Week ending 8/27/10

On Saturday, I put up the first three paint samples in the kitchen and YUCK! The first one was bad, and each of the other two got progressively worse. I finished too late in the day to go back to the paint store, so Monday it is.

Here are a couple of shots of the paint. It might not look so bad on your monitor, but trust me it was bad!






Monday I headed back to the paint store, but still didn't get it right.

On Friday, I went back to the paint store and bought a quart of the color on the middle of the 3-color paint sample chip that has our current color as the lightest and a color I like as the darkest. The dark color is too dark so I'm hoping the middle color works.

That's 4 trips to the paint store already and I haven't settled on the first color yet. Yikes.

Week ending 8/20/10

On Saturday, we installed the second bag of stone, which is a different color than the first. It's way better in color, but more expensive. We wanted to try the first color because it's cheaper, but after several weeks I still didn't like the color. It's too blue, and we have no blue in our outdoor color scheme.



On Monday, I had an appointment cancel on me, so I decided to set an internal deadline for myself to get the paint picked out. I took a few hours doing research, and actually reached a decision! I took the approach that the paint decision needed to be good, but not perfect because that would get us a good enough paint. In home improvement, it's important to know the stakes before deciding how much time to invest in making a decision because you can invest a lot of time or just randomly pick something. We're going with Benjamin Moore brand, Natura line. It's a bit more expensive than their regular paint, but dries fast and doesn't emit toxic fumes.

I called our local paint store twice and asked if they had samples of this paint in 2 oz jars and they said yes so I rearranged my day and went to the store to pick them up only to find they don't carry samples of that paint.

I went home to figure out what to do and after doing some research found out that the company doesn't make samples of Natura and there are just one type of Benjamin Moore samplets. I hate the incompetence that runs rampant in home improvement.

Decided it was too much to pick out paint colors for all 6 areas plus ceilings, so I started with kitchen. I went to paint store on Friday and narrowed the wall choice to 3 which took 40 minutes.

Week ending 8/13/10

On Sunday, we did a planning session on the flooring and painting, starting with a scratch test on the linoleum. Unfortunately, or fortunately, it didn't pass! We did really light scratches with a key and they showed, and I was even able to scratch it with my fingernail. Imagine an 80 pound dog and a 45 pound dog wrestling on that! It's unfortunate because we both really liked the linoleum, but it's fortunate because we were glad to find out now especially since the linoleum is twice as much as the laminate. The laminate is also nice because I can buy it at Costco at a great price and they sell matching accessories like baseboard molding and thresholds. We've had the exact laminate we're going to buy laid down in a high-traffic area of the house for weeks not and it's held up well to dog and human foot traffic, dog drool and dog wrestling.

We also laid out a strategy to get the place painted, which already has me stressed out. First we are going to pick the paint. I want to dictate to the painter what to use so we don't end up with some cheap brand he can get a deal on. I also want to make sure it scores high on both scrubability and wipeability tests. Even though I much prefer a flat finish, we'll probably do something with a little gloss so it's more wipeable. It's all about the dogs ya know!

Once we've picked the paint we'll start interviewing contractors. We will probably hire a someone with a wide skill set since there is so much damage to be fixed on the walls; in other words this is far from a come in, tape up and brush on. There are holes, dings, cracks and unfinished areas all over the house. We also have to figure out how to keep the house functional with all of our stuff pulled away from the walls and disheveled. Ugh! I'm tempted to go one room at a time, but that will take months instead of weeks.

On Monday I spent about 30 minutes researching paint, and barely scratched the surface. It's like all things house - incredibly complicated and way too many options.

Week ending 8/6/10

On Monday, I finally got the second batch of linoleum samples. I ordered 4 colors and got 5 pieces total, which includes 3 of the colors we wanted, 1 we didn't ask for and a second piece of one of the 3 colors we wanted. The bad news is that we didn't get a sample of the one color we really wanted. That's pretty par for the course in home improvement - both times we ordered samples the order was messed up. The next steps are going to be to test it a bit - some scratch testing and a standing water test. Then we'll put it on the floor and we'll see how it wears in real life. Then we'll buy a box to text a larger area. If we still like it and we can get a good price then it's a go!