Upstairs Hallway: Week Two

I've been steadily at work on my upstairs hallway project and the past week's labors were plenty rewarding, if sometimes exhausting.  Working at an hour a day for one solid week, I stripped wallpaper until Monday, when that messy, sticky, tiresome job was finally complete.

On Tuesday, I went to work repairing holes in the plaster, cleaning the woodwork and sanding out the chips and cracks so that the woodwork was ready for a new coat of paint.

On Wednesday, after issuing stern warnings to all life forms in the house that they weren't to touch anything, I set out to paint the woodwork.  Armed with my stepladder, a small bowl of paint, and my brush, I painted all six of the upstairs doors and doorways as well as the woodwork trim. 

On Thursday, I took a much-deserved break from painting.  JT and I devoted ourselves to selecting a final paint color for the hallway and stairwell.  We settled on a shade that is just a little lighter than the living room's.  The color is called sandstone cove, which seems like the perfect name for a hallway meant to be a restful place. 

On Friday, I finished setting down the painter's tape and got organized to apply the first coat of actual paint.  A quick look at the back wall in the living room; the one that runs upstairs, revealed that it was awash in handprints and the like.  I decided that it deserved a fresh coat of paint.  So that wall came first.  I followed up with the first coat of paint in the upstairs hallway.  Four hours later, I manned up for coat number two in the hallway.   

And now the job is done.  Later today, Sharkbutt, who gets credit for project motivation, is coming for supper.  I plan to solicit her help hanging up some pictures.  In the next few months, I plan to put up some wall decals from Elephannie's Etsy shop.  Then the job will be fully complete.  But things look pretty awesome right now.

In terms of doing most of the work myself, this hall is by far the most involved project I've taken on in my house.  Though it was sometimes frustrating, I am  proud of myself for seeing the project through to completion.   More than two years ago, when I first took after the wallpaper, I quickly removed the switch plate in the hall, a sure-sign of a work in progress.  Then as a combination of gentle rebuke and motivation, we lived switch plate-free while the project was waiting for completion.  Last night, I screwed on a new switch plate, the final act of the renovation.  I'm not sure that I'll ever turn the light on up here without thinking about this project and the fact that I got the job done.

It's a very happy thing.