Bed, Bed, Oh Heavenly Bed.....

After a month of painting, Rick and I will finally be able to sleep in our own house, in our own bed, this weekend. I can't tell you how excited we are about this. (We have weathered a 30+ degree hot spell, simmering in the extreme heat at my ma-in-law's while our wonderful new air-conditioned home was inhabitable because of the ongoing painting. However, without her kindness, we would be facing an enormous hotel bill, so we are eternally grateful.)

We knew that making the decision to paint every square inch of a three-story, four bedroom, four bathroom house meant a LOT of painting. But yesterday, I decided to start counting and listing everything that got painted or has to be painted and seriously - I can't count that high.

I think that two weeks of the four have been spent prepping. Taping, filling nail holes, caulking and then caulking and touching up the trim after the first coat - and the second.  One of these days, I will count the amount of trim, just to really appreciate the job done.

I can't say enough good things about our painter. He is friendly, obsessive about the job he is doing, and the kind of person you feel good about having in your home.

Yesterday when he started prepping the kitchen and right hand side of the main floor family room, I teased him about the exercise just being "fort building for painters" and he freely admitted to enjoying putting up plastic walls and temporary beams.

When I showed the pictures to our son this morning, he said the house looks like a set for Dexter.. Yikes, I was saying ET, but Dexter is really a scary thought.

So, not only does he put plastic walls up and cover all the cabinetry and separate the space where he will be spraying, he also covers the entire floor in the area with brown paper. Meticulous or just super smart about a quick clean up.

So today he is spraying the wood trim on the big sliding door to the deck, the large window in the family room and the smaller window over the kitchen sink. All the wood trim is going from wood to white - hence the incredible amount of prep. But after this - and once the remaining walls are rolled, we can start to take furniture out from the large plastic-covered structures in the centre of each room and place it where it belongs.  We will finally get to see how we like our furniture and art work in our new home.

I wouldn't advise the feint of heart taking on a job like this - either painter or paintee - but the results are definitely worth it. I will attempt to share some before and after shots in my next post. Because this truly is a stunning makeover.

New Address. Same Boxes.

Well, we have arrived in Peterborough and have been camping out at Rick's mom's while our place is being painted top to bottom. Hence many of the same boxes we packed will have to wait to be unpacked.

Making the decision to paint out all trim should never be taken lightly. It is a HUGE job. Every window, every door, every crown moulding, every floor trim piece. And when you go from wood grain to white, every nail hole needs to be filled, along with every little gap.

Luckily we have an amazing painter who is not happy with less than perfection. And with only a light coat on some trim and a second on others, we can already see that this was indeed the right decision.

We have not had to purchase much for this house, since we were pretty much doing a lateral move, but we have acquired an outside deck set that is pretty amazing. As the deck is on the small size, we have opted for a higher (counter height) narrower table, and that is where I am perched right now writing this post.

I was very thankful to leave the boxes behind for four days while I taught a Wide class at Loyalist College in Belleville. Ten amazing students made the break from moving madness a much-needed respite and I didn't think about any of it until I came back.

I love open classes, because everyone's project is so different, and there are so many "lessons in the moment" that present themselves. Everyone got a good start on their project - and a few people got started on more than one. Good to take advantage of a teacher while you have one, right?

Here is the class picture that was taken outside our room. As you can see, I had two men in this class, which is a first for me. They were both delightful additions to the usually all-female crowd.

Will try to be more frequent in my posts once we are settled. Gotta scoot - the lawn guys are coming into my outdoor office lol.