March 30, 2010

Fun Fact- Painting kinda sucks

I hate painting our house.

Now that I'm thinking back over all the years and improvements we've done to the house, there is not one room that either didn't reduce me to tears or put me in the crappiest mood ever while or after painting. The bedroom literally made me cry while I was painting the trim. First go round with the living room practically drove me insane with fury. There is just something about these walls (or is it older homes in general?) that makes painting practically the most epic chore ever.

Maybe its the lumpiness of the old paint underneath, created long ago by owners that didn't care to wipe up the drips. I also think its the wave of the paneling underneath that bothers me as I skim over it with my paint roller. Really though, its the feeling that I'm not doing it right and I'm just high glossing over the problem for a little lipstick touch up. I want to rip the trim off and strip it down! Get those decades ( century?) old paint lumps heat gunned off! Shine up the door hardware and make it gleam. But I know that I really can't do that with this house. Because of lack of time and money. and mostly because of the for sale sign on the front lawn.

Which brings me to my great Wtown house regret. I didn't care much when we first bought it and as a result I really didn't do a lot of work to the house. Always I saw the great potential! And it was a little bit of my vision and hard work went into the house. Mainly I just lived in the house, dealing with the trials and pitfalls of living in an older and under heavy construction home. Sometimes the renovations were harder to deal with than others, but I kept dealing with them as I went on with life as a full time college student and part time mall worker.

Most of the blood, sweat and tears shed here in the Wtown house belong to Pete. He's the one that really brought this house back from the brink. Its only been these last few years that I've really involved myself in our houses and I've found that I love it! Truly love breaking a sweat and getting down and dirty with the renovations. I wish I could go back to 21 yr old college Junior me and say- see that door your painting, don't just paint it, strip it down! I'd also advise against the blond hair stage of life...

I know its never to late, which is why I am fixing certain peeves I have about this house still. Even with the house on the market I do have to live here for who even knows how much longer, so I should do those little (and not so little) touches its going to take for me to really feel like I've put something more into the house and am happy with continuing on with living here.

Which is why I decided to get off my butt and paint the living room, something I've wanted to do for a very long time but was always talked out of or didn't have the time for. The time was still not there, but got squeezed it in. My back, legs, forearms and hands are all killing me after an exhausting 16 hours of work. How does the room look now? Bright and bigger that is for sure! And 95% done, because I didn't buy the right kind of paint for the trim. I'm still not sure if I'm just the slowest painter in the world, or if old houses really are harder to paint?!

4 comments:

  1. I love painting, but I realize I'm in a minority here. But I totally agree that painting older homes is less fun than painting newer ones.

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  2. I agree. Painting always seems better in theory. My room has two walls one color, and two another. Keeping a straight line when the wall doesnt really have one is a fun task. :-P

    Glad you're almost done though! :)

    - Jennifer

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  3. It has been years since we've last painted the Wtown house and I remember why now. It is just friggen hard to paint. I'm pretty shocked at the difference in effort/time and paint usage in comparision with all the painting we've done lately in the beach house.

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  4. The fun parts of painting are: picking the color and finishing. Everything in between is crap.

    Love from M.O.M. who is about to start painting the entire downstairs and the stair hallway.

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