Vacation Project

I have lived in my townhouse for almost three years now. On move in day my Mom and Dad painted the master bedroom and the lower level while a couple friends and I moved everything in. You see, I have never liked painting very much. I am not sure why but I must have some suppressed bad memory from childhood. Other then those two rooms being painted I have not done a lot of work since I moved in. Last fall I had the vinyl flooring redone in the upstairs bathroom, front entry and lower level entry/bathroom area (that just might be another entry for a later time).

I am in the middle of having ten days off from work and have been talking about painting my upstairs bathroom for about a month now. A previous owner had taken down some wallpaper in the bathroom and had not done a very good job of getting the wallpaper glue off the wall, and it was starting to bother me. Now despite having some hatred towards painting I thought: "how bad can I really be at it, it can't be that hard". So I decided that I was going to attempt to paint the room by myself. I decided I had to do some sort of faux finish to cover up the remnants of the glue on one wall (I thought about sanding the wall but that sounded like even less fun). I had used Behr Sandwash Texture Paint before at my Mom's house when we redid the basement. The look of the paint is kinda cool, it is basically paint mixed with very small pieces of sand to give it texture. On Friday, I went with my Dad to Home Depot to decide on a color and settled on a light grey color (Fine Granite) that matched the flooring very well. I also bought a new towel hook to replace the original circa 1975. I was actually getting excited to do this project, maybe my fear of painting has passed!

First a couple of before photos.

On Saturday I was set to begin. I taped off everything in the room except the ceiling (damn popcorn). The Sandwash paint is a four step process. The first step is called the "foundation" coat and seems to pretty much be regular paint tinted to a specific color to match the final two coats. I was actually pleased that the first coat was normal paint. "Should be pretty simple, I mean everybody can paint right" I thought. Well I can tell you for a fact that NO not everyone can paint. The first wall that I attempted went so poorly that I actually stopped painting and called a friend for backup. She agreed to come over on Sunday to help. I decided to power through and finish the foundation coat hoping we could make it look OK with the next couple coats. Here are a couple pictures taken after the foundation coat, I will draw your attention to the horrible dripping in the second photo (more on that in a minute).
It is now Sunday and thankfully backup has arrived! I showed my friend the room and was immediately scolded for the dripping and was deservedly laughed at for a while. After we sanded the worst of the drips we (read: she) started applying the second coat. The second and third coats are both the actual Sandwash paint. It needs to be applied with a roller to get the desired look (I should mention here that rolling is the part of painting I am apparently not capable of, the foundation coat was entirely brushed on!). This coat was going on very well, it looked great and was covering up my hideous coat. I was a little nervous when we realized that I would need to paint above the bathtub due to some ceiling height issues. I think and was told that I did OK, I did not ruin the wall and you almost could not tell the difference. We finished the second coat together and called it a night, it had taken us nearly four hours to paint a small bathroom. Here is a picture after the second coat, it is a little hard to tell but the paint is a little uneven, which the instructions said would happen.
Now that Monday has rolled around I am on my own again for the final coat of paint. I must admit that I was scared to death. I woke up in the morning and then procrastinated for about six hours before going back to Home Depot to get a new paintbrush for the final coat. I found a large spot next the shower that we had missed on Sunday. I put one coat on that area and then started step three of the process. It actually went very well! I am very happy with the results! Here is a picture taken after the second Sandwash coat had dried.
This is a close up of the paint color itself after three of the four steps, I can not find a better picture of it online anywhere.
The last step to the process is a clear coat polyurethane that can be put on after seven days. It is supposed to seal the paint, however the instructions also say it will darken the color a little so I may skip that step. Once I decide about that I will be able to take the tape down and put up the new towel hook that matches the light fixture.

To be honest I had an entirely different idea for this entry after Saturday's experience. The entry was going to be called "Jobs I Won't Do!" However with the help of a friend I realized that while I am not a great painter I can do it. I can not thank her enough for both saving me and teaching me a lesson. I would have been lost without the help, thanks again! This does not mean that I will painting anything else anytime soon though.

I still have three days off and a small project that I would like to do in my garage, if the weather cooperates hopefully I can get that done too.