12/07/2006 ...And Still More Painting & Peeling

Today Ray and I went to the house in the evening to try to get some paining done to the areas that are cleared.

I came up with a way to cut down this painting job and get things done faster. The living room is now clear, so I taped and prepped the room, as well as the foyer. Ray painted most of the living room and foyer, as well as two walls in the "master bedroom/optional den" area. We tried to paint over the hard-to remove wallpaper to cut down on time, but it didn't appear to work well. Instead, we are preserving wallpaper in both bedrooms by clearing only one wall per room (whichever wall has the most impact and is the worst looking). That way, we only have to finish peeling those two walls in the bedrooms, plus the kitchen and dining room. We will leave the wall paper in the bathrooms. This will work perfectly; we didn't buy quite enough paint for the entire interior of the house, we only bought five gallons and I had estimated that we'd need 6-7 gallons.

The paint really brightens up the house and gives a nice look. I really loved the color of the living room walls, but the new color looks very sophisticated and luxurious. Too bad there are no moldings, that would really make this job shine! I cannot wait to see the floor all polished out and restored; it's going to look beautiful!

Also, in my estimate of the costs to restore, I forgot to add the floor in the master bedroom/den. We plan to just stain the concrete in a color that is complimentary to the wood floor color. This will cost approximately $150.00, as we will need a helper to tear out the current flooring and clear the concrete to prepare it for staining, plus materials. I can really start to see how great this house is going to look with brighter rooms and a nice, gleaming wood floor.

We've had two parties look at the house and both were turned off by the price. I truly hope that they will change their minds once the house looks good. Everyone agrees that it's a great house, they just think it needs too much work. Once we are done I hope they will see it just needs personalization, not repairs.