I am the worst project manager, well on my own personal projects that is. I cannot manage scope.
I remember when I went to buy a new couch a few years back, that turned into a new bedroom set, that turned into me ripping out carpeting and redoing the floors in the house in Phase 1.
And since I had no one to stop me I decided to add to it this time around as well. Phase 2a was starting to get underway. The 2nd floor editing suite looked nice with a new coat of paint but the bedrooms hadn’t been touched yet and I was over the yellow color years ago. Another weekend of painting had the guest bedroom and master bath painted out. By the way, no one tells you this when you choose that paint color but yellow is the worst to paint over. It just doesn’t want to leave, it makes itself comfortable and it wants to squat in your life FOREVER! So you need to expect to have to paint a few good coats over this to hide that yellow. Does that make the room smaller? Adding microscopic levels of added layers to the walls. The walls are closing in on me! Ha!
My body likes to betray me. After painting out the guest bedroom and master bath, my neck and shoulder threw a fit and staged a coup and didn’t want me to move for a few days afterwards. I think it was the bathroom and having to sneak around all of those nooks and crannies to paint out that room.
After a few visits to my trusty chiropractor and some well-placed kinesiology tape my body had quieted down and the next weekend was upon me. Therefore, it was time to set intention to the master bedroom, the kittens were very good at being upper management but they kept falling asleep at the job watching over my efforts.
I always knew I would need to hire in some help to get the entire house done. With the lofted editing suite space there are walls I cannot get to and a 2-story wall that would need to get done, so it was time to leave my bad painting skills behind and lean into my home improvement strength of writing checks. I was recommended a painter by a friend and we set about to destroy my house for a few weekends to finish painting the house. Yay! Every wall in the house would get a fresh coat of paint. We expected it would take a couple of weekends so I set my mind to the future disruption.
What’s in a name anyway?
I’ve been remiss so far in discussing the paint colors. Color is tricky! I was going for a grey in the editing suite space but I know greys always have undertones of other colors so when selecting my options I went to the color undertones of blue/purple, called Leeward. The paint sample/paper looked grey at the store and in the house, but once it went onto the walls it did not look grey at all. Depending on the light it looks blue, lavender, periwinkle, etc. Now I didn’t hate the color so I kept going with it in that space. Funny enough when holding up the paint sample it does not look like the paint on the wall from afar until you put it right up against it and it blended right in.
For the next round of color I wanted to get to the grey I was seeking so I kept in the same family. I discussed with the paint experts at the store and discussed what that paint sample turned out with my lighting so they said if you went with more xyz color it should look grey. And the sample has grey in the name so you can’t go wrong there, can you?
Salty Grey. So that is what went up in the guest bedroom. Again, we did not have grey, it turned out blue, but as it was in the same tonal family as Leeward it blended so when you look from one room to another it goes together. For the master I decided to not go for a new color but I went back to Leeward as I preferred the warmer tones.
For the first floor and some accent components (tall wall, etc.). I wanted to get to that grey I was seeking and paint some items out white. This time I bought some paint samples and threw them up on the wall. Let’s see if I can get grey. Woot Woot! They all were grey!
I found it odd as a I was drawn to the darker vs lighter ones which is what I thought I would choose when I was in the store. Even though I liked the darkest of the bunch I didn’t choose that one as I feared it would make the house appear too dark. Also, I feel it was maybe meant as the second color I was drawn to had salt in the name and I am a big fan of salt. So, Sailing Salt was the grey we went with along with a nice crisp white.
Finishing Touches
While my brain was exploding that weekend that my house looked destroyed and it appeared, in my mind at least that I was a hoarder with everything shoved into the middle of the room, it felt so amazing to get paint up on the walls. Washing away the mistakes of the past. My tenants’ children had taken pens and ran up the wall, scuffs and scrapes, wear and tear all disappeared. I had painted the house 15 years ago so this painting was far past due.
We were excited that the work was looking like it was going to go quicker than plan. I had bought a one coat paint, and while yellow is the worst to paint over and needed two coat, it was an assessment to see if the rest of the house was going to be able to be finished with one coat or two. So I was very happy that the rest of the house only needed one coat so we were able to get the first floor and the second-floor items that remained done in just one weekend.
The house getting put back together was another story, but the painting is done, and more importantly Phase 2 is mostly done. The only thing on the list for that phase was swapping or painting out the trim, but with the expenses of the editing suite and painting the entire house over, that would need to wait. My pocketbook needs a break.
That and my feet are itching, I haven’t been out exploring in awhile and the world is calling…