Sunday, August 3, 2008

No, we haven't given up

The bulk of the wallpaper may have come down without much of a fight, but the glue is a different story. We squirted, rubbed and sanded the stubborn remaining glue. We spackled the holes and caulked the gaps. We sanded more glue spots after the remover stuff had a chance to soak in.
We continued to sand the stubborn spots again. As we sanded the molding we found some rough stuff, like a staple lying on its side painted onto the molding. There were pieces of masking tape under the last layer of paint.
We chipped away at the glue with putty knifes and pulled off whole pieces of glue that could be measured. We put up the blue painter's tape on the ceiling and floor. Susan had recommended the 2 inch size and we are glad she did.
Finally we prayed that we got the worst of it and figured what was left wasn't coming down even with threat of a nuclear explosion. It was Saturday July 12 eight o'clock in the evening when we started putting up the primer.We went to bed that night with whiter walls, which was a relief. Another coat of primer was needed but at the end of day we didn't want the CD tower of up-beat music to grow any higher than it was.
"So, why the long pause in updates" you are surely asking yourself. Well, Nancy had to leave on July 13 for 3 weeks of school in Boone. The county where she works received a 3 year federal grant for languages and part of it included professional development during the summer. In the morning, she spoke only French and learned about the media in France (the Frenchies are pictured below). During the afternoon, they joined the Spanish and Germans to learn about curriculum and assessment. Hours in the library, icky cafeteria food for dinner (lunch was catered), and sleepless nights of homework consummed the rest of the day. Almost everyone went home over the weekend to spend time with family. Needless to say, the bedroom project was put on hold while Nancy worked on curriculum maps and new assessment techniques.
Meanwhile at home, Jason put up the second layer of primer, entertained the cats, and keep things going at home.

The weekend of July 26 was good because Nancy didn't have too much homework. So, we went out and bought our paint!!
Eager to continue our project, we put up our first layer of Swiss Coffee. No, we are not just painting it an off white. As you can guess from the several cans above, there is more color to come. Nancy is now home and the goal is to finish the painting before the teacher workdays start: August 19. Stay tuned for updates!




1 comment:

Cindy said...

I can't wait to see pictures of what it looks like when it's done. That's going to be great!

When we get to El Paso, I think we may hire you to come out and assist with the house painting process. :)