The Basement Before and After

I’ll do a separate post about the long, arduous process. There was a lot involved. The basement deserves two posts. At least two posts. Here’s one.

The main difference being that I turned the lights on. And that there were lights that could be turned on. And a ceiling. The before photo does a poor job of showing that there was, in fact, no ceiling.

Here’s the other view:

At least this side of the room makes the ceiling situation more obvious. The fluorescent fixtures didn’t totally work. Occasionally they would work, though usually only one at a time. They were vexing, then they were eliminated. Let that be a warning to future light fixtures.

And, yes, I know there’s still blue tape on the window.

More details in another post probably.

bkd

Latex Paint Dripping on a Human Face — Forever

Painting has taken a long time. It will continue to take a long time.

I’d never done ceilings before. It turns out a lot of paint falls onto your face, some gets in your eyes, and especially when you’re trying to do it in low light, it’s pretty hard to see what areas you’ve coated twice and which you haven’t. (Having now lived with the ceilings a few days, however, it worked out fine.) I used a pole

This is what the living room ceiling looked like when I moved in:

Look at the ceiling. It’s the same color as the walls: olive drab (or thereabouts). My agent said that the unfortunate part of painting the ceiling the same color as the walls is that it makes the person inside feel like he’s wrapped up in a ball. That said, looking back at this photo, the house didn’t look all that bad and I’m confused as to why I’ve torn it up and made it as unlivable as I have.

Not really, I remember why. It’s been interesting to observe as work has progressed and the “worst smelling room in the house” title has gone to progressively better-smelling rooms. Currently the stairway is winning (losing?). It smells like dog sweat. And living inside a ball is aesthetically odd. And the photo doesn’t show the five decades of grime on the trim. Or show the odd stains on the walls. Or imply how sticky those surfaces are.

Then here it is after having been painted with Behr Ceiling Paint (very flat, very white):

Hooray: I have a normal-person ceiling now!

The light spot is from light coming through the window.

Great, then. I’ve got painted ceilings in the living room, hallway, and “the good bedroom”. I mean, in real-time I have more than that, but I’ll get to that, I guess. I mean, unless you’re watching fishing on TV, I have to imagine you’re following my painting exploits. Ceilings -> Walls -> Trim.

And remember that it is forever.

bkd