It's Just Never That Easy

If you have or have had young children around, you are probably familiar with the book by Laura Joffe Numeroff, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. For those of you not familiar with the book, if you give the mouse a cookie, then he is going to want some milk. Then he will want a straw. And it continues on and on...

Sometimes home renovation is like that.

We had HVAC installed in the house. The upstairs unit needed to go in the attic. But there was no attic access. After discussing and pondering where to put the attic access, it was decided it would go in the room I use as a studio. All my "stuff" had to be moved out so a large hole could be cut in the ceiling so we could install the attic ladder.

Hole to the attic.

Attic ladder installed and folded into attic.

Well, since everything is moved out any way, how about painting the room. Great idea! But before we can paint, we have to prep. The paint on the woodwork was flaking off in places so it needed to be sanded. The sanding didn't really remove the paint so the woodwork had to be scraped, then sanded. Then the woodwork had to be primed before painting.

Woodwork before scraping and sanding.
Woodwork ready to prime.

Since the walls were painted a dark periwinkle (These photos make the walls look MUCH lighter.) and the new color is a soft yellow, the walls had to be primed. But we only got one gallon of primer, (I told my husband it would take more!) so a trip to the paint store was required halfway through that task.

Walls and woodwork primed and ready for paint.

The next step was to paint the ceiling. Who would have known that the ceiling in this room had never been painted? It was raw, very dirty plaster and sucked up the paint. One gallon of paint couldn't be stretched far enough. Since it was Sunday, painting the rest of the ceiling would have to wait until the paint store opened on Monday.

Not quite enough paint for the ceiling.

As I write this, the ceiling has been given a second coat of paint. The wall color has been cut in around the trim.

By end of the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, the young boy who has been taking care of the mouse's wants is exhausted. I hope by the time this room is completed, I still have energy to enjoy it.