Putting down the paintbrush...for now.

The bedroom is painted!  (Well, everything but the floor...but that's a project I'll tackle at the end of the remodel.)

Everything is painted Benjamin Moore's Simply White.  The walls & ceiling are satin, the mouldings are semi-gloss.

I've never used it before, but while I was at Menards picking up paint, I saw a display for Glade paint additives.  You mix the packet into your paint & it's supposed to freshen your space for up to 6 months!  So far I love the smell...I'm curious to see how long it actually lasts!  The only thing that I didn't like was that the additive seemed to make some of the paint "chunk" up.  At first I thought the roller head was shedding, but I switched to a brand new head & it was still doing the same thing.  Of course, it could be the brand of paint I used as I've never tried that kind before.  I'll update next time I use it with another brand of paint...

A few pictures of the space...the next step is organizing the under-eave storage & moving everything out of the landing area & into the bedroom so we can start all over again with the tape & mud.  Womp womp.

Here's a glimpse of the wall our bed will go on, & the access to one of the storage areas.  My dad is building custom doors for those spaces.

The other side of the room, more storage, & Eli's closet.

Here's hoping we'll be able to get started on the landing area this weekend!

Attic Update #?: The fun stuff

This weekend, in the spare time between basketball games & a late Christmas celebration, we'll be finishing up the priming & painting of all the trim in the bedroom.  Cue angel voices & ringing bells!

In the last few days, dad & I finished nailing up all of the trim & door jambs in the bedroom area, have filled all of the nail holes & gaps with joint compound & caulk, primed a lot of it, & hung up the new medallion/canopy above the barn light.

My amazing mother is at my house as we speak priming trim on her day off work.  She's the best.  No, really...she's actually the best.

The wall & planks are the only areas that have their final coat of paint applied to them.  All of the trim around the window as well as the board & batten trim & baseboards are only primed & are waiting for 2+ coats of Simply White paint!

Hopefully early next week I'll be able to post some pictures of the room completely painted (except the floor) & cleared of miscellaneous tools, paint, trash, etc.  :)

Happy weekend!

Getting Trim...

I didn't have a chance to break out the camera this weekend, but wanted to share a quick Instagram shot of what we were up to yesterday.  Trimming out the master bedroom!  Woohoo!

You can't really tell in the picture, but we put up some pine paneling on the upper half of the window wall (& got it primed & painted), got the window trimmed out, put up 1x2 and 1x3's under the paneling on the window wall, got a lot of the base boards up, & even glued up a few of the 1/4"x2 slats for the board & batten.  Dad was the measurer/cutter/gluer, Grady was the "fitter", & yours truly was the sander/taper.

I can't wait to peel off the tape tonight & start getting everything caulked, primed, & painted.

I'm finally starting to see the light!  ;)

A Light in the Attic

You guys...I knew I was going to love the barn lights in the attic...I just didn't realize how much.

I ran home to let the dog out on my lunch break & snapped a few quick photos so I could drool over them at work this afternoon - on my allotted "rest" breaks of course!  :)  This was the first time I saw the lights in daylight as I worked until dark last night when my dad hung them, & left the house while it was still dark this morning.

Eek!

The shot on the left below is the most true to color - a perfect blue-green.

You probably noticed the gap between the top of the light & the ceiling.  The canopy that came with the light ended up being a tad smaller in diameter than the box in the ceiling.  Enter the object below.  Over lunch I dabbed on a quick coat of ceiling paint so we can put this in that in-between space tonight.  Problemo solved.

Can't you just picture white planks on the window wall below with board & batten trim underneath?  I can...& it is good.

For real - I feel like there should be little hearts floating around my head...so excited!  Isn't it amazing how the smallest of things can make you so happy?!  :)

This is what's up(stairs)...

Things are pretty insane around here.  Eli is busy coaching basketball - constantly - we hardly see him.  We're still recovering from the holidays.  Grady was sick all weekend with a fever, cough, & ear ache.  He also starts swimming lessons today...on one of the coldest days of the year.  In the middle of all of that, Dad & I are chipping away at the attic project...slowly!

We're "this" close to being done mudding the bedroom portion of the attic.  There are just a couple of small spots that need one final coat of mud & sanding.  Most of the surfaces in there have already been primed & painted BM Simply White, though!  I should be able to finish up painting the bedroom & closets tomorrow!

Here are a few quick Instagram (@reneestarzl) shots of what we've been up to...

Prime & paint on the walls - mud on the ceiling.

Painting barn lights in "Catalina Mist" by Krylon.

Ta-da!  (Cage is from Barn light Electric, barn light from Menards.)

Gathering some bedroom textile inspiration.

What's next?

• finishing up the last coat of mud
• prime & paint ceiling
• hang lights (eek!)
• hang paneling on window wall & paint
• repeat above bullet points in landing
• paint & install stair rails
• paint floor
• trim, trim, & more trim
• closet systems
• storage doors
• DECORATE!

Attic Update

Originally I had hoped to have the attic done (or nearly done) by Christmas - HA!  We seem to always underestimate the amount of time it will actually take to complete things.  I need to remember that we all have full-time jobs, & I have a part-time job.  When you only have a couple of hours a few nights a week, things tend to not happen very quickly!

Throw the holidays into the mix...plus a 4 year old that is very well-behaved (most of the time), but needs to be right in the middle of everything...

We did get the chimney leak under control until we can get up on the roof & check out the flashing.  We tore off all of the drywall around the chimney, dried it out & foamed & caulked around the chimney, then replaced all of the insulation & drywall.  Hopefully we won't have to worry about that anymore...

Now we're back to mudding & sanding the bedroom & closets.  I thought taping & mudding was an unfun job before...now, with all of these angles & corners, I'm realizing that it's right up there with stripping paint...almost intolerable.  :)

We should finish up mudding the bedroom & closets this week.  They "should" be ready to prime and paint next week.  Then we'll move all of the tools & furniture into the bedroom & focus on the landing. 

My old softball coach used to tell us, "Inch by inch it's a cinch...yard by yard it's hard".  He'd be happy that we're moving inch by inch.  Me, on the other hand, I wish we could take it by the yard!  I'm so impatient!

We're off to Omaha this weekend to celebrate Christmas with Eli's family.  I'm crossing my fingers that my awesome father will feel like doing some sanding while we're away.  Wouldn't it be nice to come home to a ready-to-paint room?!?  Dad???  :)

Attic Update: LEAK...

Dad & I have been steadily chipping away at taping & mudding the attic for the past week.  We were cruising right along last night when we came to this innocent looking wall.

Then, dad noticed that the floor was wet in that bottom left corner of the picture. 

After searching both sides of the wall for the source, we figure that it's coming in somewhere next to the chimney, then running down the sloped wall & out to the floor in that corner.  We've had some crazy cold weather & the temps were a little bit higher yesterday than they have been, so we're thinking somehow some condensation is getting in there.  It doesn't leak when it rains, so we're pretty sure it isn't a leak in the roof.  Anyway, we're going to have to tear out a couple of pieces of sheetrock & all of the insulation in that area to get to the bottom of it.  Lame.

But, because I'm all about finding silver linings...the good news it that it's the only spot in the attic that's having issues...we can keep taping & mudding the rest of the space!

Speaking of that space (& to end this post on a happy note) here are a couple more progress pictures.

I'm hoping to have it ready to prime & paint around Christmas.  Cross your fingers we can get this moisture issue figured out soon.  If any of you have ideas or suggestions, please let me know!