First Round of Primer

I've gotten out of the habit of making frequent posts, because things happened so slowly with Woody. But a lot has happened in the last week.

For example, before Christmas, these were the parlour pocket doors:

And now:

Yeah. They haven't even really gotten going on priming downstairs yet because the general contractor was fixing a few things there.

And most striking, the front stairs. Before:

And now:

Want the exciting shot?

That does beat the pink, doesn't it?

Another interesting contrast is the upstairs front hall:

And now:

Some of that is different times of day. Most of it is that having a layer of white paint over everything really brightens the place up.

The house has still got a hanging cloud of fine dust all over the place. We went through today to take some photos and see the work, and both ended up coughing from it.

You can actually see it in this photo because the sun was low and it lit the cloud up.

Other than just seeing things get done, our big excitement last week was getting our friend Diane to help us move the loom out of the elevator. Did I ever mention the loom in the elevator? Well, there was one, a large floor loom I bought from a friend's mother, which we had crammed in the elevator pending Woody finishing the back bedroom where I planned to put it, so of course it's been sitting there for a good long time cooling its heels. If looms have heels.

Anyway, Diane came up and helped us lever the loom out of the elevator, turn it on end so it would actually fit in the elevator rather than hanging out just barely enough to make it impossible to operate, and then gently lower it onto the floor of the bay window bedroom.

We covered it with a canvas tarp, then the painters covered it in plastic, and you can just see it lurking behind the doors there. That's how they hold doors so they can be painted with a sprayer, by the way, which is much easier and faster and gives you a really smooth finish.

A few other notes:

You may note above that the windows look like they have almost no protection. In fact the painters used a fancy clear masking that brushes on clear and then just peels off. I've never used the stuff, myself, and I've never known a painter who used it, but it's very impressive. And I bet it goes on faster and does a better just than tape and plastic.

Nobody has painted the inside of the elevator, even though we moved the loom for them. OK, that sounds way whinier than I intended it to, but when I walk through with the painters next time, I will show them how to call the elevator to a floor so they can paint the doors.

Also, this guard rail looks great, now. So the painters have pretty much finished the first layer of primer upstairs, are making touchups and filling scratches and weird holes, and I think they will blow through all of the upstairs before they move to the downstairs. There's a lot to go, but they're making real progress. Pretty pleased with this painter, all things said.

posted by ayse on 12/30/18