It's A Home Run!

Big Ed is finally retired! After moving to Washington, Ed continued to commute to California every week for work. Now, three years, nine months and two days later, he is home and able to work on his project as much as he likes. He's out there cutting tile as we speak..er..type.


I did manage to sneak in a day or two of leisure before he threw himself wholeheartedly into the job though. Ed's dad, Ed Sr. and his wife Elaine came up for several days and we had a wonderful, relaxing visit. Ed Jr couldn't help himself and snuck off once in a while to play with his tools, install the bathtub and get ready to paint. Before company left, we took in a dinner cruise on the Portland Spirit stern wheeler, out of Cascade Locks. If you ever get the opportunity to take this dinner cruise, do it. It's a beautiful view of the river at sunset.



Company left Saturday and Sunday after church we were rolling paint over primer. The entire apartment took a nice coat of Sherwin Williams Summer White, then the living area was given a glaze coat of Valspar Cliveden Leather which was a 6 to 1 mix, glaze to paint. Once the base coat of Summer White was dry, using a brush, I applied the colored glaze in a criss-cross pattern. Then I ragged and rolled the glaze with dry pieces of old t-shirt, and feathered the edges of each section with a small dry chip brush. It took forever and my right arm feels like it's been filled with lead.





But between the glaze color and the drywall texture, the walls look like old world plaster. And the Summer White which has a tan/yellow tint, now looks white. It took two days to do the living room and kitchen.


The bedroom and bathroom already have the base coat of Summer White, but will get a different color glaze. The bedroom will be Valspar Lobby Yellow, and the bathroom will be Valspar Linen Napkin. And of course, the beauty of paint is that if you don't like it, you can just get another color!



As I mentioned, Ed is already working on tile. Doesn't that sound easy? Did I mention the cement backer board? Did you remember there are no stairs? I have no idea how much a piece of Durock weighs, but I can guarantee that they are heavier than a can of paint! So he hauled the Durrock up the ladder and over the balcony. The shower, bathroom floor, front entryway and two front closets will all be tiled.
I go to town tomorrow with a huge list of stuff Ed needs to finish installing the electrical fixtures...a double poled switch, whatever the heck that is..
those poor guys at the hardware store see me coming and hide! Friday Scott the Cabinet Guy comes to measure for kitchen cabinets.
Think we can get done before winter?

Color My World

Last Monday, the finish coat went on the sheetrock, and we are ready for primer and paint. The finish coat upstairs is a Venetian plaster finish, which is lighter and a little more complicated than a skip trowel finish. It should trap and reflect light, and at this point the plan is to put on a base color and then a glaze coat over that.

So down to the paint store I went. Used to be, you'd buy a quart of the color you thought you wanted, take it home, slap some on the wall and it would be too dark, or too light and you'd go buy something else. Now you can buy several little cans for about $3.00 each and go home and toss paint everywhere! To create a Venetian plaster look I will paint the walls a base color, then mix the contrast color 5 to 1 with glaze, to just barely tint the glaze, then sponge and wipe the glaze with dry rags.

The plan is to paint the living areas a tan/toast color and the bedroom a very soft yellow.I decided to try different color combinations of base coat and glaze before painting half a wall the wrong color, so I made a color board. I brought home 6 little cans and went to work. These are Valspar colors. The good news is..it showed me what I didn't want. The bad news is, I didn't hit on any combinations that just wowed me. The light yellow is a good base, as is the medium tan, but I'm not happy with the contrast. Surely it isn't my technique!

I'm still working on trying color combinations and reading about the application technique, so if anyone has any advise please leave a comment.

We began painting the downstairs garage Sunday. We got it all primed, then painted with Sherwin-Williams Summer White. Looks good!

See that stove? That is my pride and joy.. a Magic Chef 1000 circa 1920s , six burner, two ovens and it's going in the new house.

Cute Factor: 11

I took off to visit family for a few days and Ed stayed home and worked worked worked. Now that the sheetrock is all up Ed corralled a few kind neighbors, Dennis and Mike, and put the last window in. He also finished the last shingles on the front. You know, the really high ones that have to be done off a ladder, each one measured and cut.

He also finished making the last of the outlooks and one or two honey-do projects for me. Thank you Ed!

The sheetrock crew from Redmill Drywall out of Vancouver finished taping and mudding the sheetrock tape, and the finish crew will come in today and complete the job. Very exciting! The whole place looks, sounds and feels totally different!

I picked up primer on my way home from the airport yesterday, and as soon as the finish coat is dry, we can start priming and painting the walls. Things are picking up speed.

Sidebar: On the cute factor scale, these little guys are about an 11. They come through the yard with Mom on a regular basis. They ignore all the construction noise..go figure.l