Mars 2005 (1)

March 2005. We undertook our first major home improvment project. I mean do-in-yourself. We had already had the French-style bedroom windows replaced. French windows open into the room. These were big ones. We replaced them with sliders, which don't swing across much the room when you open them. We had also had a sliding glass door put over our little front porch so we could keep plants int there in the wintertime. Those were contractor jobs.

The do-it-yourself job was painting the living room walls and ceiling. We had lived with it as it was for nearly two years. The paint was cracked and peeling. It was a sort of off-white veering to gray color. Ugly, in other words. We had to move all the furniture out — a sectional sofa, a china closet, a big buffet, lamps, small tables, the dining room set, a big bookcase full of cookbooks, a big TV and stand, curtains and rods, etc. The room is about 40 m² (20 ft x 20 ft), and that means that the ceiling is that big too.

We moved some pieces of furniture down to the ground-floor entryway and we lived down there for nearly two months while we did the job. The worst part was the sanding the living room walls, but at least the ceiling was in good shape and only needed fresh paint. It took four coats! Confession: we didn't work eight-hour days. We still had to cook our meals and we also needed time to rest between bouts of sanding and painting.

We chose and bought green paint for the living room walls. We moved the china closet and an old chest of drawers into our bathroom for the duration of the travaux. It's fairly spacious. Though the living space was crowded, it wasn't really uncomfortable. I doubt that we'll ever undertake such a do-it-yourself project again. We felt a great sense of pride and satisfaction once it was done.