Painting the Inn

There comes a time when a new coat of paint is needed. Nothing lasts forever, you know–especially in a bed and breakfast. Our latest project is our breakfast room. Apparently, our gas fireplace releases a fair amount of soot that doesn’t go up the flue. A once bright room was dulled by the accumulation of dark patches near the ceiling and on every ridge of trim. Giving the room a touch up would certainly be ineffective. A total makeover was on the agenda.

We agreed that we really likes our brightly colored breakfast room that has a cheery appearance the first thing in the morning. We liked the existing yellow and decided on three similar, but different shades. We purchased some rather expensive one coat paint in the same color under the soot. Three coats later, the room is being restored to its original luster.

Painting this room has become much more time consuming than I had planned. There is so much trim! We have to paint between all the ceiling beams, the spindled stair rail, 4 doorways, baseboard trim, and the floor. All of this needs to be done when we are not too busy–so the fumes don’t bother anyone. With three coats going on and time needed to dry between coats, and having other chores to do, this is taking up a good deal of my days.

I’m nearing the halfway point, and I’ve been painting off and on for 2 weeks. There are a couple of places to touch up tomorrow, then I’ll take a break until next week–peeps in the house.

The last time we painted this room, we hired the Wall Doctors to do the work. I thought I’d save some money and do it myself this time. The down side is that it is taking me much longer to do it than it took the pros. As I recall, they did the whole thing in less than 4 days. Sometimes it’s worth spending the money to get it done quickly. The good news is that I will have the satisfaction of having done the work myself.

The goal is to have it done by Mother’s Day. That is doable. That fresh coat of paint is going to make the Munro House dining room look so nice.

Mike Venturini – Innkeeper
“Life is good in Jonesville”