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Showing posts with label paint prep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paint prep. Show all posts
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Dining Room: Trim Prep 2
Tonight I sanded down the woodwork in the dining room to get it ready to be primed. I filled the nail holes (which hadn't been filled for 23 years) with joint compound. Yeah, wood putty would have been better, but the Depot is really far away and I'm just painting the wood anyways. Go ahead and call me lazy... I am.
I'm leaving tomorrow at noon for a executive retreat for NDSU's Inter-fraternity Council where we'll be trying to figure out how to make that organization better. I was just appointed to the vice president position and I know we're going to need to put a lot of work in this weekend to get a head start on the semester.
The retreat is in a cabin in the woods. Yeah, that'd be one of my regular hangouts. NOT! Although I'm really not that enthused about hanging out in the wilderness for a weekend, I am excited to get out of Fargo for a couple days.
Classes start Tuesday. I'm ready to be done with this holiday break. Overall, it's fallen pretty short of my hopes, so It'll be good to get back into my regular routine.
Downer of a post, huh? At least the dining room will be done-ish soon.
I'm leaving tomorrow at noon for a executive retreat for NDSU's Inter-fraternity Council where we'll be trying to figure out how to make that organization better. I was just appointed to the vice president position and I know we're going to need to put a lot of work in this weekend to get a head start on the semester.The retreat is in a cabin in the woods. Yeah, that'd be one of my regular hangouts. NOT! Although I'm really not that enthused about hanging out in the wilderness for a weekend, I am excited to get out of Fargo for a couple days.
Classes start Tuesday. I'm ready to be done with this holiday break. Overall, it's fallen pretty short of my hopes, so It'll be good to get back into my regular routine.
Downer of a post, huh? At least the dining room will be done-ish soon.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Dining Room: Texture and Primer
I found a great new (to me) product that I'm so excited to share! I discovered these cans of aerosol orange-peel texture. 
The size of the texture is adjustable so you can make anywhere from small to medium to large splatters. There are two different kinds, one that shoots out white texture, or one that shoots out blue texture that turns white when it dries. I could see paying the extra fifty cents for the blue stuff if you have vision issues, but I really didn't see the need for it myself. I just thought I'd try it because it looked like a fun gimmick. It did work nicely for taking pictures. I don't know if you could have seen the white texture as well as the blue against the off white walls.
The only drawbacks were the price and the smell. They were a bit more expensive than sand texture would have been, costing about $13 a can, but so far I only had to use 2.5 cans of it. It's SO much easier than the sand texture, so I was happy to pay it. The smell was the other issue. I would have liked to be able to open up a window but I didn't want to let in the winter so I just tolerated the fumes.
Here's a photo of the giant crack I repaired on the North wall:
I decided it would be a good idea take an action shot. I hope you like it; I over-textured that spot just for your benefit.
After I finished the texture, I primed the walls and ceiling. The ceiling hadn't been primed yet in that picture.
I just finished painting the ceiling, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I'm probably going to paint the walls now.
The size of the texture is adjustable so you can make anywhere from small to medium to large splatters. There are two different kinds, one that shoots out white texture, or one that shoots out blue texture that turns white when it dries. I could see paying the extra fifty cents for the blue stuff if you have vision issues, but I really didn't see the need for it myself. I just thought I'd try it because it looked like a fun gimmick. It did work nicely for taking pictures. I don't know if you could have seen the white texture as well as the blue against the off white walls.The only drawbacks were the price and the smell. They were a bit more expensive than sand texture would have been, costing about $13 a can, but so far I only had to use 2.5 cans of it. It's SO much easier than the sand texture, so I was happy to pay it. The smell was the other issue. I would have liked to be able to open up a window but I didn't want to let in the winter so I just tolerated the fumes.
Here's a photo of the giant crack I repaired on the North wall:
I decided it would be a good idea take an action shot. I hope you like it; I over-textured that spot just for your benefit.
After I finished the texture, I primed the walls and ceiling. The ceiling hadn't been primed yet in that picture.
I just finished painting the ceiling, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I'm probably going to paint the walls now.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Painting Prep: Living & Dining Rooms
Well, I finally got around to starting the work that needs to be done in the dining room.
I, like most American 22 year old male college students, spent my Saturday night scraping loose paint off of a dining room ceiling. Oh, what an adventurous life I lead!
Look at that mess!
Check out how big that pile of paint chips is! (note feet for scale) (fyi, size 10) 
I also finished scraping off the residual joint compound from the walls and ceilings where I removed the extra walls. Here's a photo of the living room ceiling, ripe for sanding. 
