We went ahead and took a week off to knock out the interior painting ourselves. It took the two of us the full week to do it. I actually enjoyed doing it believe it or not which is a first. I don't normally like painting but something about it being my home, watching the colors go up, and getting away from work made it rather enjoyable.
We bought Frog Tape (make sure that you follow the instructions for this stuff), quality brushes and rollers, and the best paint that I could find (Benjamin Moore Aura about $1700 of it for my ~2800sqft home although i have lots extra.. it covers well). My goal was to do it once and only one coat. I have to say it worked perfectly after a little trial and error. It turns out that going slow and taking your time and not trying to paint too big an area each time you apply paint to your roller gets you top notch results. Another good rule of thumb I heard that is true is if it looks good wet, it will look good dry.
I was pretty glad that we'll be putting crown molding up since I therefore didn't have to edge or cut where the ceiling meets the walls. I was likewise pretty glad not to have any trim up yet since there was nothing to cut against there either. We really like the colors so far. Here are some examples..
The rain has been hitting us pretty heavily this month which is a mixed blessing. it slows work on the exterior of the house but at the same time, California really needs it. As you can see compared to last year and the average, we're up significantly in the past 2 weeks..
However there were some other downsides.. My basement filled up with 7" of water so I had to run and get a sump pump from Ace Hardware and pump it all out (apparently the drain isn't working)..
Also I got to see first hand what a heavy dumping of rain would do to the house. It turns out that the 4 downspouts on the right side of the house are plenty to deal with all the water but the left side of the house only has 2. The front one got overwhelmed and water started coming out straight over the gutter..
The shower hot-mop guy showed up and hot-mopped the bottom of the showers. Boy does that smell and smoke up the house (we were there painting at the time). The builder came the next day and filled the showers with water to let them sit overnight to see if they leaked. Thankfully they didn't..
I also went to The Moulding Company to purchase my first order of window and door trimming materials. This, because it feels like i'm getting close to starting on the interior trim although I still need tools. My hope is to get started sometime during the Christmas holidays. We'll see!
I had to run around the house measuring each window and door and built a calculator (excel spreadsheet) to calculate how many linear feet i needed of each of the pieces of wood/MDF. I then went and ordered enough to get free shipping and to get started on the house. I figure it's probably no more then 1/4 of the materials that i'll need to do the interior windows and doors..
We bought Frog Tape (make sure that you follow the instructions for this stuff), quality brushes and rollers, and the best paint that I could find (Benjamin Moore Aura about $1700 of it for my ~2800sqft home although i have lots extra.. it covers well). My goal was to do it once and only one coat. I have to say it worked perfectly after a little trial and error. It turns out that going slow and taking your time and not trying to paint too big an area each time you apply paint to your roller gets you top notch results. Another good rule of thumb I heard that is true is if it looks good wet, it will look good dry.
I was pretty glad that we'll be putting crown molding up since I therefore didn't have to edge or cut where the ceiling meets the walls. I was likewise pretty glad not to have any trim up yet since there was nothing to cut against there either. We really like the colors so far. Here are some examples..
great room
office
sitting room
downstairs bedroom
upstairs bedroom.. ceiling not done yet
master bedroom
The rain has been hitting us pretty heavily this month which is a mixed blessing. it slows work on the exterior of the house but at the same time, California really needs it. As you can see compared to last year and the average, we're up significantly in the past 2 weeks..
However there were some other downsides.. My basement filled up with 7" of water so I had to run and get a sump pump from Ace Hardware and pump it all out (apparently the drain isn't working)..
Also I got to see first hand what a heavy dumping of rain would do to the house. It turns out that the 4 downspouts on the right side of the house are plenty to deal with all the water but the left side of the house only has 2. The front one got overwhelmed and water started coming out straight over the gutter..
The shower hot-mop guy showed up and hot-mopped the bottom of the showers. Boy does that smell and smoke up the house (we were there painting at the time). The builder came the next day and filled the showers with water to let them sit overnight to see if they leaked. Thankfully they didn't..
I also went to The Moulding Company to purchase my first order of window and door trimming materials. This, because it feels like i'm getting close to starting on the interior trim although I still need tools. My hope is to get started sometime during the Christmas holidays. We'll see!
I had to run around the house measuring each window and door and built a calculator (excel spreadsheet) to calculate how many linear feet i needed of each of the pieces of wood/MDF. I then went and ordered enough to get free shipping and to get started on the house. I figure it's probably no more then 1/4 of the materials that i'll need to do the interior windows and doors..
(Prior example Window)
(what ~$450 in trim materials looks like (MDF))
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