Paint Drama and Bathroom Lath

I'm about done with painting the interior. We're saving a lot of cash by  providing this "sweat equity", but naturally there have been challenges along the way.

I primed all of the new textured drywall as well as all of the existing walls with Kilz. I've always had really good success with Kilz, and all was great until I pulled a tiny bit of blue painters tape off a wall and discovered that the primer wasn't sticking. Further investigation showed that paint was coming off in large patches on two walls in a bedroom as well as a hallway wall. Joy. I ended up borrowing an electric sander and grinding down all of the new primer and old paint. These areas had to be re-textured, repainted with primer and then the final coat. A lot of extra work because I didn't bother to prepare the existing surface. Bad designer! Believe me, I learned my lesson. ALWAYS take the extra time to do the prep work! You'll save yourself a lot of time as well as headache in the process. And besides, you won't look (and feel) like an idiot!

The paint I selected was Behr "Swiss Coffee". Yes, it's a standard color, but it's readily available at any Home Depot; its good quality as well as budget friendly. (I was able to buy five-gallon buckets and go through the contractor check out line and save an extra 10%). This yellowy off-white is actually really nice in this tiny house. The trim and doors will be Behr's "Ultra Pure White', giving a slight contrast to the walls. Since the house will be a rental, the goal is to have a basic color that will appeal to as many people as possible.

The other challenge was the paint finish. Again, since the house will be rented out, I thought it would be a good idea to use a paint that had a sheen to make the walls easier to keep clean, so I went with an eggshell finish (except for the bathrooms and kitchen, which are semi-gloss). I decided to use it on the ceiling as well, again for cleaning reasons as well as making everything easier to paint. Unfortunately, the scraped ceiling didn't cooperate. Even though the ceiling had been textured to match the walls, there were still areas that were far from perfect, and the sheen of the eggshell finish brought much attention to these imperfections. The best solution short of major work on the ceiling was to repaint the entire ceiling of the house in a flat finish. More joy. The imperfections are much less visible now.

I have also learned that I could have used a flat enamel which would have given me the look of a flat paint (which I prefer) with the cleanability of a paint with a higher sheen. Live and learn. I'll be using a flat enamel in my own place after this project is done.

The bathrooms are moving along as well. The shower areas in both bathrooms have been lathed, inspected and approved. The only issue was that some lath had bent and some concrete had oozed into the pocket door space. This area had to be re-lathed and new concrete applied and now all is good. There are always problems that come up and you just have to go with it. There is very little that can't be fixed or adjusted.

Work has started on the electrical as well as the tile. Doors are going in as well. It's finally starting to look like a home!