me to want to go white on the ceiling to brighten up the room. We were going to put in crown molding and in some cases recessed lighting, and I still felt that the paint should come first. I did not regret that decision. It was easier to paint the ceiling without all those obstructions and then go in and touch up and cut in against the crown.

So, I set out to paint all the ceilings in the upstairs, entry hall, and family room. I was planning more elaborate treatments in the living room and dining room, so those had to wait. I prepped the ceilings, filling in some dings and scratches. We also had to do quite a bit of sanding as the previous paint job was sloppy. Alan does the sanding. He has more strength to put his weight into it, particularly when it is overhead. Here I am painting the family room:

You can see how much darker that peachy color ceiling was than white. This room needed all the light it could get since it only had a single window on the north side of the house. I did three coats on this one and alternated direction for each one. So, the final coat was applied with the roller strokes going down the length of the room. On rooms where I thought two coats would do, I painted across the room first. After five of these ceiling my shoulders and arms were really sore. So, I guess renovationism can provide good exercise, but only if you are doing the work yourself.

The next step was painting all those baseboard heating units. I focused on the rooms I was going to renovate first, so there are still plenty of odd colored baseboards in the guest bedrooms even now. But, all the heaters in the public rooms and our master bedroom got painted. There are several options for getting better looking baseboard heaters. You can buy new ones if yours are really mangled and damaged. I've also seen elaborate custom trim molding boxes with mesh inserts for the necessary air flow. Those could even be stained instead of painted. But, we wanted the painted look and elected to do the least expensive option, which is painting the existing units ourselves. We used latex high gloss paint on all the trimwork including these baseboard heat units. I did not want stark white and went through about five different whites before I landed on Cottage White. I used to be a Pratt & Lambert girl, but when they were no longer convenient to purchase, I tried Behr and I've been very satisfied with the quality of this paint and I'm highly loyal.

Alan had quite a bit of work on those heating units. He disassembled them for me and scrubbed all the gunk off them. The pipes and fins were also filled with dust and dirt. Then the little fins were pretty mangled. He painstakingly bent them all back straight.

The big ones were a little unwieldy in the kitchen sink, but it was 10 degrees outside, so this was the best option.

This wasn't even the worst one.

The five-in-one tool is very handy. These fins are very sharp.

In addition to the high gloss paint, I found this tool to be the best way to get the paint on smoothly.  It took 3 coats as these units were painted dark or bright colors. If you are working on new units you will likely need to prime them in order to use latex paint. I recommend spray paint for this step to give you as smooth a surface as possible to paint. You could leave new units just the way they came, but light warm gray looks a bit industrial to me and you can't tie that into your baseboard trim work color. I think they blend in best when painted to match the trim work.

We spent several days getting all the ceilings and baseboard heaters done. Now it was time for the carpenter and electrician.