WEEKEND UPDATE!
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I just realized I love doing a "weekend update" because it sounds so newsy..like it's on the evening news or something. Anyway... here's our rundown on activities OTHER than snow.
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First of all, on Thursday night Mark started in on our Master Bath. It is really a very pretty bathroom done in carerra type white marble...but unfortunately the shower started to leak last fall- so we stopped using it (thank gosh for having multiple bathrooms!) and so the renovation in there requires a redone shower area. New base, and fixing some old wood underneath the tiles, and then re tiling around the shower base and a little bench area that was in the shower. Although I do believe my DH can Do just about ANYTHING... I am learning that he doesn't always enjoy it.
As he worked doing demolition that night I would hear random yelling, kicking, and thrashing about as he probably just felt irritated that he had to work on a project as annoying as this. He is NOT happy to do this kind of project. But he will, because he's thrifty like that. ~
Next, my Mr. Hercules was incredibly able to move my GINORMOUS bedroom furniture out all by himself in order to prep for the floor paint. He's really amazing. I just hope he doesn't herniate a disc or something. After a few repairs on the floor boards (original to the house!), we started by painting one, then two coats, and even three in some areas of my base color of paint on the floor. That alone made me SO EXCITED! I LOVE to see paint go on!! It's pretty much thrilling to me.
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After that dried, we calculated the measurements of the diamonds for the floor. Then we used a chalk line to mark them all out. That was messy! If you have ever used one- I hadn't- it left yucky blue chalk everywhere!! But - it saved an enormous amount of time marking so it was totally worth it!
After that we taped them all out and marked a big B using a charcoal on every diamond to be painted brown.
Then I painted the alternate color (brown) on the diamonds I had previously marked.
We then proceeded to peel the tape off before it dried and was super hard to get off. THAT was a mistake. I don;t know if it was simply crappy tape or what- but it peeled chunks and bits of my precious paint job right OFF!! We were irritated by that but... just kept moving forward~! If anyone knows why that happened (Katie?- other painters? ) - I would love some insight.
~ The next morning Mark kneeled down and hand painted over all the peeled up spots. It LOOKED fabulous, dahhling! And that is where we stand right now. We will finish it off with SEVERAL coats of a water based polyurethane clear coat. After it hardens in possibly a week or more... we will move the furniture back in and resume life as normal. ~
The bath room, on the other hand...will be a WHILE until we (of course when I say "we" ...I of course mean "HE")can figure that mess out. But he will. Cuz' he's just good like dat.
Last but not least, our poor little kiddies that kept getting the delightful anticipation of staying with thier grandparents dangled infront of them and then torn away (several differen times over the weekend..) were suprised by a sweet craigslist find that my sister actually spotted for us! A new bouncey castle to cheer them up!! Get this! It was $280 orig, and we got it for only $100 and it's practically new! Sweeet!
8 comments:
eeeeep! it is so beautiful! i love love love it! figuring out the measurements for diamonds give me a headache..haha..but you've made it look so simple! i can't wait to see what is next!
i hate painters tape! haha. it could have been a number of things...spots less dry than others, the temperature, or even how well the paint had dried or adhered to the existing wood floor.
regardless, completely lovely!
I giggled so much when you where talking about how much Mark hated renovating. I just remeber that night he was fixing the toilet in the guest room and I heard someone cussing out a toilet and was like who is that up there cursing ad yelling and you very calmly and accepting where like, "oh that's mark-he doesn't like doing that kind of stuff, but he does it anyway, but just rants the whole time" Cracks me up! The room looks like a magazing already and I haven't even seen the end result! Ca't wait to see those pics.
what kind of tape were you using and what kind of paint is the lighter color. Did you do any additional prep work for the floor prior to painting the color. I would be very surprised if the prior finish of the floor were not oil based. I would assume the light color was some kind of water based product. This combination will almost always cause problems. The prior finish really needed sanded with some 220 paper; just a quick scuff. then a good primer like "Kilz" and then the color. Be sure to let each layer dry as long as you can possible stand to let it. I would also guess that you were using the blue "painter's" tape... the "delicate surface" tape by 3M cost about 2x's as much but worth every penny. A little hit... if you paint the base color in the area to be painted it will be the color to leak under, and it doesn't show so you get cleaner lines. I think that wasn't very clear. In this case you paint the edge of the tape where you are painting brown with the cream again first so no brown leaks under. I makes it so you don't have to push the tape down as hard. You get cleaner lines with easier removal. If you want to avoid the dust from the chalk line there are several laser options that would work great for such things. For this specific application there are a few for as little as $19. I have owned most of the lasers sold at the major home improvement stores at some point, and the flexibility of some of the more expensive ones are very attractive, but havening several to use together probably matters more for intermittent use. If you have any questions or need a recommendation about a specific model for a specific use just let me know.
Tyler,
Thanks- we are pretty novice painters so we are definately learning as we go~ We were anxious to paint - and since it was the rough original - we assumed the floor seemed "rough" enough- but I think you proabably are right- it was proabably some oil based coat on it. Also, we were trying to get the whole thing done in a weekend- so we were not waiting a whole day for each coat/color to dry...
I don't really get what you are saying about the tape trick- you tape it down lightly and then paint over the innner edge with the light color? Do you use a thin brush for that? Is that right?
Question- Do you think applying poly with a roller is okay - if not, why?
And as far as the laser- the thing I like about the chalk was that it actually left a line on the floor for use to follow. Do you mark your line with something as you go when using the laser? Is it more tedious? I am okay if it does seem to work much better- we did have to kinda wipe down the whole floor with a damp cloth to get the blue chalk off before we painted the first coat of poly on. I felt weird about that because I didn't want any wetness on the painted floor. We did let it dry for a day...but still.
You continually amaze me!! You're "weekend projects" motivate me to do more in my house, and very, very cool castle!
Thanks Mandy~ I don't know why- but when I am pregnant I get overly motivated to do projects! Kinda weird- but maybe it's my form of nesting?
I love the floor! How fun!
I am in the middle of one of those annoying tagging things. So I am tagging you. Hopefully it is an easy one!
the water on the floor shouldn't matter since you are using a water based polyurethane anyway. a really low nap roller is ok for the polyurethane application but a staining pad on a pole would avoid a lot of the little bubbles. Be sure to sand those off between coats. I would guess you aren't really doing a think layer of polyurethane anyway though, right? Just a bit of protection, so thin 2 coat should be fine. Oh yeah you got it as far as the paint on the tape thing. if you are taping a surface that doesn't have recent base color you can use a clear of similar sheen to whatever the base is and it serves the same purpose. A common situation like this would be painting trim to tile grout. Usually Painters do this (and almost all edges) by hand but if you want a truly straight line tape would work a lot better. I am positive there are painters that would adamantly disagree with me, but usually they don't seem to really understand what "truly straight" even means they must be going by some weird definition of straight all their own. Anyway if you paint a little clear, flat sheen paint, polyurethane or whatever at the edge of the tape before the color and let it dry, it will be what leaks under greatly minimizing the leakage of the color. Of course the proper tape for the surface will make an even bigger difference.
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