The Last Interior Space

 17 October 2020

So we finally got around to restoring the foyer, stairs, upstairs hall combination. We have been waiting for the right time, and weather, because removing the old lead paint and sanding the floors meant hazardous dust in the air - so no HVAC running!

The first thing we did was take down our lovely 2x4 and wire cloth code compliant railings.

Next we sealed up or covered everything that we didn't want getting dusty.

The top layer of white paint, applied in the mid 70's, is definitely lead based, and flakes off easily. We have been calling this 'Linda White'. Below this white paint there is a bluish grey color. Not very excited about that color so we're looking forward to what the scraping might reveal. Here we are in the midst of scraping all the loose paint off.

The scraping is all done. That was a chore! We also sanded all the polyurethane off of the foyer floor and stairs - that took a couple or three days. Then Amy spent a bunch more time stripping off all the old shellac and paint overspray from the wood trim and wainscoting. This turned out to be no small undertaking!

And then we needed to decide what color to paint the rooms. We gave ourselves two choices after deciding that we would try to match a previous color, but not white, and not the bluish gray. There was evidence of a greenish gray used previously, as well as an amber or adobe color which we think was the first layer of paint. Hmm..., which way to go?

We started priming the walls before we decided on the color. Otherwise we would have tinted the primer as well.

And the color we chose is...

Decorous Amber! Sherwin Williams number 0007, interior flat.

Our two gallons of paint, in then end, fell short by just 3 square feet. *sigh*  But it's a fairly dark color and we can see there is plenty of touch up work. Perhaps there will be a lot of touch up work (so we can feel good about that third gallon we need to get). Amy will work her magic on the woodwork. Then we have furniture, light fixtures, and decorating to do. Finished room pics should be in the next blog post.