Marathon Weekend

Well, it was close, but it looks like I survived. I'm bruised and scraped and covered in paint, and I have aches on top of aches, but all the rooms are painted, and the floors start going in tomorrow.

On top of marathon painting, this weekend included ripping out a vanity, cleaning mountains (or at least two large garbage bags) of ash out of the fireplace, replacing a leaky shut-off valve for a bathroom sink, capping an unneeded line off the sink valve, getting the covers back on the various light fixtures, and replacing the faucet part of the laundry hook-ups.

The best part of the weekend was the continued evidence that my father's love for me is boundless. He took Friday off from work and stuck with me straight through Sunday evening. His expertise and hard work were wonderful, of course, but having someone there for the hiccups is beyond price. (For example: when you realize that the computerized paint tinting system failed to actually tint a couple of your gallons of paint the same color, and that as a result you have a very odd look going on in the hallway. Or when you realize that the reason the bedroom door didn't shut right wasn't the crummy doorknob after all, but the fact that the catch was a quarter-inch too high.)

I should be scrubbing face plates for outlets and light switches so that I can have everything in place for the rooms that the flooring folks will be working in tomorrow, but the pain pills haven't kicked in yet, and my back won't tolerate it. Doing laundry and grocery shopping last night after a day of working on the house just about killed me. Fortunately, sleep has been a marvelous healer for me.

For any of you out there preparing to do some interior painting in your own home, I'd like to close with a tip: 1" angled trim brush. If you, like me, don't have much experience with painting, this is a miracle tool. It keeps the paint off the ceiling, allows for a good line around doors, and gets into corners that an amateur doesn't have a prayer of reaching with a standard 4" paintbrush (or even a standard 3" trim brush). It does slow you down when you're cutting in a room, but to me, the more professional-looking result is worth it.

Bonus tip: a little watercolor paintbrush is great too, for those tiny spots in awkward places that even the 1" brush struggles with. I, for instance, have one place where 2 doors are about an inch apart, and I was trying to get a strip of color between them without leaving any obvious holidays or marking up the white trim. Then I found a wee paintbrush from a watercolor kit and gave it a shot -- et voila! C'est magnifique.