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Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Painting Woes

Ya'll.

I am so sick of painting. Like I physically cringe when I walk into the sitting room. I'm sick of feeling like I'm making no progress and I'm sick of my back aching from standing up on the ladder and I'm sick of having the room in such disarray and yelling at the girls to stop walking on the shelves that are laying on the ground.

I'm just totally over it.

How it looks today, as of this second. Two coats of primer and one coat of trim paint. 

(I'm so over it, in fact, that I'll just be interspersing pics of the "progress" in this post because I can't bring myself to actually write about it in a non-bitching way.)

I read all these DIY/Decorating blogs and they're demo-ing and installing entire kitchens in the time that it's taken me to get this far. I try to remind myself that a) I'm doing it entirely by myself [no help from Saint Danny - yet - and Chris hasn't even looked at a paintbrush in months thanks to a busy work schedule] and b) I have other things to handle that are a higher priority and c) I'm not a professional, but.

It's still so discouraging. I'm trying to focus on what I have done. I sanded and cleaned the entire thing. I did two coats of primer. I caulked a thousand gaps and filled in a thousand nail holes. I got three coats of the actual trim paint on the drawers (they are DONE! mostly so I could move them out into another room to give me more space to work in here). I got two coats on one side of the shelves, one coat on another side of the shelves, and one coat on the built-ins and crown molding.

Another "current" shot.

Viewing it in that light would be the smart, uplifting way to look at it. ALL HAIL ME, QUEEN OF THE BUILT-INS. However, that line of thinking is not actually happening. All I keep thinking is "two more coats of this???"  And I keep thinking, "OMG I've been working on this room since the beginning of July and this is all that's been done." And then there's the "And I still have to paint the walls...."

Normally I do not mind painting walls, but thinking about painting the walls of this room after spending so much time on the trim and built-ins is breaking me. I might literally need to beg Danny to finish that part for me.

Going back into the "progress" pics from a week + ago - here's before and after caulking the sides and bottom of the bookshelf, which weren't previously attached (see those dark lines running down between the side and back, 
and then between the bottom and the sides?)

To create the thick, chunky crown molding (which I love) the previous homeowner (or builder?) put together multiple pieces of trim. However, there were large gaps in some areas between the pieces. They were noticeable with just the stain, but they REALLY stood out once I started painting it all white. So that all got caulked. 
You can see where I stopped caulking on in the middle there (I had to move the ladder to continue). 

I am not one for slow progress, apparently. It's just frustrating me. Although I tell myself my goal to finish this room is Thanksgiving-ish so we can possibly host the holiday and so that I can put the Christmas tree up in front of the windows, in reality I want it done like last week.

The shelves, one coat of paint over two coats of primer on the left; just primer on the right. I think it's really the second coat of paint where you really start to see what it's going to look like. The first coat of paint still looks uneven.

And there's the #reallife tale of DIY. None of the "Presto! It's done!" magic of the professional DIY blogs. Just endless painting that never stops and spawns grumpy-ass blog posts like this one.

Also, I lost my wire brush to clean my paintbrushes and instead of just ordering a new one I keep just looking for the old one. I'm so sick of painting I can't even bring myself to buy anything painting-related, apparently. #pantingfatigue #paintingennui #paintingcangofuckitself

In other news that makes me slightly less insane and a little happier, I've been working on our little entryway gallery wall. Right now it's unbalanced and full of gaps, but the plan is to eventually have this entire wall full of frames and fun stuff.  (See the stack of frames under the console table? Those will eventually go up on the wall. Or maybe in the built-ins in the sitting room. But eventually somewhere other than under that table.) (Also see the white splotches on the floor? The sitting room is right next to the entryway, so there's always paint on the entryway floor thanks to two small children who are constantly tracking paint all over the place.) (Also also I kind of hate the security camera sitting there. I need to figure out something different for that. Or maybe I can disguise it somehow.)


I love this little Nebraska art that I made (in literally two minutes out of scrapbook paper and a brown paper bag). HOW VERY HIPSTER OF ME. And Carys found that little hummingbird (?) nest.

I also drew/painted the "Be Kind" picture. The watercolor background was supposed to be a pretty blue/purple abstract...thing...but it kind of looks just moldy. OH WELL.  We stopped and picked sunflowers from the side of the road the other day and I love how they fill in the space next to the "H" on the wall. 
That part might call for some sort of permanently rotating floral display.


Finally, in my quest to finish the stairs, I decided to mock up what it'd look like with dark stair kicks by putting some of our leftover flooring boards up. LOOK AT THAT ADORABLE BABY BOOTY. Anyway, we love the dark, yes?? I think this is it. I'll do the same with white paper at some point and see which calls to me on a deep, existential level the most - but this is making me lean towards the dark option.

1 comment:

  1. Man, Lara, I see so much progress and love where you are going with everything! Your work has had such an impact! Love, Love, LOVE it.....although I totally cracked up at your other work-in-progress's bare booty :-)

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