HGTV: Stoess Style Part One

I learned a valuable lesson this weekend: 

Installing ceiling tiles and painting a boat-ton of wood paneling is a lot like climbing a 14er (mountains over 14,000 feet high). Actually, it might be harder.

We got our first access to the house on Thursday night. It was very exciting and as soon as we got off work we picked up some Jimmy John’s and went over to frolic. Then we started prepping for the projects, covering the floors with paper and taping windows.

A 'before' shot of the living room.

Ah! My eyes! Could they have put in any more different kinds of wood?

                             
Here was the plan:

Friday: I had to work so Brian was going to put up crown molding and start putting up ceiling tiles

Saturday: Finish ceiling tiles (and caulking them) and start priming the wood walls

Sunday: Finish priming and paint the ceiling

Monday:  Brian would paint the walls

Tuesday: Brian would finish/clean up

Oh man, were we foolishly optimistic with that timeline.

Any of you who have ever worked in a corporate setting have probably had to make SMART goals at one time or another.

S pecific

M eaningful/measurable

A cheivable

R elevant

T imebound

We failed the “A” part. Instead of being SMART with our goals we were SMRT, which just makes us a couple of illiterate hillbillies who can’t spell.

Here’s how it really went down:

Friday: I got home from work and walked in to see that nothing had been done and the look on Brian’s face told me he didn’t want to talk about it. Mainly due to a very unhelpful gentleman at Lowe's, Brian spent most of his day trying to figure out what he needed to make the corners for the crown molding. In the end we were only able to accomplish the installation of the crown molding on Friday night.

The crown molding is now attached.

Saturday: We installed ceiling tiles. The website we ordered them from said they are incredibly easy to install. We watched some YouTube videos and felt like we could get them up pretty quickly. They did go up quickly and easily but we had a lot of ceiling to cover so it took us all day. We had the front door open to let in a breeze and when we were down to the corners in the entryway we walked in only to find a gazillion bugs all over the ceiling. ARGGGGHH! It was late so we called it a day, turned off all the lights, and hoped the bugs would be dead by morning.

This doesn't really do the bug infestation justice.

My job. Looks easy but that thing was hard to squeeze a million times in a row.

In progress

Mr. Stud Ceiling Tile Man

A nice close-up of the ceiling tiles we were covering up. Gross.

Sunday: We are responsible for the bug massacre of 2013 but I don’t have the energy to feel sorry for the fools. We finished the ceiling corners and then had to do some more prep work before starting to prime. I always forget how long prepping takes. It took us 3 hours to get the place ready for priming the wood walls. Originally we thought we could use the paint sprayer for the primer but Brian read that because of the oil-based paint we were using, there was a risk of explosion with the sprayer so we had to do it manually. It didn't take long to realize it was going to be a painfully slow, painfully tedious process. It was the most tedious thing I've ever done in my life. This was the worst day. It felt like we were doing a lot of work with nothing to show for it. It got really late, really fast and we had to call it a day without even finishing the first coat of primer. I was SO frustrated.

This is taking forever!

Covering up all those pesky knots in the wood.

Welcome to my hell. Not pictured: the hallway, the entryway, the guestroom. All covered in WOOD.

This one time Brian went to get dinner and Jaime tried to pour herself some more paint and it went everywhere, including underneath the paper, onto the wood floors. It was awesome. NOT.

Monday: I called in to work so I could spend the day on primer. Brian started caulking the ceiling (a slow, thankless job, he says. It needs to be done but nothing looks any different when you’re finished). I felt resigned to how this project was going (i.e. NOT how I wanted it to) and I became determined to finish priming. I turned on my tunnel vision and put myself into overdrive. I only took breaks to eat and drink. It took me all gosh-darn day but I finished the first and second coat on every damn piece of wood wall in that house and when I finished I dropped my paintbrush and limped away.

Me, right after I finished priming. I'm only posting this to show you that HGTV is full of lies when they show those cute girls wearing cute outfits, looking totally cute while they remodel a house. LIES.

Final coat of primer.

Final coat in the guest room.

Final coat in the hallway. Not pictured: the entryway.

Tuesday (today): I feel like I was hit by a truck. I got to go to work and relish just sitting all day. Brian painted the ceiling. He got to use the paint sprayer and didn't hit any major snafu's. Whew. We’ll have to find other times after work this week to paint the color onto the walls so it stops looking like a mental institution.

~sigh~ 

Anyway, what I love about this house is that I can only see the house it has the potential to be. Despite all the frustration and painstaking work, it’s so fun to see my vision coming to life. Each step we get closer, I get more excited for the end product. Our Realtor stopped by yesterday and she had the same response I do, “Oooh! I want to see it finished!” Me too. More than anything.

Back to my 14er analogy. I haven’t climbed a ton of 14ers but from the handful I have climbed, I've learned one thing: none of them are easy for me. They all kick my butt and eventually every step feels like torture. I feel like I’ll never make it to the top and I have to remind myself that every step I take gets me closer than I was before. I get to what I thought was the summit only to see that I still have forever to go and I feel like I've made no progress. But, when I get to the true top and the view is so incredible, I feel so accomplished that I immediately start to plan my next climb.

That’s how this project has felt, except that I probably did 15,000 squats yesterday and I've never ever felt this much pain after bagging a 14er. Even my fingertips hurt. If you need more proof that those walls beat me up, I was too tired to even eat my ice cream. Yesterday or today.

To be continued...