Painting Our Craft Room, Part Six

The call we've been waiting for finally came while I was fixing dinner.  Our carpet has arrived!  Unfortunately, we have to wait an entire week for it to be installed. 

It's just as well.  I had my knee injected last Thursday (Synvisc) and I'm not recovering as fast as I would like, so moving all that stuff back into the room would not be a good idea. 

Maybe Sarah and I can start going through some of our supplies ahead of time.  That is, if we can get through the mess and find them!

Painting Our Craft Room, Part Five

I spend a lot of time watching the DIY Network.  I have to admit that this painting project reminds me of the show Renovation Realities.  Maybe not as bad, but similar.  We started with a simple paint job, which has morphed into not only painting the walls, but also replacing the carpet and painting the window casings and baseboards. 

While I was out on Thursday night, Phil and Sarah took down the crafting counter that my dad built for us, and emptied the room of everything except supplies, tools, my desk, and the computer. 

Grace helped my dad install the counter on February 13, 2005.

When I got home, Sarah told me she'd been injured; somehow, she cut her foot - perhaps from wearing flip flops while working? - but fortunately, it wasn't deep enough to need stitches.  (By morning, though, it was bruised and very sore.)  And she's not the only one.  Here's what I did early in the project.

That's my arm you see.  It still hurts.  I have numerous other bruises on my arms, too.

Earlier this week, Phil and I went to pay for our new carpet.  We had questions about the price because it was about $100 higher than what we had calculated in the store, and we wanted to know why.  The salesman started by saying there was a $97 charge for installation . . . whoa!  It was supposed to be $39 because we chose a StainMaster carpet.  We stood there and discussed that with the salesman who helped us initially.  Well, it turns out we did NOT choose StainMaster.  In the end, we chose a different carpet, this time a StainMaster.  It's a better quality carpet, and we ended up paying $4.00 more than the price for the other one.  We're still mystified about the original mix up, though.

The good news is that Sarah and I finished painting the walls on Friday night.  I have taped off the windows and hope to paint those tomorrow, as well as taking the old carpet out so I can easily paint the baseboards.  Sometimes it seems this project will never end.

More Dishcloths

Still crocheting!

Painting Our Craft Room, Part Four

We didn't get much done in the craft room today.  It was one of those days when we were dealing with other difficult issues that demanded all our attention.  I was able to take some of the boxes from the great room out to the garage in an attempt to make more room for items like sewing machines which shouldn't be stored in the cold.  (We have our first frost warning tonight.)  I still can't believe all the supplies we have in the room that need to be packed up and relocated!  We need to move the 7' high bookcase out to the garage so we can access the rest of the items underneath the table, so we will try to do that this afternoon. 

Lowe's came to measure for the new carpet on Tuesday afternoon.  It will be another seven to ten days before it comes in, or so they say.  You never know about these things.

I had said that the room was 10' square.  Turns out it is 12' x 12'.  Now, of course, you understand how we could put so much stuff in it, right?

Stay tuned . . .

Check It Out!

Check out the cool project my daughter completed!  The Picture Effect

Painting Our Craft Room, Part Three

When we got home from church on Sunday night, Sarah had pizza ready for us, so I poured a glass of Pepsi One and grabbed a couple of slices of 'za.  When I headed back to the kitchen for just one more slice, I got into a conversation with my son-in-law, so painting was delayed until 9:00 or so.  Then I realized I still had more painter's tape to put up, and I spotted a nail pop and a ding in the wall that needed spackling.  Needless to say, it was about 9:45 before Sarah and I started to put paint on the wall.  Why is it that the first coat takes so much longer than the second?  It doesn't help that we don't think our walls were properly primed by the builder and they soak up paint like crazy.  In fact, we used probably 3/4 of a gallon for the first coat on those first two walls I showed you in this post.  The good news is that we managed to put two coats on the first two walls, putting us well ahead of schedule.  The next step is to clear out the rest of the room.  We have to determine what can safely remain in the garage for a couple of weeks, and what needs to stay in the house.  Just thinking about packing everything else up makes me very, very tired. 

Painting Our Craft Room, Part Two

Saturday's plan never came to fruition.  I couldn't go to sleep on Friday night, and that meant I overslept on Saturday, which set the tone for the entire day. 

This painting job is going from tolerable to intolerable.  Here's the next installment in the story.

We got our dog, Kelly, four or five months after we moved into our home.  Shortly thereafter, she scared Callie, one of our cats, who ran into the craft room.  The poor kitty was so frightened that she - how do I say this delicately? - used the carpet as a litter box.  We thought we cleaned it up well, although at certain times of the year, some of the smell would resurface.  So, now that the time to paint has come, we knew we had to deal with the situation once and for all.  We discovered that the bottom of the bookcase has a residual smell, so we will handle that, but more importantly, we started working on removing the rest of the odor from the carpet.  But it didn't work.  On to Plan B.  Pry off one of the baseboards so we can pull back the carpet and check the pad.  Oops.  The pad smells, too.  And it's stapled to the subfloor.  (Is that common?)  I start pulling staples . . . and the verdict is that the stain goes through to the subfloor.  So into the car we go, heading off to Lowe's.  On the way, Phil and I are discussing the pros and cons of wood laminate and carpet.  Can you guess which one we settled on?

---> Insert Jeopardy Theme Song here. <---   

Yup, the carpet.  It made more sense for the craft room, mainly to deaden the sound, since we often work late into the night, and sewing machines and sergers can make a lot of noise.  Because Lowe's is running a special on installation of Stainmaster carpet - $39 for the entire house (not that we need the whole house carpeted!) - we went with that brand, and chose a warm medium brown color.  I will miss the lovely burgundy carpet that we have now, but it made sense to choose something that is more neutral.  I keep resale in mind these days; we're not thinking of moving any time soon, but one never knows.

The salesman at the store was very helpful; I had spoken with him earlier in the week about wood laminate, which we would like to put in our powder room, back entry, kitchen, and dining area.  He is going to try to get someone out to the house to measure on Monday or Tuesday, and then order the carpet.  He is thinking installation could take place around October 21, which, unfortunately, is the day I'm having my knee injected again, so that's not an option.  Sarah and I will talk and try to figure out the best time frame, but I'm thinking the following week would be good.  We are going to end up putting a lot of things in the garage, since the entire room has to be emptied.  That was not in the original plan!

The good news is that I don't have to worry about getting paint on the carpet when I paint the baseboards, or the walls for that matter.  That's always a good thing.