Every now and then there's a rough patch...

So here are the before pictures of the two walls we decided to repaint.  As you can tell, there were quite a few holes from the installment of the new grounded circuit last month. It's tough when you don't have an attic or basement!

The patch jobs ended up looking...okay.
I've found that the knockdown texture is a difficult skill to master, particularly using the aerosol cans and doing small areas.  The first patch I did was actually the best looking patch because the knockdown spray was coming out very consistently at that point in the can.  The upper ones were a little thick, and the ones in the study were just a mess.  I'm still thinking about going back at some point and re-texturing, but mandy wanted to start actually living in these rooms so I'll have to postpone that idea.

Either way, the actual painting was rather fun (even muji wanted a part of it!).

We made some mistakes, but I think overall it looks quite nice.  We'll have to post some pictures when it's ready.  In the meantime, here's a picture of the wall mid-paint, and the new fashion from San Diego, painter's blue as worn by Mandy.

Multi-Tasking

I think I've already got too many projects going on...

Yesterday, I was doing all of these simultaneously:
1. Making beef jerky (granted, I just needed to remember to turn the dehydrator off)
2. Sealing the second bathroom granite
3. Texturing the study wall where the drywall patch-jobs were
4. Sanding our coffee table to refinish it

Although it's kind of fun to have multiple things going on (i'm a little ADD I think), nothing's worse than realizing halfway through sanding the coffee table that you forgot to knockdown the texture on the wall that you applied over an hour ago and will now be nearly dried.

But it's ok. Thankfully the spots are far enough up the wall that they're out of our sight line. Just remember not to invite people over 7ft to dinner.

The biggest roadblock we encountered with fixing the drywall patches turned out not to be the drywall, but the paint. The contractors had left several containers of leftover pain with us, and we thought we had the color they had used for the interior, but it turns out we were wrong. Thankfully I did a test spot in an inconspicuous corner and found out it was at least a shade or two darker. But this did allow us to go back to Lowes to look for a NEW paint color. (I'm surprised they don't know us there by name yet!) While I pondered sealants and lacquer for the coffeetable, Mandy picked a beautiful cocoa brown for the wall that goes quite nicely with the grey-green that is the other walls and brings out the highlights of the pergo floor. It's actually a color from the National Trust for Historic Preservation selection "Coral Gable Biltmore Mediterranean Mocha".

Now we just have the following to do to finish our walls:
1. Finish texturing patches in study.
2. Tape off walls in study and second bedroom (done!)
3. Prime patches in study.
4. Paint!

I think I may have time to prime tonight since Mandy will be working and then tomorrow evening we can have a little painting party! Good thing we have two rollers and a brush.

And don't worry mom, I'll take pictures of my patches before we repaint so you can see how surprisingly nice they look.