With the end of the year barreling down on me and the holidays gearing up. I've set a deadline of the end of the year to finish the remodel of my apartment. Though it seems like there isn't much left to be done, the constant hurdles to my progress and my increasingly busy calendar make this goal feel very ambitious. However progress is happening!

Painting: Loft

I've not written much about the painting because as the old expression goes, watching paint dry isn't so exciting. Except that it kind of is...

Here, for instance, is the first layer of primer drying over the exterior walls of the loft, and it looks terrible at first! There is suspense as the paint dries both to see whether it's painted evenly, and (where it meets up with an existing wall) whether the the transition will be noticeable. As the final step, painting shows once and for all the quality of your work. While framing, we allowed errors to be covered with drywall, which could then be patched over with mud. With paint, there's no further room for adjustment, which raises the stakes. There's also of course, the excitement of seeing the finished look of a project.

The basic steps are simple: tape off areas you don't want paint, prime one layer, prime a second layer, paint. With new construction like this, it's important to build up the primer over the "raw" wall before painting. The paint texture is affected by how quickly it dries, and drywall mud wicks moisture away from the paint quicker than the paper. A base of primer seals over these 2 different materials to create a uniformly drying surface and texture for the mud. From what I can tell, 2 layers of primer is the minimum needed to create that sealing layer.

Painting: Downstairs

Surprisingly, I didn't take too many photos of the downstairs area as I painted, even though that's a bulk of the painting work. I've put quite a bit of effort into smoothing and painting that area. There's so much work to be done, in fact, that I got my sister to help me out when she came to visit from Houston. She (correctly) insisted that we needed to invest in a painting pole. I'd tried a few walls while just holding the roller, and constantly moving the ladder got old. While she primed, I tried to keep one step ahead to sand down the drywall mud, which is always a dusty proposition.

Painting: Existing

Really, there's only one "existing wall" which was getting a new paint job. This one that is downstairs and painted all black. Though I don't necessarily mind the color, it ends up just being easiest to paint the one existing wall white rather than two new ones black. First, I had to remove a barn-door track that was no longer in use, then I took a time lapse of the first coat. One thing this wall really showed me was how little coverage you actually get from a layer of paint/primer, especially painting white over black. It ended up taking 4 coats of primer to completely cover the black paint, only then could I add the final color.

I'm getting antsy with how close this project is to completion, though I know every step I take towards completion reveals 3 more that must be taken afterwards. Nevertheless, I'm hoping I can get this project wrapped up before we get too far into the new year...