Hurrah! The second coat of paint is now drying on the chimneys in the upstairs hall. Here they are when the paint was still drying on the first coat:
I tried to paint the north bedroom too, but it was just way too much. I used up the last of the paint in the can on a few square meters, but there was no way I had the stamina to do the full room. That will just have to wait until another visit. Baby steps…
By the way, the white on the floor next to the chimney on the left is not spilled paint. It’s some kind of material used to level the wood floor for the vinyl flooring and underlayment that I removed. It looks like it can be sanded off fairly easily.
This summer has been incredibly frustrating. Just when I felt I was getting back on track and starting to get things done at the famlet, I came down with covid, and while it was a relatively mild case (I’m double vaccinated and boosted), it knocked me out, and then once it was over my chronic pain and fatigue (polymyalgia rheumatica) surged, which put me in bed for almost a week.
I couldn’t stand the thought of not finishing the painting in the upstairs hall, though, so in the past couple of days I decided to just push through and do the best I could. I put a third coat on last night and pulled off the painter’s tape this morning. It’s a pretty sloppy job, if I’m honest, but it was the best I could do with limited mobility, and actually not any sloppier than the original red paint. Here are some snaps, starting with the stairs:
It’s so much brighter and cleaner looking. Here’s a shot of the trim in the ridiculously low-ceilinged “hall”:
I kind of regret not painting the top of the banister white too. I may do that at some later point, but to be honest I’m completely reliant on the banister to get up and down the stairs because of the reduced mobility, and I couldn’t risk not being able to get to the bathroom while paint was drying.
Finally, here’s the functional part of the hall, with the doors to the bathroom (left) and north bedroom (right):
Next up is the two chimneys in the hall (the other one is just off camera to the left). As you can see, I have already spackled the one on the right. I’ll be painting them in a lower gloss version of the same paint, which is what I used on the walls in the south bedroom. Secretly I hope that I can paint the walls and floors of the north bedroom too, thought that may be too much. This is my last full week at the farmlet this summer, so it would be so great to have all the painting done.
I’ve been at the farmlet for about three weeks and it’s only now that I’m rested enough to start doing a few small projects. Over the past three days I have been prepping the trim in the upper hall and the stair risers for paint. It was all the same deep red as the downstairs hall, with a little bit of an older blue color a few places.
Here are the risers prepped for painting:
Strangely, the chimney looks green on my screen, but it’s actually a bluish gray. Eventually it (and another one on the other side of the hall) will be painted the same egg white color as the rest of the trim. But first I need to spackle a bunch of rough spots on the surface.
And here’s the main part of the hall:
I’ve been thinking a lot about what to do with that space between the window and the wall bump-out. It’s about 63x170cm, and if the ceiling weren’t so low it would be perfect for a window seat/reading nook, with cushions and storage under. It would have to be pretty low, however, to be a useable spot for sitting. It might work as a cosy bed for a small child, but it doesn’t seem very likely that I will have a need for that any time in the near future. I also kind of like the empty space as it is and I have many other more pressing uses for my money, so for the time being I just want to get the painting done.
Renovation Tangent 