Home Improvement Project

 

Ever since I moved into my home in late 2001 I wanted to do some renovations to the 50 year old structure.  I have a long mental list of things I would like to change and one of those renovations include removing a bunch of the wall paneling that is prevalent throughout close to 50 percent of the living space.  Don’t get me wrong I like the site of a nice wood-grain surface, but my preference would be to have this surface on the floor and not on the walls.  The wall paneling my home makes certain room feel darker than I would like them.  

 

The first year I moved in, I took some wall paneling and wall paper out of the kitchen.  This was a messy job and took a fair amount of time.  The wall paper had to be scrapped off and big chucks of adhesive were left behind when I took the wall paneling off.  Removing this adhesive took chucks of the plaster off of my kitchen wall and required patching before I could paint it.  

 

Needless to say I was wary about tackling the wall panel in the hallway the darkest area in my living space.  A couple of years went by when I decide that I should check to see if the wall panels in my hallway could be removed easier than those in the kitchen.  I popped the nails out of one wall panel, I removed the molding from the ceiling-wall joint and I pulled the panel back and gasped.  There was no glue stuck to the wall, but there was a large framed hole about two feet wide and two feet high.  I could only speculate what this hole might be for; a stove pipe or a window perhaps.  I promptly pushed the panel back into placed and nailed it to the wall.  I was no going to proceed in this manner for two reasons.  The first reason for delaying was that if I continued taking off wall panel I would probably be assured of finding more interesting problem areas to deal with and I didn’t have the time or the expertise to deal with a big renovation project.  Secondly, renovations like these have a way of gobbling up cash and I did not have enough money to do anything more than remove panel and paint.

 

So, the wall panel remained in my gloomy hallway and every time I walked in or out of my house I said to myself that something has to be done to this room when I can afford to have someone come in to do some construction.  This summer we had some renovations go on at our library which involved the moving of many books and lots of furniture.  Our library also saw the construction of a couple of study rooms for small groups to do some private work in behind a closed door.  While the painting of these new study rooms was going on, I took the opportunity to bend the ear of the painter doing the finish work on these rooms.  I told the painter about my renovation blues and he suggested something that lighten my mood and would hopefully lighten my hallway.  He said why don’t you paint the wall panel?  I hadn’t considered that option.  I immediately remembered seeing other rooms in other houses that had light coloured walls with a wood like grain on them.  These walls didn’t look half bad to my eye.  The painter gave me some advice on an appropriate primer that he called a “gripper” that adheres to glossy surfaces like wall panel. 

 

I stored this information in the back of my head and continued being busy with work a play until I decided that this job has to be done!  I went out and bought a can of super adherent primer, which just happen to be on sale – bonus.  I took the can home and set myself a mental completion date of two weeks.  This was great motivation!  I could then push aside all those other things that don’t really have to be dealt with right away and focused on my essential household duties and painting.  Progress was good I spent a couple of hours each night painting and by the end of the first week I had to decide what colour I wanted to paint the hallway.  After brief deliberation I decided to go with a very light green colour.  The curtains that I have on the door in my hallway a green and beige and purple in colour, so I thought that I would stay with the theme of the curtains and keep the colour very light to keep with my stated purpose of making the hallway brighter and less gloomy. 

 

I headed off to a nearby hardware store and found a very pale green colour called “Featherstone” which I promptly purchased.  I went straight home and started painting.  A few days later I put the last coat of paint on and the next day I had all the molding up and some pictures hung.  Perfect!  The hallway is now very bright I’ve take the opportunity to hang some of my own photography on the walls.  This is a great place to show off some off my own artwork, which is another project that I have wanted to work at for some time.  Now that I have my wall panel painted I can see that another renovation project that I have in mind is necessary, I wonder how much floor covering for my hallway would cost and what colour would look good with light green wall paint?  That is a project for another day and another essay.

 

January 13, 2007