Day 2: Let's Get it On!

Too excited to sleep in, and still a little jet lagged, I was up and out of my house by 9:30am. I stopped by a local paint store, Sipersteins, in Bergenfield, NJ, to pick up some paint. There I had one on one service with a great guy there to help me. He offered his suggestions and helped me out a lot, since I'm in the industry. That trip cost another $59 for paint, brushes, drop clothes, etc. This is adding up quickly. Since the majority of the apartment is painted in a sand color, and I know his favorite color is orange, I decided to go with a deep orange to paint as an accent wall right at the head of his bed. It's going to look fantastic.

I was able to land a parking spot RIGHT outside his building. Unloading was horrible to a minimum. 11 trips later, I finally had all materials inside the apartment-- the bed alone required 8 trips.

I was hoping to paint and get the bed assembled, but unfortunately, painting took a lot longer than I thought it would. You have to be especially careful when you paint darker colors because imperfections show! Any streaks, any uneven coats will be so obvious. Therefore it is important to paint 2 SOLID coats and make sure that you don't miss any spots. Cutting (painting at all the corners, trims, and edges) took forever. Not to mention how much it el-sucked-o to paint underneath those stairs. I'm talking about lying flat on my belly, no light, and trying to get every corner. The great thing about the paint I bought, making it all the more worthwhile, is that it has no VOCs (Volatile Organic Chemicals) which means that it doesn't release any toxic chemicals into the air, and it has no odor either- so we didn't choke on that paint smell. I'm trying to be as green as possible about this! Check out Pittsburgh Paints. I'm very pleased with the product.

I had a girlfriend come keep me company to catch up, and she was simultaneously cracking up at me and feeling sorry for all that I was going through. (I didn't ask any friends to help me out with this--- if it's my own apartment, that's one thing, but as a favor to someone else, I'd never oblige them to share the burden (burden of pleasure!) with me... so she wasn't being lazy/unhelpful, I refused to let her help) I forgot to bring a step stool, and found myself performing some sort of cirque du soleil act to stand up on a tall stool, while remaining balanced (and everyone knows how clumsy I am), with a paintbrush in one hand, and a wall of wet paint that I can't even use to support me. Who knew that painting could be so exhausting!? But nevertheless, it was loads of fun, and the end result is what made it all worthwhile. Check out the before pics from Day 0, to compare with these after pics:

For the rest of the day, I took all the dimensions I needed for: blinds; more picture frames; the closet doors; etc, and I framed a few of the posters which now look oh-so-good. It made me all the more excited to come back asap and get that bed assembled so then I will really see it all come together. Bed and paint are the main milestones in the schedule of this work. I like to start with the biggest, most important elements because they really give a sensation of the direction and progress, by showing you exactly what you're working towards for the overall, final design. Then it's always fun to fill in with the miscellaneous items that only enhance the entire accomplishment. So by next weekend the place is going to look dramatically different, and I will have to start thinking about other major items like the organization of his stuff, and what to do with that wall unit!