The De-Gothening of Dina
Originally published at Dina James. Please leave any comments there.
Well, my house anyway. Not me, personally. I will never not be me. Long story…lemme sum up:
Last year sometime, He Who Enables My Crazy and I looked upon the neighborhood and the many changes it has gone through in the last *mumblemumble* years we’ve been here and decided it was time to move. Now, we are both aware that neighborhoods grow and change, and we’ve been here a significant amount of time. What was once a quiet street in an out-of-the-way part of a small town has become noisy and crowded and busy. Both of us are former military brats, and eighteen months was the longest either of us had ever spent anywhere while we were growing up, so the fact that we’ve been in this house for as long as we have is utterly amazing. For people who were accustomed to uprooting everything every other year and moving to not just a new house, but a new location entirely, settling down was a foreign concept. This is likely the reason we’ve stayed in our little house on our quiet street for so long, and the neighborhood just grew around us while we went about our lives.
The time has now come for that to change. We’ve been poking around online looking at houses here and there, but nothing really serious. We know we’re going to move. It’s just a question of when and where. First things first, though, and that means selling our current house. Toward the end of summer last year, I spoke with my realtor. I’ve known her for *mumblemumble* (Look, she SOLD ME THIS HOUSE, okay? I’m just as surprised as you that she’s still in the game, but I’m so glad she is, as she’s awesome.), and she gave us a list of things to do before we list our property. Many things on that list include undoing things I’ve spent the last *mumblemumble* doing to make this house mine. Every room is a different color, and that’s not going to fly with potential buyers (especially my black and silver foyer). So…yeah. In order to put this house on the market (I’m hoping to do so by June at least. It depends on how fast we get things in shape.), we’re going to have to de-Gothify it. (MY LITTLE BLACK EVIL HEART IS BREAKING, OKAY? I WEEP AT THIS TO-DO LIST!)
So, well…*sigh*. Please don’t judge me for the mundane you’re about to see. This is not about me. (YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HARD THAT IS TO SAY. It was even harder to accept.) Cut here for pic!spam.
Here’s how I had the living room painted before we started. Some friends and I spent days doing this once upon a time:
Shout-out here to Glidden Ultra-Hide paint from Home Depot. That stuff has amazing coverage, even after just one coat. Special thanks to awesome friend S. who rocked helping with this part. (Note: the hearth was done with special masonry paint to cover it. Only the mantel was done with the Glidden.)
It’s getting toward evening here by the time we get the trim done and the second coat/ceiling started. My living room is huge.
We had some more help.
Nooooooo! My ceiling!
Day Two. Second coat on walls and ceiling done. Special thanks to awesome friend T. for help with this part.
Another coat of masonry paint on the hearth…
…put up new curtain rods…
…move the furniture back into place, and done. For now. (Yes, those are broadswords above the fireplace. What?)
I…
I…
It’s undeniable now. This is happening. This is real. There’s no going back. I still need to add another coat of paint with actual not-blinding snow-white color (“Navajo Sand“, AKA “beige that matches the outlet covers”), but that room is 90% done.
Now for the rest of the house. It’s slow going, because we’re living here, so any painting involves moving furniture and draping things with plastic and so on, and that takes time. Don’t be surprised if you don’t see me around my usual haunts for awhile. I go into kind of a reverse hibernation anyway when summer rolls around, and they’re calling for their first 80 degree day here this week (which personally I think is a mistake, because the day before and the day after are like 20 degrees cooler, so…is that a typo, guys? It’s a typo, right…? Apparently it isn’t, because IT’S STILL THERE on weather.gov)
Oh, and let’s not forget the yard. Or the outside paint. The black trim (I AM NOT CHANGING THAT! I HAVE MY LIMITS!) around my windows needs some touching up, and there are some blackberry weeds bushes that need taming. I have those on the hit list for tomorrow. A handyperson friend is coming over to help me with that in the morning, before the Daystar of Death gets too high in the sky and frightens me back indoors.
I envision many runs to the local landfill to discard paint cans and other debris properly in my future, as well as several trips to the charity shop to donate things I unearth, and possibly a yard sale. Apparently I’m going to be out in the sunlight this summer against my will. I’ll pick up more sunscreen tomorrow.
*sigh*
