Monday December 29 – Room Three Completed

We had hoped to be done the three room renovations by Christmas but lost a few weeks when Michael had to travel to the UK unexpectedly.  Trystan and Owen were able to move into Trystan’s new room on Christmas Eve.  We took Christmas Day off and got right back at it on Boxing Day as we were hoping to host overnight guests in Owen’s completed room on December 30.  Given how long the previous rooms took we weren’t sure that we could finish but figured it was worth trying.  Here’s the room before we began.

Owen came down with quite a bad cold right after school ended on the Friday before Christmas.  By Boxing Day he had passed it on to Michael and Megan.  However, Michael worked on getting Owen’s room done anyway.  That might be why when I asked if he had sanded the room he answered,  “yes”.

We spend a lot of time preparing to paint.  We remove all the face places, we fill holes and sand them.  We give the whole surface a light sanding and then wipe it down with a damp cloth to remove the dust.  With the walls prepared this way they usually take paint quite well.  Here is what the room like just before we began putting on the primer which was necessary because we were painting yellow over a dark blue.

When I started to cut in I thought that the brush seemed to be slipping across the wall, however, I ignored the thought and carried on.  After the first two walls were cut in I started rolling while Michael continued cutting in on the third.  I rolled the first wall and half the second.  It looked terrible.  At that point I asked Michael again if he had sanded the walls.  This time he answered, “No”.  It transpires that he thought I was asking about sanding the patches the first time I asked and he had completely forgotten the step of sanding the walls.  We decided to carry on, let it dry, sand and prime again later in the day.

As you can see the blue is still showing through quite a bit.  Here it is after a second coat of primer.  Much better.

The following day we put on a third coat of primer.  It was quite easy doing this room.  It is a lot smaller and less complicated than Trystan’s and each coat went on quite quickly.  We also put on both coats of paint on Saturday.  Here it is after the first coat of paint.

Here it is all finished with the tape, tools and drop cloths removed.

Sunday Morning I headed to IKEA to buy the bed while Michael painted the door trim and baseboards.  By Sunday his cold was much worse.  He was coughing and could not speak above a whisper.  Consequently, the doors have yet to be painted as he didn’t feel well enough and we needed to move on.

My friend Gail who was on her way home from spending Christmas in Barrie was kind enough to meet me at IKEA to help load up the new bed.  The frame came in three boxes which totaled 240 pounds in weight.  The largest of the three must have been about 140 pounds.  We got it on the cart with great difficulty and not before I dropped it on one of my fingers!  The finger was bruised and swollen the next day.  Once we loaded up the frame and mattresses I paid and we put them into the car.  Then we went back in and shopped for the bedding.  After a well deserved lunch at Panera Breads we parted and I head home.

I decided we would not be able to get the biggest box up the stairs so I carried the smallest one up by myself and enlisted Alun’s aid in carry the medium size box.  It was very awkward and Alun is often deliberately difficult when asked to help, and did not deviate from that behavior in this instance, so it was quite a challenge getting it upstairs.  We should have opened it in the van and carried it up piece by piece as we did for the largest of the three boxes.

We have quite a bit of IKEA furniture.  Michael usually takes the lead building it with me as assistant, although I have built a few utility shelves by myself with the children’s help over the past couple of years.

I had read that it takes two people about four hours to build the Hemnes Daybed.  Aside from at a few points where it is absolutely necessary to have two people, I built it by myself.  All those years building Lego models with the children were good training.  It was useful to have a completely empty room to build in.

It took me six hours to build it.  I laid the mattresses out in Trystan’s room to expand.  They are sold vacuum packed in a roll and take 72 hours to puff up.

Monday morning the old futon, which I have always detested and am so pleased to get rid of, sits on the curb.

When Owen woke on Monday we put the mattresses on the bed and made it up with the new sheets.  He was thrilled to jump in and try it out.

He was able to sleep in it one night before moving back to Trystan’s room to accommodate our overnight guests for two nights.

After our guests left, we moved the rest of the furniture into the room.  Owen wants to keep it as a king sized bed for now.

I will probably make a new curtain that blends in better, but we will be getting new windows this year, so I will wait until after that happens.  It is very satisfying to be done and it only took a few days longer than planned.  Perhaps we will do the upstairs bathrooms next.

A final note:  the wall colour hasn’t photographed consistently in all the images, however, it looks most accurate in the final two images where the room is furnished.