The Summer of Projects - The Beginning

The Summer of (oh, So Many) Projects!

Let's jump to the Michigan House. Or what I somewhat fondly refer to as the Mother Lode of all of the 2020 Projects on my plate.

The Michigan House was put in it's place in 1983. Thirty-seven years ago we walked thru the front door for the very first time. Some things have changed over the intervening years - like the chocolate brown sculpted loop wall to wall to wall to wall carpeting getting ripped out & replaced, mostly by 16" square ceramic tile - and some things were stuck in the past.

Project #1 - the ceilings. All the ceilings in the house are acoustical panels and hadn't been touched since installed at the factory.  We had a few water spots show up, which were addressed but nothing else had been done. My priority was to paint every inch of ceiling in the whole house! All 1425 square feet of the house ceilings. 

W and I grabbed two cans of regular Behr ceiling paint to get me started, along with gathering a few other supplies and off I went. In order to paint ceilings, one must move a few things out of the way. Like 20+ artificial silk plants & flower arrangements. UGH! I HATE those things. And yes, I can say that  with some authority, as I spent 17 years working in the floral industry. 

They are nothing more than dust catchers in this house & they were banished to the garage. The only reason they didn't go straight into the garbage bin is that we don't have trash removal service out there since we're not out there year round. A friend let's us drop of any trash we have at her house. The haul of silk arrangements would have filled her bins 4 times! 

The Great Room Before

Next, the two area rugs needed to go - out the door! Simply rolling them up would have meant shifting them around and I wanted a clear path. And they wanted a good washing & airing. And then ultimately replacing, when I got into a complete snit over them. 

Back to painting. I started on the hallway ceiling (on the left in the picture below) on a Friday night after work. Can I just say right here what a blessing it is that I can work remote where ever I have Wi-Fi?! Anyway, here is the first of many square feet of ceiling. 

The First Night of Painting

The interesting thing I noted was that the ceiling sucked up paint faster than I could roll it on. Hmm, at this rate, I was going to need to readjust the coverage estimate. 

And upgrade to the Behr Ultra Paint & Primer in One ceiling paint. 

And plan on two coats. On. All. The. Ceilings. 

I didn't mind the cost of the paint, though needing 7 gallons to complete the project does give one a bit of a pang in the wallet. The time needed to roll two full coats, with drying time in between, was unexpected. There's the whole shift the furniture, cover everything in plastic, refill the paint tray, refill it again, open yet another can of paint time suck that really adds up. Not to mention that I couldn't get a handle on the coverage rate and the fact that the nearest Home Depot is 25 miles away and it's the middle of a pandemic. And yes, I was doing this in the evenings and on weekends, in the mornings before work and at lunch time. 

Odie was with me every step of the way, rolling the open expanse and as I went up & down the ladder cutting in the edges. He only got 1 spot of paint on him! He was a great helper, staying well out of the way. 

I did have another helper for a day. W came out over a weekend to paint along the center beam of the vaulted great room. No way was I going to even try tackle cutting in those edges at that height on a ladder, by myself in the house. Totally not safe! Besides, I'm 5' 2" short and he is 6' 4" tall. Do the math! It was a no-brainer.  It took him less than an hour to do what I couldn't reach, with minimal effort. The rest of the time, he tackled a few other odd jobs that made good use of his height, strength and talent!  I made him a steak dinner with pie & ice cream for dessert! 

Here is the great room during it's 2020 facelift, with most of the painting done. Look at the light, bright, clean look!! Odie was happy that the plastic tarps had left the building.  

The smaller green rug made it back inside...briefly!

The adventure continues..