Re-Do

Retaping and repainting...

04/27/14

I'm on day...I don't even know! I've lost count now how many days of painting I've done, and finally yesterday I caught a glimpse of the end! That shimmery, beautiful, paint-roller free place, where people (me) do other things all day long, magical, wonderful, things like caulking, and fixing doorbells! But then it was gone, crushed and devoured. Here is what happened:

I was very near the end of my painting. I only had the living room, laundry, and downstairs bathroom left to do. The living room was the last "big" area, and there was much consideration needed for how to go about painting it. The walls are so high, and because of the staircase, it was extremely difficult (i.e. impossible) to cut in the edge of the wall above the stairs. That was our dilemma. So Dad suggested using the ceiling paint to cut in the corner and a little below onto the wall, and then taping the wall about 3" or so below the actual corner and painting up to that. It would be much easier to tape the tall tricky places because instead of having to get the tape just so in the very corner, it just had to be a straight line a few inches below. So that is what we did. And here is the problem, it looked GREAT! It was like having crown molding in style, and it looked almost professionally done! How is this a problem you might wonder? Because now I was faced with the decision of going back and repainting all of the walls I'd already painstakingly taped and painted, or just leaving them as they were. I wanted to leave them of course. The hardest part of the whole painting process is the taping and the corners. It took as much time to tape and paint a corner as it did to roll a whole wall! To make myself feel better I pretended for about a half a day that I wasn't going to do it. Then later dad asked me, and I still said no, but I am not sure either of us believed me at that point. And then finally I went, head hung low, and got the tape. Moping the whole time, I got to work again re-taping everything I'd already done. *Sigh*

It was a lot of extra work, because it can be tricky to get the line just straight when you are working by yourself, and going from corner to corner, and moving the step stool around, and adjusting a 1/4 inch here or there, and dealing with ceilings that aren't exactly straight, but I was able to manage for the most part. Eduardo helped me on the high places, and luckily those went quickly. (I used FrogTape which has worked wonderfully for me. Even when it's not been pressed down all the way and I rolled over it, it still didn't bleed. I recommend it if you are doing a project like this.)

I wouldn't have bothered had it not looked SO MUCH better. But it really looks professional now. The corners of the walls weren't totally straight, so even though I was careful it looked a bit DYI. But with the white hiding those uneven corners and edges, the straight line underneath suddenly pops out and looks brand new! But now, I am back to working on the kitchen and the bedrooms, all rooms I'd thought I'd finished! I'm not quite, but kind of, back at square one. Sad face. Oh well, you live and learn I guess.

I would do this from the start on any other remodel project from now on. It is so much easier and looks so wonderful, I can't think of a good reason not to. If you are thinking of doing a painting project, I highly recommend giving this a try. You won't regret it!