Painting Prep and Inspirational Quotes

Originally published in The Leaf Chronicle on Feb 1, 2015

Recently, a friend asked me if I had any tricks for painting ceilings. I told her my trick is—wait for it--to get my husband to do it. (Bah dum bum—thank you folks, I’ll be here all week . . .).

Honestly though, I do hesitate to give tips for painting walls because there are so many different schools of thought for “best practices.” You’ve got techniques for painting walls, ceilings and trim—each one is likely different. I suppose that’s why there are so many products on the market for accomplishing this chore.

Some prefer using rollers, while others are masters with brushes. Myself? I prefer using paint pads for the large surface areas, but I need an angled, short-handled brush for cutting-in and the trim. Beyond that, you’d probably do better to figure-out your own tactics

My approach for painting a room is rather languid. Unless there is some sort of deadline, such as an impending visit from the President and First Lady, I will take my sweet, sweet time. I will come out of the gate going great guns, but soon as I have to exchange my brush for the paint pad or vice versa, my enthusiasm will start to wane.

My biggest hurdle however is the preparation. The patching of holes is a chore which sucks my will to continue. As it usually works for me, I tell myself that I’m going to get started painting and should be finished by the end of the day, but then I take down a picture and am reminded of the difficulty I had driving a nail into the plaster.

(Here is a patch job done by our contractor—thank goodness!  If it had been up to me we’d still be looking at the crack.  As it was, I had to sand it and was really put-out about that—I had already prepared my paint and was ready to roll . . . or rather, “pad.”  Of course, I then remembered I had told him not to worry about sanding—I would be glad to do it.  Ugh.)

When we first moved into this house, I had a heck of time getting our numerous pictures hung. I could easily spot where they need to go and dived right in with hammer, hooks and nails only to be thwarted by the amount of plaster that was chipping away with each blow of the hammer. (Yes, I knew the nail was my intended target.)

I finally discovered the tip for putting a piece of tape on the wall where I intended to drive the nail to keep the plaster from chipping. I am, however, reminded of my early frustrations as I remove pictures from the wall in preparation for painting.

For years the pictures have hung in place—nicely camouflaging the hack job I performed on the walls. They’ve been there, quietly keeping the secret of my “old house rookie” mistakes. They do their job so well, I had forgotten about the surprises which awaited me.

So then, my enthusiasm starts to falter as I realize I’m not going to be able to jump right into the “fun part,” as I am first required to patch the divots. Patching requires waiting for the compound to cure and by then, I’ve usually found a “cure” for my initial desire to paint.

And then there is “taping;” nothing takes the wind out of my sails like taping. A while back I shared my inspirational, Yogi-on-a-rock-in-the-middle-of-a-still-pond quote: Taping is for pessimists. And, while I stick to my optimistic guns on the frivolity of taping for most projects, I do have to acknowledge I did tape off the floor around the baseboards of my cabinets, which I recently painted. I was not about to risk black paint on my new kitchen floors—something even rose colored glasses would not be able to disguise.

(First, let me draw your attention to the black baseboards.  Doesn’t it appear as though they have always been so?   Now, get a load of that patch job—there under clock.  My first, lazy attempt was with caulk—since I had been caulking the trim and anything else you can think of.  I had to go back over it with plaster patch because the divot was so deep . . . and wide.)

Speaking of those baseboards, I have to share this with you. Years ago we painted our kitchen cabinets black. It was one of our first undertakings. At that time we were preparing for the holidays—an apparent ignition switch for me, as I tend to take on HUGE tasks just before the holidays—so time was short.

Because our floors were white AND I loathe taping AND my husband was helping (thus, we would not skip the “frivolous” step) I convinced myself that I wanted the baseboards to remain white. It was a decision I’ve regretted for 10 years, but the prospect of the prep work was debilitating, so it never got done—until now.

After our new floors were down in the kitchen, I set about scrubbing the baseboards and taping-off the floor. Our baseboards now match the cabinets (not the floor) and I couldn’t be more pleased.

Painting the Kitchen

Published, Jan 25,2015

Well, I don’t know about you, but I enjoyed our recent and brief respite from the bitter cold last weekend. We were visiting another one of Tennessee’s “top five” cities—Knoxville. Yet another gymnastics competition took us to their downtown area, too. In fact, all of Tennessee’s “top five” host these competitions—oops, make that four-and-a-half out of the five.

There is a small, pre-season competition which is hosted by Clarksville Elite, but they hold it at the Foy Fitness Center on the APSU campus. It doesn’t begin to compare to the scale and scope of the meets held in Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga, though.

I just think it’s strange that a city that boast about its convenient central location, that we haven’t done something to take advantage of that location. I am sure greater minds than mine are working on it. I’ll just worry my pretty little head about domestic matters—like making hotel reservations and researching places to dine and shop while we’re attending the next event.

As for other domestic matters, I have once again tackled the less than enviable task of painting the kitchen. This is a process that was much needed, but became impossible to ignore after our recent renovations.

I don’t think I mentioned is before, but I asked Glen (our contractor for this project) move the cabinet surrounding our refrigerator about six inches to the left. It’s something I thought of a while ago, but doing so would have exposed an area of the floor which was not covered by the laminate floor that my husband and I had installed. The thought of trying to retro-fit the flooring into that exposed space was too daunting, so we waited.

We have a side-by-side refrigerator, which I normally wouldn’t have considered, but it met my single requirement: it was the largest capacity I could find which would fit into the space available. It fit, but (a little detail one should apparently consider) the door on the right hit the door jam on the adjacent wall and wouldn’t open. That’s when we came-up with the solution of removing the door jam and cutting it to a length that allowed the refrigerator door free movement—sort of. It still hit the door to the laundry room whenever we had to open it wide enough to open the crisper drawers.

Eight years of door banging had me ready to jump on this possibility of moving those cabinets when we had to replace the flooring. Glen told me it would be an easy fix, so I added it to the list. What a difference the move has made. The space we lost—to the left of the cabinet—was a concern, because I stow a rolling cart, which holds my stand mixer, there. Now it protrudes into the walkway a little more, but not enough to matter to anyone.

The repositioned cabinets gave us more room to open the doors on the refrigerator.

 

The new flooring and laundry room also provided an opportunity to make a few more changes to the space, too. I brought home a piece of furniture I had in Hodgepodge, but had been keeping in storage; it was always one of my favorite pieces and, consequently, I didn’t discount it when I closed shop. (My subconscious mind obviously had plans for it.)

My subconscious desire—the black bookcase/cupboard.

So, I told you all of that to tell you this: I started painting the kitchen again. When I moved the white cabinet from the kitchen into the laundry room, I took that opportunity to paint the wainscoting, trim and wall before positioning the new bookcase there.

the white cupboard in it’s new location

 

Fortunately, I love the color of our kitchen, so I am just going to freshen-up the look with some cleaning and the same colors. This way, I will be able to take my time—thus far proven, as I began the process just after Thanksgiving—without having to be met with an offensive contrast of colors. Of course, this could also work against me when I consider my ability to procrastinate.

One last note, since I apparently have a few things on my mind and the time on my hands to consider them . . . at length . . . I’ve decided to begin blogging again. This may not mean much to you, but it is a big thing for me. I consider it an obligation, of sorts. If you tell your readers you’re going to do something, then you need to do it. So, if you like reading about our renovation projects and general shenanigans, you may want to check it out. I will also be providing a few more photographs than space allows here in “The Leaf.” By the end of the weekend, you’ll find me at www.hodgepodge-home.blogspot.com.

A personal note—thank you to the friends who encouraged me to get back to my blog. I appreciate the support and confidence.