Rain and home improvement
Rain, rain stay today
What to do on a rainy day? The sky has opened its eyes and is crying down upon us. Mother Nature is having a temper tantrum by screaming through thunder and throwing us cats and dogs! I know! Do some home improvement... paint the kitchen cupboards. Paint the trim around the house. Pull out the old windows and make them look new again.
Home improvement is often at the top of everyone's list. Painting, scraping, trimming, more painting! It seems, after living in my home now for 7 years, it is time to give it a face lift once again.
My home is the same age that I am; 47. We were both born in 1961. I must say that the home has held up physically a bit better than I but with a little work, we both can look new again.
I decided to tackle the dining room area first. I originally painted the top portion of the wall a rose color; only to be called a great Pepto Bismol color from my son at the time so I painted the bottom portion a reddish burgundy and separated the two sections with a lovely floral border. It resembles a sitting parlor in a Victorian home. Add some pictures and some stenciling on the wall and viola! instant pretty. I've long wanted to paint the trim and the rotting windows however. Budget keeps me from spending my children's college money on new windows for this house. Nothing that plastic over the windows in winter can't solve. This summer, I chose a lovely green sage color for the window and the upper and lower molding trim pieces. It started out great until I worked on the windows.
You see, I have windows that have the original, individual little panes of glass separated by wood pieces. Many of these pieces are rotting and the wood putty that surrounds the wood is chipping off. I am not a perfectionist. I chipped the cracking putty off and filled it in with a silicone instead, to the horror and disdain of my partner. He just commented that it is a good thing we don't do building projects together because he'd end up killing me in the process. Then he walked out of the room to put himself out of his misery.
I don't believe in taping ahead of time either. I just paint and fix my errors afterward. Another thing that makes him want to jump off of a bridge. However, I boasted a prior home improvement I had done with the kitchen floor. Put down peel and stick flooring with just a ruler and a pair of scissors. It has looked great for 6 years now and is still going strong!
After I painted 1/2 the trim and was in the process of scraping the paint off of the window panes, I began to get upset. This was taking forever. After the fourth window, I was a bit pissed and didn't want to work in the dining room any longer. So my partner took over and I must say, his taping and careful painting allowed him to do twice as much as I had originally done. Still, I won't change my ways!
On to the kitchen and repainting the cupboard doors. I chose an antique gold color to match the vintage paper and border with Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty. Prior to that, I had used a cheap, on sale yellow that was much too bright and showed too many scratches and food stains left by my children. This gold is gorgeous and I'm happy with it. Happy until my partner showed me all of the drip marks that had dried on the cupboards and between them because I was probably rushing to get it done. I lied and said that they had been there before I painted and I just painted over them. Men!
Now, on to the rotting windows in the kitchen. Not as difficult to scrape, prime and paint as I thought. Maybe I'm becoming a pro. I still used my silicone seal instead of re-puttying like he thinks I should. The kitchen now looks almost new!
I have more painting ventures to come this summer. It's a way to keep my mind busy, get in a bit of shape and not eat; which in turn helps my dieting. I hope when the summer is over, my house and I will both look brand new.
