Another Weekend, Another Update

If it's Sunday night, it must be time for another update on the Napa House renovation. This weekend's theme was "fun with paint." Actually, it was a mad dash to get the upstairs bedrooms painted prior to new carpet being installed this next week. It's not that I don't trust our abilities to paint without making a mess, but it's much more fun (and quicker) to paint without regard to getting a drip or two on the carpet. So, after debating the finer qualities of "natural linen" "cafe latte" and about three dozen other colors, we settled on the paint and spent a good 20+ hours of two days priming, painting and painting some more. (See before/after pic above!)

As a side note, I decided the perfect color for one of the bedrooms was "Dusty Grey". When you start making up your own paint color names, you've been staring at little 2x2 inch samples for way too long.

The most painful part of the weekend was the weather. It was a good 95+ degrees in Napa both days, which made painting in the upstairs bedrooms of an un-air conditioned home less than pleasant. We combatted the heat with a steady flow of water, Gatorade, and Michelob Ultra (at least in the afternoons).

Looking ahead, our ability to schedule contractors will be tested. Texturing, painting, carpeting, tile and hardwood floors all start in the next week or so. I'd like to say it will be controlled chaos. Guess we'll see soon enough.

One Week Closer to Done,

Trever & Spence

Let There Be Light!

Yes...Despite the several weeks of silence on the blog, we've been hard at work meeting contractors and getting bids on virtually any home renovation project you can imagine. The good news is that the projects are lining up nicely and we should make some significant progress over the next 6-8 weeks. The bad news is...oh...can you hear that giant sucking sound??? Yep, that's money leaving our bank account. But, at least you all have a nice place in Napa to spend the weekends while we work our second (third?) jobs.

Our first positive project (improvement vs. demolition) was completed this weekend. The living room, which only has one window, was dark and uninviting most of the day. With the addition of two skylights, it is now full of natural light for as long as the sun is shining. What a difference two little holes in the ceiling make. Let there be light!

On a sidenote...never strip wallpaper from a decades old home. After countless hours of scraping, peeling and scrubbing, I've come to the conclusion that it's actually easier -- and maybe less expensive -- to tear down the wall and start over. It certainly has to be more interesting.

That's pretty much all we've done lately. Hopefully updates in the coming weeks will be more exciting.

Exhausted in Napa,
Trever & Spence