As we approached Labor Day weekend, Nancy and I planned for the arrival of a Hollins College student who will be living with us and working part-time with Nancy at the barn. Since the girls’ playroom was going to be converted into a college student’s bedroom, Nancy asked if I wanted to paint the room and make some improvements. That was all the encouragement I needed

Last week, our playroom looked something like this:

Everyone pitched in to relocate the playroom into an area of the basement. Then I got to work:

First of all, anyone who has ever lived in a house with base, chair and crown molding – and plenty of casing – can appreciate the time involved in painting such a room “correctly”. Prior to rolling on paint, you have to “cut” along each side of molding and around all of the casing with a good quality brush. It is very time consuming. I cut two coats to get proper coverage and it took several hours. Time was, I’d use blue tape to isolate trim to help prevent overpainting, but I’ve found that I do a better job – with less frustration – without tape. I don’t sweat any imperfections in the straightness of my lines when I’m cutting on the wall along trim. I simply make sure that I apply an even coat and lines are – more or less – straight enough. And since I paint walls before I paint trim, I tend to overpaint trim ever-so-slightly. That way, when I paint the trim, I can make really smooth and straight cut lines with the trim paint.

After about *censored* hours, this is what I ended up with:

For the curious, the wall paint is a Valspar (?) satin (Stratosphere) and the trim is a Valspar semi-gloss (Overcast). The ceiling paint is an off-white semi-gloss with a hint of a very small hint of yellow. I also re-waxed the floor *twice* to restore the finish. I removed the shelving from the left closet and installed a clothes rod. This room project turned out really well, and the next step is some drapery and furnishings.  

While I was cleaning the register duct I found a 30 year old Milky Way wrapper that was presumably left behind by a contractor who helped build our home. Nutrition Facts did not exist back in 1978 but I did note that Milky Way bars are approximately 35% heavier now than they were 30 years ago. Just like most Americans.

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