I have been remiss

I have officially been scolded for not updating the blog. Honestly, I kinda forgot about it a little bit. I know, I'm a horrible person. The trim was installed quickly and expertly. It took less than two days to get it all done. I have been trying to get it painted ever since. So, for the details...

In the days just before the trim carpenter is to come and install everything, Jenny decided that she didn't like my plans for the shelving unit. We had to go to Lowe's and Home Depot in search of some sort of "decorative" trim with which to trim the front of the shelves. I was rather perturbed, but. as usually happens with these things, Jenny was right. She decided on base cap and it looks a lot better than what I was going to do. If it counts for anything, I did a good job with the selection of all of the other trim.

There's been a whole bunch of puttying, caulking and some painting going on. The good news it that what I have painted so far looks pretty darn good. I'm working with oil-based paint on the trim. It's kind of a pain to work with and Al Gore has been leaving me nasty phone messages, but it looks really good when all is said and done. I've been using an additive called Penetrol which helps eliminate brush strokes. My painter turned me onto a while back. They make one for latex, but he said it's not nearly as effective.

A good hint: do you have any paint brushes that have stiffened up? Do you hate how you can never get a roller all the way clean? Well, I have and I do. I was running low on paint thinner and was at Lowe's picking up various things. I'm staring at the section with the paint thinner in it and I spy something in an identical metal can labelled "brush cleaner". My first thought is: paint thinner in a different, more expensive can? It says it is intended to clean brushes and rollers that have been used with latex or oil-based paints. Hmm... not paint thinner... So I figure, what the hell. It it saves one brush it pays for itself. This stuff is pretty amazing. I'm buying a gallon the next time I go. I still have no idea what it is, but it's worth it.

Jenny and I have decided on a floor for the den, I think. When we went to Carla and Charles' house right after the hurricane, we saw the wood flooring that Charles installed and Jenny really liked it. It was a wide-plank, hand-scraped wood floor. That's what we're going to do. I was thinking of trying to install it myself, but Nathan's dad has a good friend who is willing to do it for me for 1.25/ft. I can't argue with that. I'm trying to get the dining room/kitchen finished up first so that we can move furniture back in, but then I'm going to finish up the painting in the den so that I can get the floor installed. He has an opening in mid-April, so that's my goal.

One final anecdote... two of my friends, Chris and Dustin, are moving into my grandmother's currently vacant house. There is some painting to be done and when mom and dad asked them what color they wanted the walls, they responded "the same color as Beau and Jenny's walls." I take that as a complement :)