Monday, January 21, 2008

Home Project

It is a funny thing to be back in our home of 20 years after a 2-year period of being disengaged from it. The 2 years in Hawaii taught me that I could let go of my home and my possessions. That had been a major concern for me. But now that I'm back, I have to reclaim my space, I guess. I have launched into what is familiar here--redecorating a room. I am transforming one of our daughters bedroom into an office for my husband,Mike. The name of the project is "From pretty to handsome." My goal is to have it done before he returns from Hawaii on Jan. 28.


So you know how it appears on the Home and Garden Network Shows. A room is transformed in 1/2 hour. I truly thought I could easily do this redecorating in a couple of days and still have plenty of time and energy to get out to the studio. Well, as often is the case, nothing is as simple as one would hope.
First order of business was removing the wall paper. We had put on a vinyl coated wallpaper 14 or 15 years ago. I figured it would easily come off in strips since I had primed and sized the walls prior to hanging the wallpaper. I expected to have it done in an afternoon. Wrong! First I had to peel away the vinyl coating which did not come off in large strips, but rather in small, sometimes tiny bits and pieces.







Once the vinyl coating was off, I had to moisten and scrape the paper backing off the wall. I did have a little help and encouragement on this part.












So this is how a small half-hour project ended up taking three days.
I have now chosen paint colors, carpet and new lighting fixtures. I had a drywall mudder up today. Tomorrow will be sanding and riming day. Painting if I have the energy. I hope to be ready for the carpet layer on Friday. Believe me, even though this is a small project, it gets complicated!
Have I been making use of the studio? Not as much as I'd like, but here are 2 paintings I'm working on.




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love the start of your figure painting, Margaret! Your posts about the home project are so true... it never is as easy as it looks on tv! But what a transformation! Love reading about your life...
Ruth