Okay so being able to paint my house any color I want is so cool, expect that there are a million choices and sometimes it seems that none of them are right. Unlike painting with drylok which is a horrible tedious experience, painting pretty colors is, well, fun. So I have to make some decisions.

The color on the right was my original thought. It’s call baby blanket, but it’s way too soft for me. I think that second richer color is a better bet. Remember I did start that triangle quilt months ago that is white with a melody of greens. My bedroom is going to be small, and for sleeping only (whoo hoo I can’t wait), I think that dark green will work.

The electrician came today and I’m getting the whole basement re-wired. With six sets of florescents and fifteen sets of grounded plugs. I am so excited for this. It’s being done as a favor to my dad, so I’m not sure how long it’s going to take since they are fitting me in between other jobs. I can’t finish sheet rocking all the open bits until the electrician is done, so I think my house won’t be settled until the end of August at the earliest. I’ve gotten a ton done, but here’s a run down of things I still want to take care of before moving in:

UPSTAIRS
-quarter round around the upstairs rooms (I have to prime, paint, cut, install, then pop the finish nails down and cover those holes up, then touch up)
-finish filling holes in walls/moldings and sand down
-paint moldings
-paint windows
-make curtains
-paint rooms
-paint cabinet doors and drawers (sand down/strip first)
-strip and sand doors, then paint, clean and reinstall hardware
-finish up kitchen (finish painting cabinets, strip cabinet doors and paint, paint drawers, new drawer pulls, new cabinet knobs, and closure mechanism, new fridge- maybe! and a super clean)
-paint inside closets
-ugh, the bathroom: patch hole in wall, new sink, new counter top, paint, new light fixture
-clean and paint stairwell
-paint stairs (I’m going to use a non stick because they are steep and narrow)
-I’d like a new thermostat, the one I have now is fugly
-new light fixture in living room
-new step into garage
-three plugs + light in garage (plus switch)
-smoke detectors

BASEMENT
-new windows (theses are being made now, but they will come to me "naked" so I’ll have to prime, paint, then route new hing grooves and locks, as well as some kind of holding system to keep the windows open, the sticks I’m using now are nice, but um, not so classy. I also have to come up with some kind of screen, and curtains)
-window moldings (sanded, fixed up, and then primed and painted)
-six lights + 15 plugs + light switches
-paint walls
-sheetrock all openings
-handrail for stairs
-texture ceiling
-paint ceiling
-acid wash or sand floor
-seal floor
-paint floor
-hole for dryer vent through foundation
-install washer/dryer
-smoke detectors

OUTDOORS
-plug outside? I want one for Christmas lights 🙂
-finish fence
-inject stump killer
-one more load to dump to clean up pile in driveway
-powerwash house
-clean out gutters

OTHER
-have the gas turned back on and connections checked
-move mail

Somehow writing this all out makes me feel better, and sure I could do a few of those things after I move in, but I have too many additional projects to list if I included all I plan to do someday, those are must dos.

Yesterday was the muriatic acid day. Kay, you were right, it wasn’t so scary. The scary part was the shit that came off the walls, OH MY LORD, yuck. Like black dirt, ew! I like things clean. I may be messy sometimes, but underneath the mess? Clean. So today we went at it with the drylok and it soon became clear that the four gallon buckets we bought were not going to be enough. I had to patch with a quick setting cement patch while Taylor started to paint. I look over after about a half hour and started freaking out, “Taylor! What the heck are you doing?!?!” He had flung paint all over the place and his brush… and handle were completely covered in paint. I got some drop cloths out and we went back to it. My mom showed up and like whipped through a can so I had to go get some more at Lowe’s. So I got my four more cans of drylok. I also loaded up on a thick nap roller, some dryloc caulk stuff for the intersection of the wall and the floor and three more cans of quick patch. By the time I got back my mom had already whipped through three more cans (you think I’m joking, but I’m so not) and we were putting this coat on with brushes! Don’t tell me to roll it because I looked it up everywhere and the first coat has to go on with a brush to get into all the pores of the concrete.

Anyway by about five we had finished almost everything up with the first brushed coat, and we needed more drylok. I took Taylor home, went to Home Depot, got dinner and came back. My mom and I worked for a while, then Sciarrino showed up (“hello my bestest buddy in town can you please please come help me!”) to patch the holes in all the moldings around the windows and doors and everything. My mom stayed until eight and Sciarrino and I until nine. And when we left it looked like this:

The ceilings are all going to be textured, and they will have a molding around that top bit. There is going to be a cabinet straight back to hid the mess of pipes, and the floor, well you’ll just have to wait and see. This paint makes it look so much less scary down there! And we cranked it out just in time because tomorrow I meet with the electrician. We only have one set of grounded plugs… in the whole house! Grounded plugs are the three pronged kind. Not having these is a pain. Oh, and there is only one regular plug in the whole basement. It was powering the stereo today (thanks Brent!). So more work tomorrow. I’ll take some more pictures in the daylight.