There is truly a great joy in living at your own place. Ok, in our mortgaged place, if I may correct myself. One major, major (tribute to Venus!) is not having to ask permission from anyone to do anything there. Like if I wanted house repairs then nobody really cares about it and I can do it anytime.
And so I took advantage of hubby's one week vacation to Dumaguete (he went with his friend/officemate), to do some stuff at home. Pictures to follow, was too busy with the activities to take any pics.
One thing I planned to do on the onset was to paint the single wall in the Dining area that was not white. Backgrounder: we got a 20yr old house, so it was not exactly in "mint" condition, the previous owners who sold it to us did paint it white before they sold it so it looks ok, but the house itself was built on two parts, the original house had some wood on it separating the dining area to the room (what we now call the hobby room). All the other walls in the living room, kitchen area, dining area, were concrete and painted white. So when two weeks a go hubby and I took advantage of a buy-one take one sale on makro of 3-layer shelves, which sold for 2 for 500, or 250 each, I felt what needed to be done was to paint that single wall with white so everything turns out white around the dining table. And so when hubby finally decided to push through with his vacation I took the opportunity to do the painting.
So Sunday morning Jess and I went out to Robinsons MetroEast to do some paint-shopping. I had in mind to use odorless paint so there's a more forgiving smell once I put in on, since its indoors and not exactly a lot of windows around it. Unfortunately after a long discussion with the hardware guy, I found out odorless paint can't be applied to unpainted surfaces, you will still need a primer, or flatwall enamel in our case, to put there before putting the odorless paint. Then there is the issue of size. The odorless paint sold gallon sizes only. And with the primer plus the odorless paint (which costs than Php 500 per can by the way), I felt I did not need all the leftover paint. So I had to make do with smelly paint and just bought the flatwall enamel, around half-liter which supposedly can cover around 20-25 sqm, my wall was around 2x3 meters only so it should be enough for two coatings already. Bought a paint tray and a roller, a bottle of paint thinner and one paintbrush. And then I bought another can of gold spray paint because I wanted to paint an old aluminum table gold so it looks new. But I'll get to that later.
When I got home I prepped the area, took out everything that's hanging there, set aside the new shelves, and put masking tape along the circular mirror on that wall. I had no plans of taking out the mirror and risk breaking it. Someday I will take out the whole wall and replace the old wood, so what I was doing was not at all permanent. I painted the wall with one coat using a roller, and for the small gap-things that was supposed to be part of the design, I had to use a brush since its brown in there. I felt I did fine, after a few hours I painted a second coating, and left the electric fan open throughout the night to let the wall breath. I put some vinegar and baking soda there as well, to help absorb the paint. The result was nice, there were smudges of paint on some brown framings near the ceiling, but its no big deal for me.
The next day I painted the old table gold, after spending an hour taking off the rust and the stuff there, I suppose they were because of oxidation. I used the spray paint which was a really nice idea, and the gold color was a good choice. I am very pleased with the outcome.
And then I realized I actually need some white spray paint to paint some discolored areas of the wall. That's another small project for me.
All in all, I'd say the past weekend was very fulfilling. I got to do a lot and that pleases me. I do need some rest though, but this week is going to be quite a busy week, so these activities will probably have to wait until the next weekend.
(Pictures to follow...)
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