Monday, September 5, 2011

I'm probably down a few more braincells

Three day weekend!  What holiday is complete without a home improvement project?  Ah, the Memorial Day I spent crouched in my undies in a tub of cold water, recaulking the entire tub.  Or the countless ones stripping the banister last year.  Easter weekend, stripping and repainting the back door.

This Labor Day's labor was the medicine cabinet.  This is what first greeted me when I looked at the house:
ACK! Old med cabinet
ACK! Old med cabinet, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

Yikes, right??  After moving in, I chipped off what I could, figuring the less lead paint shards floating freely about the better.  And then I lived with it for two years.

...

It's a telecoping/elbowing mirrored door.  At maximum folded-outed-ness, getting to the backside is tight.  You can barely see back there.  In retrospect, it might have been wise to remove the goddamned door.  But apparently, I'd lost those braincells in a previous endeavor.

So I set about stripping.  And stripping.  Yet another case of 80 years of paint, choices that make me wonder if previous residents were insane, colorblind, batshit insane, or hell, maybe that was the 70s.  Maybe the lead paint got to them.  There was a pale pink that clashed mightily with the green and lavender tile. Much like the current sink, hmmm...  There was a version of seafoam green, that while in the same family as the green tile, was off just enough to cause visual offense. A battleship grey.  And the one I really can't wrap my head around, the one I find all over this house, lurking under layers:  a painters tape blue with a hint of turquoise to it.  I think the house was once all that color.  It's so bilious, the only way I can accept this insult done to these walls is to assume the residents were blind.  I think even the colorblind would recoil.

Bonus, a lot of the paint was latex based, which means apply stripper, wait 15 minutes, scrape/slide/ooze off, repeat.  It's really annoying.  Especially with the door still attached, you moron.


But I prevailed.  Finally got down to the base layer, where it hadn't already chipped off to bare metal.  It became clear then that this stuff?  Wasn't going to budge under my power, nor any noxious chemical I am allowed to handle.  I whipped out the sander and got it as smooth as possible.

The sander doesn't really fit behind the door well.  I was sanding blind.  But the only sad news is I don't have a future as an international fugitive/spy as I still have my fingerpads!

Wiped everything down with acetone.  My manicure habit comes in handy, as I have a huge jug of it lying around.  Which is good, because I was going to need it later.

Plastic was hung, sheets were draped everywhere, everything taped up.  Sometimes several times.  Painters tape does not like to stick to glossy walls in a muggy room.  Oh yeah, did I mention the humidity was a gazillion percent?  And working with spray paint, I was going to need to encourage lots of outside air in to avoid gassing the household?  I have a few spare braincell (I think) but really, my cats don't.  Believe me. So yeah, unpleasant.

So I painted.  You know they say not to use spray paint in an enclosed environment?  Say, not in a 10x10 (if that) bathroom with only a skylight vent?  They know what they are talking about.  Even with a damned good respirator mask, I had to take breaks. And it smelled up the whole house, despite the fans all running at 11, moving air out.  Uhg.

7/8th, no, make that 17/18th, of the way through, I ran out of paint. Typical Sara Project. Ran back to Home Despot.  Discover as passing the mirror collection that I am misted.  Sorta like a fairy, but with gloss white.  Definitely not magical.

Finished it up, took up the sheets and plastic.  It looked like this:
Preview of After
Preview of After, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

This is the point I look at the floor.  Even covering with sheets and plastic, if you have them tented rather than flat, and if you generate a cloud of white aerosolized paint, the cloud will find a way.  Sigh.  Instead of admiring my brilliant white, not scary medicine cabinet, I spent the next hour or so wiping down the whole bathroom with pure acetone. I love that stuff!  I am noticing I neglected to wipe down me, and that after 3 showers and a vigorous mile and a half swim, I still have paint.

Today, got to put everything back into it.  Well, everything but all the crap that migrated there due to evil gnomes.
Finished med cabinet
Finished med cabinet, a photo by sarameg on Flickr.

Anyone got a line on a lavender soapdish?

Someday, I'll learn that if it is awkward and hard to reach, but there are screws, use them.  But I might've killed off those braincells this weekend.

4 comments:

Briana said...

Sara!! This is awesome! And by awesome, i mean....finished product is awesome, your blog is awesome, and your writing makes me laugh out loud. I can imagine the last minute trip to home depot, the white dusting of the rest of the bathroom, your hair, and everything else was NOT awesome. I am so impressed and your new medicine cabinet is beautiful!

-s- said...

Thanks for the kind words! I'm trying to keep it more up to date, and certainly have a lot of old material I'd like to cover... And the past few weeks certainly provided plenty of fodder...

Anonymous said...

Doesn't it feel amazingly satisfying to make an improvement like that? Sure, it's not a huge project, but that so doesn't matter. You will get a little frisson of pride and pleasure every single time you open that cabinet.

-s- said...

YES! It's so nice and WHITE and cheers up the bathroom so much! I might even manage to keep it clean and uncluttered...