Tonight I was doing sound for a choir and band concert for one of the local middle schools, then I had to pack up all my gear and take it to its various storage locations.  After I got home, I had dinner with Jenny (thanks for the chili and stuff, Mom and Dad!), then did a little bit of work in the room.  I was able to do the touch-up painting, and clean up most of the painting stuff.  I also took the plastic down between the living room and dining room, so that we could start to get used to seeing the two together again.  It was a happy time, celebrated with much drinking of iced tea and watching of the cats leaping between the two rooms. 

Tomorrow, my Dad is coming down to help hang the chandelier and re-wire an outlet for the A/V stuff.  Yeah, it would work as-is, but we're taking the time to do everything else the right way, so we might as well do this, too.  I also hope to start cutting the carpet into strips about three feet wide (that's a magic number for the trash people), then rolling and bundling it so that they can dispose of it.  I don't know if I'll get all of the carpet and padding up tomorrow, but I at least want to start. 

In the meantime, I'm trying to freecycle our old living room furniture, but I'm having a lot of people who are really interested for thirty seconds or so, then they don't commit to a pick-up time.  Argh. 

jonathan

I got the second (and final) coat of paint on the walls today.  While I was running around the room on a ladder cutting-in again, I had an epiphany, and realized why painters use thinner:  It would have been so much easier to have some paint with a thinner consistency for doing the cut-in.  It was really not a lot of fun painting less than four inches at a time around all of the stuff in the room.  Somewhat thinner paint would have had a better flow characteristic, which probably would have let me cover a longer stretch.  Oh well.  It is done, and I happen to think that it looks awesome.  There are a few touch-up spots that I need to hit probably tomorrow.  There are a few spots where a roller nicked the ceiling, and a few spots around the big window where the paint didn't bond well to the new plaster (I should have removed the tape that I put up for the plaster and re-taped, which probably would have avoided some of this problem).  Those places will be easy to touch-up tomorrow. 

The last few things that need to happen after touch-up are to cut up and remove the carpet, and cut up and remove the padding.  Then there are a few pieces of tack strip that I couldn't get to easily that need to be removed.  After that, I can install the chandelier, replace the crappy wall switch, and put on new cover plates for the one wall outlet and the switch.  Then the floor can get a quick mop, maybe a coat of wax, and then the plastic can come down.  Then that's it--we're done!  We're so close.... 

jonathan

Today marked the first (and last) coat of paint for the ceiling, in a color identified as "Belgian Waffle."  We also got the first coat on the walls of the darker gold (the fancy name of which I can't remember right now).  The walls will need another coat to be even, but we're happy with the colors. 

Today reminded me how tedious cut-in can be, but also the thrill of the challenge of cutting-in freehand.  When we did the dining room, I didn't trust myself much, so I taped-off the ceiling when we were finished with that, then cut-in the walls (or maybe it was the other way around--I can't remember, but I do remember that I taped-off for the cut-in).  It worked, though I had to patch a few places where I lifted the paint with the tape.  It was also a mess to do.  This time around, I bought myself a nice angled brush specifically for cut-in.  Today, I learned how tedious this can be, but it was fun to try to do it without hitting the ceiling.  I managed to nick only a few minor spots, and most of those I cleaned-up right away with a damp paper towel, so that was cool. 

I have to be home from work again tomorrow for a few things, so I'll be getting the second coat on tomorrow as well.  Quality brushes and rollers are well worth the money.  Now, if only we had the painter's pole that we had purchased specifically for this room, we would have been all set.  :) 

jonathan

It is a thrilling feeling to be at this stage.  It has been almost a year that we've been working on this room.  Of course, there were large sections of time when we weren't actively working on it, but our downstairs has been a construction zone for eleven (11) months.  Ugh.

Today, with my Dad's help, we actually got ourselves ahead of schedule for completion of the room.  I figured that we would probably get finished with the shellacking today, and maybe have enough time to tape-off the wood after the shellac was dry enough. I hoped to be able to patch the walls and basically be ready for painting tomorrow.  Well, we moved so quickly today that we were able to get primer on everything!  My Dad had been saying all day that he couldn't wait to see paint on the walls, and Jenny and I couldn't agree more.  Well, we got to the point where we could make it happen, so we did.  This means that we'll be ready for final painting tomorrow!  Highly awesome.  That's all I can say.

