Making Hay While the Snow Falls

Most of the people I know ran to the grocery when they heard the big storm was coming. I headed over to the closest Benjamin Moore store to stock up on paint. What else is there to do but indoor projects when you can't venture out? Okay, maybe that is a dumb question, but with the house tour coming up in May I'm motivated to getting the first floor ready for prime time.

Living in the city during a snow storm has many advantages, one of which is that shoveling only takes about 10 minutes. In northern Virginia we had about a 150' long driveway that took hours and hours to shovel. And then once you got to the street you still couldn't go anywhere as it took days for the plows to show up. In Richmond we have several stores and restaurants within a few block radius and they are open for business and hopping during snow storms. So, once we're shoveled out, we still have the whole day for the "to do" list and the energy to complete some of it!

In my last post I mentioned that we were going to get started painting the foyer and the upstairs hallway. Here are some "before" shots. Above is a shot of the foyer before we purchased Haven. We have since pulled up the laminate to expose the original heart pine floors. The track lighting is gone and has been replaced by a chandelier. Many more tracks exist upstairs - I can't wait to yank those out, too.

The walls and trim were all the same color when we purchased Haven - well, not really a color - sort of a dirty beige. We opted to leave painting out of the contractor's scope of work as we could save ourselves a few thousand dollars. A few thousand is now looking like a bargain. Look at all of those pickets! Never mind the doors, chair railing and base trim. If I never see White Dove again it will be too soon. Just kidding - I'll never tire of White Dove. Harry worked up top, doing the ceiling (White Dove, what else) and I worked below doing the trim (White Dove, satin impervo). Then he started cutting in the Wickham Gray and I met him in the middle from below. We had to buy an 8' ladder as the ceilings are 11'.

I love Wickham Gray and it looks so pretty coming off the Pearl Gray in the Living Room and the Stone Harbor (all Benjamin Moore) in the Dining Room.

What you can't see it that the paint only goes about halfway up the stairs. Harry is going to have to engineer some way of getting up to those places - perhaps next weekend!! In the meanwhile I have 9 doors, chair rail and base to keep me busy in the upstairs hall.

Other items on the "to do" list:

1. Put hole in ceiling and climb up to discover where the roof leak is located.
2. Make sure snow hasn't collapsed in the window in the basement, making it so cold that it freezes the pipes again. It is going down to 8 degrees tonight.
3. Dig car out - one negative of living in the city - no huge two car garage.
4. Walk to store to replenish beer and wine supply in time for the Superbowl.