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So, as happens with most renovations (using my own experience along with the stories from just about every home renovation show on HGTV as evidence), mine did not gone quite as planned either. As mentioned before, and was the most important point for me to keep in mind, is that the carpet was staying – I would have loved to replace it, I hate brown! – but as this is not the Dream House, it just didn’t make sense financially considering the excellent condition of the current carpet. I know, we checked! So Chris recommended some sticky stuff that most contractors use – a self-adhesive protective plastic film
– that we were able to get from Amazon. However, due to something (not sure exactly what) it would not stay stuck to the carpet, though it obviously works well usually since it has no problem sticking to itself.
Self-adhesive protective plastic film from Amazon
Since this didn’t work out, Chris suggested a tarp instead and that worked much better. With that settled, the next step was to take off the baseboards – these are being replaced (still on the to do list), thank goodness! It wasn’t too difficult, but since I did it myself while Chris was at work, I had to resort to YouTube for how to do it.
The tarp is down, the baseboards are off, and most of the loose paint has been removed.
So while it may have not been necessary, and I was told by more multiple people that I created a lot of unnecessary work for myself, I did skim coat and then sand all of the walls. The previous owners simply painted over a lot of rough areas without cleaning first and it was driving me crazy, some of which was previous wallpaper.
About 3/4 of the way through skim coating
Had I not paid such close attention to the walls, I may have missed this detail. Now, I have piece of mind and know a little more of the house’s history.
The previous wallpaper
Now the fun began – color could finally start being put on the walls!!! And I gave Chris the sad news (only for him) that the project can’t be purely mine. I still needed him for a few items….
Once the ceiling was painted, he installed the new fan I picked out. Next to the wall color, this was the part I was most excited about. The fan portion of the last one had stopped working and the Craft Room gets pretty warm during the day. It also didn’t provide much light so I had to supplement. With new LED light bulbs
equivalent to 100 watts each and 5000k for a more natural daylight look, I now have plenty of light without stray cords running down the walls.
A new fan and ceiling light
But, since it is ultimately MY projects and is MY room, I finally fulfilled a life long dream of having a PINK room and could not be happier. (Inside story to this…at the store I thought it was too light. Then, I started cutting it in and thought it might be too bright. Although I was giddy about the prospect of my pink room, this thought still continued as I covered the walls in the color and when I was finally finished.)
A girl’s dream of a pink room realized!
I have slowly been moving back in and arranging it to work better for me. It may have been extra work, but with smooth walls and fresh paint, I feel much calmer in the room and better prepared to work on my projects.
I’ve moved back in, but not everything moved back in with me 🙂
Note: Although this is a very late post, I did make the deadline of November 2nd to beat the couch delivery! And as happens with many projects, there are a couple of things still left to do. Curtains have finally been hung 🙂 but we still need to cut and install the base molding and replace the outlets and covers.