Cleaning and Painting

This weekend was yet another one spent at our new place getting it ready. We came up Friday night so we could get an early start Saturday morning. Joshua and I were out of the house at 8am stopping at Home Depot to get paint, supplies, and TSP. Once we got over to the house Joshua immediately began putting the first coat of paint on the ceilings.

We had planned on removing the popcorn ceiling, but we ended up deciding our sanity was better served painting over it. If it was one room it would have been fine, but the entire house has popcorn ceiling. Hopefully down the road it can be removed professionally.

After Joshua was done with the ceiling in the living room he proceeded to do the entryway, hallway, and office room, using only 2 gallons of paint! We used Behr’s Interior Flat Ceiling Paint and boy did it make a difference!

Meanwhile, I began the process of cleaning the walls starting with the living room. The TSP solution I used not only cleans but dries as a primer for painting. My Nana used to be a HEAVY smoker and she liked to burn candles quite a bit, so the walls were very dirty; luckily everything came off fairly easy.

I managed to get the walls cleaned in the living room and hallway by the end of the day. It was a lot of work because I had to go over one area several times to get all the dirt off.

Sunday morning we made another trip to Home Depot for more ceiling paint and wall paint for the living room. The shade I went for is called “Oriental Silk” by Behr in the Eggshell Enamel finish; this is also the same color we used for our Duplex in the living room and bathroom.

I was doing some interior design photo browsing and stumbled across this lovely photo that shall be my inspiration for the living room.

I love it because it’s one of the few nice living rooms that have a turquoise sofa. One of the few pieces of furniture we’re keeping of my Nana’s is this super cute and comfy turquoise sofa with matching loveseat and ottoman. It has been hard to find nice pictures that slightly resemble the kind of furniture we have. This picture incorporates everything I’d like the living room to be so I’m pretty excited to see how everything turns out.

Speaking of which, I had to move the sofa, loveseat, and ottoman into the kitchen because Wednesday Stanley Steemer is coming out to steam clean all the carpets, so naturally all carpeted surfaces had to be cleared. While Joshua was working on the 2nd coat of ceiling paint I was busy clearing floors. It’s been a little crazy having to clear the floors completely (I was storing bags of stuff in the bathtub and whatnot), but it was nice to have space to work around.

While I was clearing floors I tried to run the dishwasher so I could put in the dirty dishes that were piling up in the sink as to make more room to put stuff on the counter. When I turned the dishwasher on it made this horrendous grinding noise (like knives rubbing together) and water wasn’t getting through. Long story short, we’re getting a new dishwasher! Huzzah!

Once I had floors clear I was back to washing walls. When I finally had the office room, guest room, and master bedroom done I went right back to the living room and began painting the walls. After putting a lot of elbow grease into washing the walls, painting was a breeze.

By the time I finished the room it had dried so Joshua and I hauled ass to put on a second coat. We managed to get two coats on the entire living room off of only 1 gallon of paint!

While letting the 2nd coat dry a bit more thoroughly, we sped over to IKEA to pick up a new light for the front entryway. We decided on the FADO Pendant Light. Now the living has no overhead light (just like our Duplex) so as of right now the only light in the living room is from the window and the front entryway. Once we flipped the switch on our new entryway light… WOO BOY! Let there be light!

During the day my uncle dropped by to check out our progress. He asked what colors we were going to use for the rest of the house, and when I told him off white he made a face. 😆 After talking about it he pretty much gave me the go ahead to use color in other rooms.

It’s nice because after the disaster with the previous tenant at my Duplex going color crazy my grandparents wanted light, preferably white colors, so being able to use color opens room for more creativity. I know I want to use green somewhere in the house, but I can’t decide if I want to use it for the entryway/hallway or for the office room. We shall see!

By the time all was said and done, Joshua and I didn’t get home till about 10pm last night. We were both EXHAUSTED! The good news is the living room is ready to go, so when we move up Thursday night we can move the sofa, loveseat, and ottoman out there and have a place to relax. Friday we’re going to get DirecTV to set-up our satellite and also get our Internet taken care of. Can’t wait!

Until Thursday, I have plenty of things to keep me occupied including two finals, a study session, a teeth cleaning, and lots of packing.