Sunday, November 06, 2005

Do it right, or just don't do it!

I guess it was almost two years ago that Scott and I enlisted in Adam's help in painting our bedroom. We spent a long time properly painting that room, so that when it was done, the result was marvelous. Or at least we thought so. Then again when it was time to do the nursery before Emily's coming, we enlisted in Adam's help again. Scott and Adam spent the entire Christmas break in that room, and the time that Scott spent on the touch-ups was extreme. The room was more perfect than I could have ever imagined. Well, now we are in this house, and I guess maybe it will be Adam again who will feel my pain, since he is the one who taught me to be so meticulous like him. (Just as his blog implies.)

The previous owners did such a crappy job it is unbelievable. There is nothing worse than sitting on the toilet and looking up at the wall and noticing that the wallpaper (not my choice of course of paper) doesn't go all the way up to the top of the wall. It is as if the roll was up and rather than finishing it up nicely with a new roll, they said, "oh the hell with it."

Now if this was the only place where one would notice an imperfection, that would be one thing. But this is merely an example of what is to be found throughout the entire house. They didn't cut in around door frames, fireplaces, or light fixtures very well, and in rooms with darker colors, like Emily's lavender, they didn't use two coats so there is minimal coverage. There are many places in that room where the white wall is seen through the wall texture.

You may think, "oh... well maybe they ran out of money, and paint is expensive, so they just used what they had." NOPE. There are still multiple rolls of the yucky wallpaper in the garage, along with the unused paint. Much of the paint is full, or had never been opened. Why spend the money if that is they type of job you are going to do?

There are many things that I would do differently if I was purchasing a house again. The biggest thing that I think that I would do is pay more close attention to the details of paint and wallpaper. We love the colors in the home of paint, and I guess that is all we saw. Now it doesn't really matter if we like the color or not, because we are going to end up painting the entire house again, one room at a time. A boring white house would have served us better... at least we wouldn't have to paint over some other color. Oh well. Live and learn. I guess that is a small price to pay when finding a house in a couple of days. :) That doesn't mean that in the meantime I don't go crazy looking at the unmatched, crappy looking wallpaper and paint.

-Malisa

2 comments:

Adam said...

I do understand your pain Malisa. That's a bummer. I guess you're going to have to find a friend there in SC that can take my spot helping Scott make your house nice.

Scott and Malisa Johnson said...

I think that we can do it ourselves, and that is okay. It is just finding the time. Holy crap is Scott busy!