Magnolias

Magnolias

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

A Penny Saved Is a Penny Earned, 27 August 2014

Today I had a job that paid $100 an hour!  Read on to find out how (or skip to the very bottom if you're a punchline person).

When Jay and I bought our house in 2010, there were two--count them, two--sliding glass doors in the master bedroom.  One of them looked out onto a wall.



(Don't worry; we painted the walls/ceiling and replaced the carpet and ceiling fan.)  About two years ago, we hired a friend to take out the superfluous door and frame in the space.  He put in the drywall and we left it at that, deciding that someday "soon" we'd hire someone to texture the drywall to match the rest of the room.

Meanwhile, Jay and I stuccoed the exterior wall ourselves after hearing an exorbitant quote for having someone else do it.  This wall, too, lay unpainted.

As you can see, we're not pros at the whole matching stucco thing. Eh. No one sees this wall anyway.
Last month, I decided I was tired of looking at bare drywall every day, so I got a quote from a paint company to texture it.  Not including the painting afterward, they asked for $450.00.  I hemmed and hawed and thought about it but didn't commit.

Now this week, both boys started class, which means that I now have 16--count them, 16!--hours per week while my kids are at school.  On Monday I did a lot of praying and list-making and thinking about those weekly 16 hours, and one of the things I've decided to do is pursue making my home visually and logistically more peaceful.  I have a loooooooooooooooong list of things I'd like to do, from re-landscaping the front yard to painting furniture.

What I don't have, however, is a money tree, and it's funny how all these projects add up when it's $450 here and $450 there.  But what I do have is time.

So, bada bing bada boom, after a little internet research I decided to take on this texturing project myself!

This morning I started by spackling all the shrunken joint compound around the edges and screws.  I also resolved not to stress about making the wall look absolutely seamless, because I knew that would be impossible for me to do.  I just wanted it to be better than it was.


Then I read the back of the spackle bucket and saw that it could take five hours to dry if it was put on thickly...which it was.  So for the next five hours I...

...paid some bills
...checked Facebook (but only for a couple minutes, I promise)
...spackled the cracks around the patched stucco on the exterior side of the wall

...patched a small hole in the drywall of our hallway by a new thermostat
...did the dishes
...ran a load of laundry
...ate lunch
...picked the kids up from school (yup, my four kid-free hours were done, but they cozied up with some video games so I still had unfettered time)
...prepped a make-ahead dinner

...and read from some special books.

Now the mud was finally dry enough to sand it down, so I put together my brand new little toy and made a ridiculous amount of dust all over my bedroom.  But it had a little catching bag thingy!  Why so much dust?!?  Ah well.  Sanders will be sanders.  We'll sleep in the guest bedroom tonight and I'll clean it up tomorrow.
Like my floral drop cloth? :-)
Naturally, I didn't spread drop cloths over the bed and all of Jay's clothes and all my furniture. So much dust...
My next step was going to be to wipe the dust off the wall where I'd be spraying the texture.  But I forgot.  Oops.  Moving right along...

I used pre-mixed spray cans, practicing on a couple cardboard boxes in the back yard until I figured I'd set the spray volume close enough to match my wall.  The texturing itself went really fast and was actually kinda fun!

Not that it looks much different from this distance. There's only supposed to be about 70% coverage.


While it dried, I popped the casserole in the oven and put on my Teacher Hat for some homework with the boys.  There were some tears (not mine), but before a complete breakdown happened, Jay arrived home from work and soothed the troubled waters.  I love Jay.

Then we ate dinner.  I love one-dish meals.

I primed the wall.

Then I primed the exterior wall, which was no fun at all because I really needed a roller with, like, 6-inch nap to actually get into the crazy stucco job--which I didn't have.  So I rolled and then jammed the bristles of a large paint brush into as many of the low spots as I could.  I'll figure out how to paint it tomorrow (yes, I know a sprayer would be ideal, but I don't have one).


The exterior priming took longer than I thought it would, but when I was finished with that I could go back in the house and paint the opposite side.  I love paint!  Notice I didn't say that I love painting; but a flat, rectangular piece of wall that doesn't need any cutting-in is pretty straightforward.

Two coats of paint and voila!  Done!


The perimeter of where the door used to be is still visible, but at least half of it will be obscured by furniture, and in lower lighting the seams really don't glare out.  And you know what?  It's good enough for me!

I added up my labor hours of this texturing deal (minus all the other projects) and it amounted to about four and a half.  Which means that I spent four and a half hours of my time today to save $450.00, which means that I basically earned $450.00, which works out to $100.00 an hour.

Boom, baby!

Now I'd better go make up the guest bed.  Aaaaaand take a couple ibuprofen.  'Night!