A Decent Rest Area on the First Big Road Headed in the General Direction of the Promised Land

Boy, it feels like the actual Promised Land to me.  This morning, as I sit wearily at my computer, I’m not sure which feels better, the clean look of the completed ceiling or the fact that I don’t have to raise my arms to paint it any longer? 

I’m beat.  At 4:40 this morning, while again laying on my back atop the refrigerator, I took my final brush strokes on the 360-ish square foot ceiling.  I spent 20 more minutes pulling down the last of the plastic and cleaning up so Kris and Hadley would see a nice, normal kitchen when they got up 60 minutes later.  I’m hungry and dying for a cup of tea, but my laptop pinned me down in a comfy chair before satisfying either of those needs.  Now they appear impossible to achieve. 

My back is sore from the flare-ups of what I have dubbed my painter’s muscle.  It is in the area of the right shoulder blade.  It would begin to announce itself after a couple of hours of painting.  It felt like the flames that sizzle out of a grill after you mash down a juicy hamburger with a spatula, which, incidentally, you should never do if you like quality grilled hamburgers.  I would get the flame sensation followed by the feeling that the muscle was tearing off of whatever bones nature first set it upon.  I can understand it when I’m raising my right arm up to paint, but it would happen when reaching down into the paint can as well.  And, as I’m largely ambidextrous, I would expect its symmetrical compatriot to feel the burn as well, but no.  When I would deftly switch to my left hand, it would be the same right-side muscle that would hurt.  Strange.

All of it came to an end just before the dreary sunrise this morning.  That said, I still have to install some lights, clean the floor a bit and probably add a second coat to some select areas.  Overall, it looks good, but not everywhere.  Or am I straying too close to obsessive again?  Kris said it probably didn’t need a second coat, but that was after thinking it may need one.  I think she may be telling a Cool Moon off-white lie after seeing how long and exhausting that the process was.  A white lie out of pity.  She’s very nice.

Now I don’t want to give you the impression that it took forever to do this project.  I had planned on five long days of work.  After last week's Monday-through-Friday effort, it wasn’t complete, but I took the whole weekend off.  Finishing before I went to bed means I was only one day over the estimate.  And yesterday was long, but I didn’t get started until after lunch and I did take time off to make dinner and hang out with Kris, watching hilarious episodes of Top Gear and some Discovery Health.  Besides, I take lots of breaks.  Others might call those breaks losses of focus.

The open wooden shelving no longer gets lost in the wooden ceiling.  This is from the kitchen looking into the dining area.  We have gone from camp to cottage, an improvement.

Hey, for all of you who follow my ramblings just for my painting tips (which is absolutely none of you), you’ll be glad to hear that I found a new little edging brush that worked great.

Now, I have to tell you, I am pretty good at cutting in the straight edges where walls meet trim and ceilings, etc.  I’ve had a lot of practice.  I love my 2½-inch angled edge brush.  It can become an extension of my arm, which is great except when I have had way too much coffee.  On those nights, I don’t make straight lines.  I despise the blue painter’s tape.  I now am now not a fan of the green frog tape either.  I don’t find they are worth my time and effort.  I can get quality results more quickly with a steady hand, some focus, the right breathing and a rag for the stray brush marks.  Too often, I’ve pulled that tape off only to find it hasn’t held back paint like it said it would.

The other day, Kris pushed me into buying the Wooster Shortcut, a little 2-inch angled brush with a flexible rubber handle that is only a few inches long.  That would be its “unique Shergrip handle,” which is apparently so unique, it cannot be spelled correctly.  It does sit comfortably in my hand the same way I would hold my full-handled edge brush.  The lack of that handle swinging around opposite of the business end came in handy in tight spots while painting grooves in the beadboard where it meets the walls and window trims.  Shortcut gets big points for being light on its feet. 

The trade-off is when it hits the long, straight lines, like a normal wall and ceiling intersection.  Without a normal handle, it cashes in stability for that maneuverability.  The Shortcut just can’t hold a straight line.  That said, it has earned its way into my arsenal.  In the coming years, we are planning to paint most of the rooms in the house to freshen them up and make the color palette our own (read Kris’, as I don’t really have a color palette, I just put it on the walls). 

For those of you wondering, the rest of the ceiling was painted with a 2-inch brush, the same width as each of the boards.  It was also small enough to get into the grooves.  I began priming with a 3-inch brush, but it was too big both on the wood and in between.  That was slow and frustrating.

My crew.  The Shortcut is in the middle.  It bumped the 3-inch edger below it from the final coat.  The 2-inch above handled paint duties while the black handle below killed itself on priming.  In the can are the failed 3-inch straight and my favorite 2 1/2-inch edger, both helped with priming.

So, what’s next?  I mentioned there are a few more things to wrap up before I cross kitchen ceiling off the master project list.  Later today, I think I’ll grab some rocks from one of my three secret locations.  I’ll discuss the sourcing of rock soon.  It is the time of month when I need to begin doing my actual work.  In fact, I’m pretty sure that as I was ambling into bed and the sun was rising on the day, it was setting on Project Week:  September.  Yes, fans, the second installment of projecty-goodness has come and gone.  Fear not, October will be here before you know it.

One light fixture returns to duty.  You can't tell from the photo, but those grooves in between the beadboard are at least 10 inches deep and really hard to get a brush into.  Really.

Between now and then, I think there will be a little more action than last month.  I am going to work on molds for the counters tomorrow morning.  And don’t forget the upcoming Dry Stone Wall clinic! 

Today is going to be filled with ibuprofen, an exhaustion-fueled lack of focus and a return to work, reading my corporate news articles on this very laptop.  And how do you think that will go? 

That’s what I was thinking, too.  Check out the priming photos in the previous post and be well.

dave