Last month I posted a Ft. Clinton update in which we ended with having just run wire for electrical. A lot has happened in the past 5 weeks but not a lot has happened in the actual room. While we were waiting to pass electrical inspection, structural engineering inspection and insulation inspection we kept the painters busy.
We have lived in this house for 9 years and never updated the paint on the outside or inside of the house. Over the years I would think to myself that I would like to paint this or that but we never thought about it seriously enough to call painters out to the house to get estimates. Since we would be adding on, tearing things up and (here’s the key point) having painters come out anyway we decided this was a good time to get a lot done.
New paint in one part of the house is a slippery slope to new paint all over the house. It all started with the trim on the outside of the house and wanting to patch and fix several cracks throughout the house that have appeared over the years due to settling. The new addition would need new trim and rather than try and match the existing trim and eves I was ready to update all of the trim around the house. Well, new trim led to updating the faded dark stain around some of the windows which led to new paint on the garage, which led to new paint on the front door. See the slope I just slipped down?
Since the painters were going to be here anyway we wanted to take advantage of their presence and repaint some of the rooms inside. The living room, kitchen, entry way, hallways and ceilings all had what I call “builders beige”. The same blah color that all builders put into their houses so as not to scare off new home buyers. We were more than sick of it. Plus, we had several cracks and spots where the tape holding the drywall together was starting to crack and needed to be repaired. Once you fix a crack, patch it and retexture there is no such thing as painting just that one section. The entire wall (or room in our case) needed to be repainted. So, I had them paint all of the ceilings white (because I can’t stand it when the ceiling is the same color as the walls), the living room blue, the entryway a creamy tan, the master bedroom a deeper shade of green and the master bathroom cream and pale green. The timing of all of this worked out perfect because it was way too cold for the painters to work outside, so they mid as well be spending their time indoors.
When the weather improved all painting inside came to a halt so the painters could take advantage of the warmer temperatures and finish the outside. They needed to get stain on the new siding of our room addition asap. Choosing a stain color was almost as stressful as choosing a roof color. I was terrified that I would hate it once it was up and seeing as how they had to bring in a cherry picker to get to the tippy-top, I didn’t want to make a bad decision. Asking them to change it because I wasn’t happy with my color choice would be a huge expense, headache, hassle and embarrassing. Thankfully, it turned out well and nobody fell two and a half stories to the hard dirt below while stretched out from the edge of the lift basket with a paint brush in hand trying to reach all the corners of the lookout.
In the midst of all of this, insulation was installed. This was a welcomed sight since a brisk arctic breeze had been wafting down the stairwell from the new room during our cold spell. Thankfully Oklahoma has had a pretty mild winter…expect when it’s in the 20’s and your house is open to the attic.
Once the outside paint was complete, the painters made their way back inside to finish the master bedroom and bathroom. Currently, my living room and kitchen are mostly back in order and I’m slowly adding art to the walls. I’m so happy with the new paint. My bedroom is my calming, happy place and just walking in and seeing the deep green soothes any anxiety I may have been feeling that day.
Day 56
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Day 70
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Day 78
These pictures really don’t do the color justice. The cream in the bathroom is so soothing and compliments the light green so well. When I snapped the pic of the bathroom the paint was still a little fresh so the mirrors had not been put back yet (just in case you were wondering if we were vampires). Lighting is everything and can make or break a home photo and good lighting to ensure beautiful photos is something I do not have. It looks beautiful in person, trust me. It also wouldn’t hurt if I cleared away some of the junk and kid stuff off the counters. This isn’t HGTV, people.
Click here to keep going and see more updates including our spiral staircase.If you interested in updates more often you can find my on Instagram by searching hashtag #ftclinton
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