Tag: paint

/ geoffand

House Painting – DONE

For the first time EVER, we have had the time (and enough, barely, money) to spruce up a house before we move in. We have a long list of things to accomplish, first and foremost was the interior painting.

Our Real Estate agent recommended a painter and a color consultant that he had used often. I was a bit hesitant on the color consultant, but if it meant peace in the family, then so be it.

colors-10Our colors were a grey/olive color for the kitchen that worked well for the cream colored cabinetry, switching to a lighter shade in the living rooms, and a yet lighter shade for the hallway. A dark grey paint on the bricks on the fireplace, and a white cream/off white for the trim and the ceiling.

colors-9It looks great.

 

 

 

For the bedrooms, there are four.

colors-8Barbara’s Office – a red called “Cinnabar” that looks fantastic. She currently has white shutters, and the contrast looks great.

 

 

 

colors-4My Office – as I am a fan of purple, I ended up with a dark burgundy. It is called “Bewitched”, and it came out dark and perfect. I am visualizing wall mounts for my guitars.

 

 

colors-3Master Bedroom – we went for a deep green, called “Fair Isle Blue”. We wanted something that was fun, and yet dark enough to allow for good sleeping in (not for me, for Barbara who will sleep all day if she could.

 

colors-1Guest Bedroom – We have a 4th, “guest” bedroom, that will be a post seizure resting area with Tate, It was panted a lighter blue, “Cornflower”, and it also came out spectacular.

 

 

The house looks great. Now we have plumbers, electricians, and handymen to come and work on the rest. New appliances will be installed late next week (they are deserving of a post by themselves), and on 3/25, the west fence will be replaced. The other fence will be replaced when the permit for removing our neighbor’s monster tree is approved.

/ geoffand

House – Painting part 2 the Woo-merchant

The painters are half done. The popcorn is off the ceiling, the walls have been repaired and textured, and the real work will begin on Monday. Today, we had the Color Expert in to advise us.

I wasn’t sure what a color consultant did, and how it would be better than looking on Sherwin Williams website for color pairings. In fact, in the past, that is how we selected colors, find something we liked, and then looked for colors that complemented it. Seemed simple.

But our realtor raged about his color expert, and Barbara signed her up. Yesterday was the day. Of course the house is a bit of a mess, the painters about half way done with the work (almost all the prep work is complete, and it looks FABULOUS).

The Consultant was about 10 minutes late. Not a big deal. She is an energetic, middle aged woman who talks in a constant stream. She asked us questions to determine who we were, and what we did/liked in the past.

tucson_house 3584Sidebar: We painted the interior of our Tucson house in loud, and southwest-ish colors. Golds, Purples, Brick red, Hazel Greens, and even a “Curry” Yellow in the bathrooms. I liked it, but it was a negative when trying to sell the house. Party poopers…

Since we have cream colored “Ikea” cabinetry in the kitchen, and a natural stone tile on the floors as well as dark granite tile counters, we started there. She worked on the ceiling and the trim colors, close to white, but a good blend with the ceiling, since they run to the ceiling.

colors-4For the walls, we settled on a grey/olive shade that I will admit looks pretty good. (Of course, the proof will be in the pudding when it is sprayed on the wall). There is a transition to a slightly lighter grey/olive into the living room area, where the TV will be, with a dark color for the fireplace (the brick is already painted white, so we will paint over it.)

Then we will lighten it up in the entry way, and down the hallway to make it look less like a cave.

Barbara’s office will be either a deep blue (that looks great) or some red. She hasn’t decided yet, and won’t until we go see the swatches in the better light today.

My office will be a red/purple color that I happen to like. I am already thinking about the options of mounting wall hangers for my guitars, and to eliminate one of my computer workstations. Very serviceable.

The master bedroom will be a deep blue-green that will keep the mood for sleeping (we are one of those rarities, people who don’t have a TV in the bedroom.)

While the weather turned dark and dour yesterday, I think we came pretty close in selecting our colors. I will admit that the Color Consultant is a bit of Woo, and the running commentary was a bit much, we did get to a good place.

But was it worth $500?

/ geoffand

HOA Fun

There is nothing like getting a nastygram (or two) from your HOA. In general, I don’t mind being in a community with an HOA. Lots of people whinge about the CC&R’s, and having to comply (no, you can’t have a 40′ “murican flag in your font yard, thankyouverymuch).

I have found that they have been very willing to work with you if you ask them. In our house in Tucson we had two primary interactions with the Silverado Hills HOA, both positive. First was to do something about the idiot ATV riders blasting through our property. The second was when we put solar PV panels on our roof (they were cool with it, as long as we tried our best to keep them obscured from view).

However, here in Chandler, where we moved in July of 2012, it has been less positive. I should back up. We bought a house that was foreclosed on, bank owned, and finally bought by an investor who did a great job cleaning it up before selling it to us. We are (mostly) really happy with the house, but we knew that the exterior paint was a bit rough when we bought it.

Last week, we came back from a short trip to San Diego to a nastygram. The one I expected was for the out of control weeds. It is astounding how fast they sprout up and take over the yard. But no, it was about our paint “not meeting standards” and gave us 10 days to rectify it.

The thing is, from the front it isn’t too bad. A hose to wash off some of the dust would spruce it up. The real rough parts are in the back, and that is clearly not in their purview.

So we got some quotes, and have filed an appeal. It has also caused us to look at the houses in the neighborhood.  There are LOTS that are in worse condition than us. I hope they all got the nastygrams.

But I suspect that they didn’t. I get the feeling that the HOA had been watching our house, and when owners came in, who live here they pounced on the painting.

Sigh.