March 4, 2013

Over the past week, work focused on painting the trim, including the door.

The trim included the baseboards, windows and crown moulding.
Most schools of thought suggest painting the walls first and then the moulding.
I disagree, and I find painting the moulding first yields better results.

With the door jamb painted, you can't tell the door used to hang the other way.

Using a tripod-mounted laser level, I marked the height of the chair rail with painters tape.

The painters tape "dots" will serve as a reference for the chair rail once the wall is painted.

Color is finally going up on the walls. First, a medium blue called "Americana."

After cutting in the blue, I cut in the lower color...a yellowish beige called "Wild Honey."

The cut-in is complete, and allowed to dry.

The walls are ready to be rolled.

Working from the top, down, the blue goes up first.

The blue will be allowed to dry overnight before the yellow is rolled.

Using the tape marks as a reference, I re-shoot the laser line as a reference for painting the lower color.

The walls are painted.

The door is re-hung.

The former strike plate is no longer visible on the door jamb.

The room is cleaned up and vacuumed to prepare for the carpet install.

But first, I primed and painted the moulding for the chair rail. These boards are an extruded plastic
material which should hold up better than wood to the nicks and wear of a child's bedroom.
The moulding is also 90% recycled plastic content, making it a greener solution.

The carpet is removed. I decided to re-use the carpet pad and tackless strips from the previous carpet.
They were in great shape, and only required a couple of patches, which I made from a scrap I had.

One patch was near the closet, where the previous owners had cut for a bypass door guide.
I have to reinstall one, but I'll probably do it in a way that doesn't destroy the carpet.

A strip of carpet is left for the installers to create a new seam.

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