Thanks Mom and Dad.  And thank you Jenny--you keep me inspired and moving.  :) 

New pictures start here. 

jonathan

So, I'm pretty sure that our neighbors see me get the rake from outside and bring it inside the house, and they probably don't think all that much of it.  Then they see me raking the floor in the living room, and I'll bet that they think I've flipped my lid.  In fact, I was using the rake to gather the sharp-edged remnants of the paint-covered wallpaper that I had scraped from the ceiling. 

I got the skim coat finished, as mentioned in the last entry.  It is dry now, and it looks pretty good.  There are two places where I may smooth-in a bit of plaster.  It looks like I may have nicked those two areas with the trowel at some point, but I didn't notice them until now. 

Later this morning, after we get some sleep, my Dad is going to come down, and we're going to work on shellac in the room.  Later tomorrow, I hope to patch the few cracks and the holes left from the drop ceiling crap.  There is also a section of wall that needs to be scrubbed a bit, and Jenny is going to take care of that.  This will set the stage for painting on Sunday. 

Jenny and I bought the paint and primer today.  We used Olympic paint from Lowe's in the dining room, and had great luck with it, so I bought the same brand for the living room.  We're going with a gold on the walls and a light gold on the ceiling.  We think it will look good.  If it doesn't, we'll live with it for a little while and paint again.  :) 

We're tired.  I'm excited about tomorrow, and even more excited about Sunday. 

jonathan

I taught myself how to do a skim coat today.  Fun stuff.  It looks pretty good for not having a bloody clue what I am doing--at least I think so.  :)  I used pre-mixed patching plaster for this, as I really only needed a smoothing layer.  I think, if I were to do this again, I'd maybe use plaster of paris or see if I can find some actual dry-mix plaster used for skim coats on blueboard.  This did what I needed it to do, though, and the wall is no longer rough.  Now I'm having the internal debate as to whether I should do a second application to smooth some of the bits that I can see where I didn't get it as nice and smooth as I would have liked, or if I should just say "enough" and get on with things.  I have to let this application dry for a little while before I make any decisions there, so I'll work on scraping the ceiling bits in the meantime.  I'll post pictures sometime this weekend. 

jonathan

Jenny and I needed some away time last night, so we met for dinner in Oakmont.  She was taking the bus home, and I was stopping in Verona to pick up some items from Pittsburgh Freecycle.  After dinner, we headed home, and I got to work on the living room.  Because of our dinner trip, it was too late for me to pick up any more shellac, so I worked instead on getting the inside door frame to the hall ready for shellac, and touched-up a few baseboard spots that needed some help. 

I have to be home from work tomorrow, so I'm going to pick up new furnace filters, shellac, patching plaster, and some painting supplies.  Then it will be time to clean up the dust and shellac the baseboards and the inside door frame.  Hopefully, more time will exist, which will let me tape-off around the big window frame, and then teach myself how to do a quick skim coat of plaster on the wall there. 

Saturday, my Dad can come down to help for a bit, so we're going to spend our time putting multiple coats of shellac on as much stuff as we can, and patching a few small cracks.  Sometime either on Friday night or Saturday, I need to spend some time scraping the last of the dry bits from the ceiling, which will get it into shape enough for a quick sanding to ease the edges.  I have to wait for the shellac to dry before I can sand, though, so I'm not entirely sure when I'm going to be able to do that yet.  I'll figure it out. 

We're getting close. 

jonathan

I've had some other after-work commitments yesterday and today, so I haven't had time to do any additional work on the living room.  Tomorrow, though, will be a work evening.  I plan to get a coat of shellac on all of the baseboards.  If that happens and I still have time and energy, I want to work on getting the last of the doorway to the hall ready to shellac.  It is also time to get the room cleaned-up and get some of the stuff that we no longer need out of there.  The tools need to be put away, and we need to do some general clean-up in there.  That will pave the way for me to finish scraping the loose spots on the ceiling, which is the last step to do before we can paint the ceiling.  Saturday is going to be a giant shellacking party.  Saturday evening I hope to get everything taped-off, in preparation for Sunday, which will be the day of paint!!!!!  I'm hoping for a coat of primer and a coat of paint on the ceiling and walls on Sunday.  We'll see how short I fall of those goals.  Ugh. 

jonathan