The job got a lot easier once I started spraying water on the walls and ceilings before I started scraping. The joint compound became much softer and easier to scrape off.
Step 1: Spray water onto unwanted joint compound.
Step 2: Scrape your heart out.
Step 3: Repeat.
Woah, tangent! OK, back to the dining room. Today, after one of those five hour Sunday afternoon naps, I made a trip to 'the Depot' for some more joint compound. I patched up the holes in the ceiling left from the paint that chipped away.
Now all I need to do is sand, re-mud where necessary, sand, texture, prime, then paint. Is this considered the home stretch yet? I filled all of the nail holes in the walls, but I still need to repair two big cracks. I just want to paint already! I've had the dang paint for months, gah!
I'm kind of up in the air about what to do with the trim in the dining room. The trim was all replaced (poorly) sometime before I got here. The wood is stained, but it is of an inferior quality. You can see stain on the oak flooring in all of the dining room pictures from when the p.o. stained the inferior wood. Yet another reason to thank the p.o.! The windows were painted at some point, but I can tell the wood was originally stained like the living room. So what do I do? Should I (a.) paint the inferior wood white like the rest of the house, or, (b.) use the inferior wood elsewhere in the house and replace it with better wood stained to match the living room. This option would require me to strip the windows.
Either way, the picture rail needs to be replaced. I've already removed it all from the walls. This piece shows the original stain color.
There were a couple chunks of it missing from where walls went in during the duplex-ing process. I'm planning on using the old stuff I removed somewhere else in the house, but I'm not sure that I want to use the same picture rail back in the dining room. What if I was to switch it out for some crown molding? Would that be a bad idea? I just think that the crown molding might look more finished than the picture rail. The picture rail was about a quarter inch down from the ceiling which I didn't think looked very good. That little quarter inch gap lead my roommate to say that I should 'replace that crappy crown molding'. If I was to put the picture rail back up I think I'd pull it down a half inch so you can tell it isn't just 'crappy crown'.
Decisions, decisions. Let me know, loyal reader, if you have any opinions. I'll have plenty of time to think about it all while I'm mindlessly sanding ceilings and walls. Good times.
I, like most American 22 year old male college students, spent my Saturday night scraping loose paint off of a dining room ceiling. Oh, what an adventurous life I lead!
Look at that mess!
Check out how big that pile of paint chips is! (note feet for scale) (fyi, size 10) 
I also finished scraping off the residual joint compound from the walls and ceilings where I removed the extra walls. Here's a photo of the living room ceiling, ripe for sanding. 
The job got a lot easier once I started spraying water on the walls and ceilings before I started scraping. The joint compound became much softer and easier to scrape off.Step 1: Spray water onto unwanted joint compound.
Step 2: Scrape your heart out.
Step 3: Repeat.Woah, tangent! OK, back to the dining room. Today, after one of those five hour Sunday afternoon naps, I made a trip to 'the Depot' for some more joint compound. I patched up the holes in the ceiling left from the paint that chipped away.
Now all I need to do is sand, re-mud where necessary, sand, texture, prime, then paint. Is this considered the home stretch yet? I filled all of the nail holes in the walls, but I still need to repair two big cracks. I just want to paint already! I've had the dang paint for months, gah!I'm kind of up in the air about what to do with the trim in the dining room. The trim was all replaced (poorly) sometime before I got here. The wood is stained, but it is of an inferior quality. You can see stain on the oak flooring in all of the dining room pictures from when the p.o. stained the inferior wood. Yet another reason to thank the p.o.! The windows were painted at some point, but I can tell the wood was originally stained like the living room. So what do I do? Should I (a.) paint the inferior wood white like the rest of the house, or, (b.) use the inferior wood elsewhere in the house and replace it with better wood stained to match the living room. This option would require me to strip the windows.
Either way, the picture rail needs to be replaced. I've already removed it all from the walls. This piece shows the original stain color.
There were a couple chunks of it missing from where walls went in during the duplex-ing process. I'm planning on using the old stuff I removed somewhere else in the house, but I'm not sure that I want to use the same picture rail back in the dining room. What if I was to switch it out for some crown molding? Would that be a bad idea? I just think that the crown molding might look more finished than the picture rail. The picture rail was about a quarter inch down from the ceiling which I didn't think looked very good. That little quarter inch gap lead my roommate to say that I should 'replace that crappy crown molding'. If I was to put the picture rail back up I think I'd pull it down a half inch so you can tell it isn't just 'crappy crown'.Decisions, decisions. Let me know, loyal reader, if you have any opinions. I'll have plenty of time to think about it all while I'm mindlessly sanding ceilings and walls. Good times.
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