Adventures in Garage Roof Replacement

This fall, Cathie and I, along with our neighbors Jim and John replaced the roof of our garage. Our house is part of a two unit condo and the garage is a shared structure, so it was a joint effort.

The old roof had been leaking for quite a long time -- at least since we bought the place in 2012 and probably long before that. As a result, there was damage to the underlying wall and roof structure that needed repair. This too was part of the project.

When the project started, I knew it would be a fair amount of work, but in the end (as usual) it was substantially more than I anticipated. Still, at the end of the day, we got a good result and I'm quite satisfied. Many thanks to Cathie, Jon and Jim for all their help and hard work!!

Here are some pictures (and associated commentary) describing the process (and the difficulties we encountered/overcame along the way).

Removing damaged blocks from the back wall.

Over the years, the leaking roof had caused substantial water damage to the rear wall's window-framing and concrete blocks. So to start, I bolstered the rafters, removed the damaged window framing and concrete blocks.

The window and wall after repairing the damaged blocks and framing.

I replaced the bad blocks and re-framed the window. I also repaired (with mortar) other blocks along the wall that had superficial (but non-structural) damage. The end result looked reasonable good.

(Detail: Fitting the blocks into spaces where there were existing blocks above and below the space, proved a bit tricky when it came time to mortar. In the end, I used little dowel pegs to space the block in place, then pushed mortar into the cracks to get a good tight fit.)

Next, I moved onto the roof itself. The garage roof had two different sloped surfaces. One side had a reasonably steep slope, the other shallow (1.5" over 12"). The old roof had shingles on both slopes, which was a bad idea. As I learned (via the Internet), shingles should not be applied on low sloped roofs, as the shingles do not provide adequate protection against water backing-up under the shingle. This indeed was the source of our water leak problem.

I considered several alternatives for the low-sloped part of the roof: PVC, EPDM, Modified-Bitumen rolled roofing. Eventually, I decided to go with Mod-Bit rolled roofing, because it looks good, and I felt it would be safer to walk on (especially when damp or icy). This "walkability" feature matters to me, since my daughter can easily access the roof from a doorway in her 2nd story bedroom.

For the steep slope, we went with conventional asphalt shingles.

Once we settled on a solution, I ordered the materials. The rolled roofing (and associated materials -- adhesive, caulk, etc) was surprisingly difficult to acquire. In the end, I went through a commercial supplier, who in turn, had to order supplies from the manufacturer. It took 3-4 weeks for the material to finally arrive. This caused some concern, since the rolled roofing can only be applied in temperatures above 50 degrees. In mid-September, when the project started, temps in New England are often above 50 degrees, but by mid-October, it starts getting colder and more rainy. For a while, I really started to wonder whether or not we'd get the project done before Spring.

Removing the first shingle of the old roof.

Once the materials showed up, we finally got started on the demolition. We rented a 15 cu-yard dumpster to hold the debris. For $350, we had the dumpster for a week, and could deposit up to 4000 lbs of waste.

To our surprise, there were 5 layers of old roofing to remove.

Removing the old roofing, was a bigger chore than expected. It took a day and a half to for John, Cathie and me to remove the old roofing on just the low-sloped side of the roof. It turns out, we had five, yes 5 layers of old roofing to remove! There were three layers of shingles and two layers of rolled roofing. It seems the original roof -- built in the 1920s -- was an asphalt rolled roof, then later came a shingle roof, then another rolled roof, then two more layers of shingles! In the end, we tossed more than 6300 lbs of waste into our dumpster. Yikes!

Reminants of the old chimney.

Demolition also involved removing an old chimney that was tucked into the corner of the garage.

The underlying plank roof decking.

As expected, the underlying plank roof decking had some damage.

I replaced the sill plate and reinforced some partially rotted rafters.

Removing rotted decking revealed some structural damage. The sill plate, rafters, facia board, and trim had damage, extensive in some places. So I replaced the sill plate, reinforced some of the rafters, and added a new facia board.

The new facia board, with Z-flashing to shunt water away from the top of the wall. 

I used a 2x6 for the new facia board and added Z-flashing to the lower edge in order to keep water off the top of the concrete wall. The old design used a 1x6 and had no drip edge, as a result, water would run off the facia and fall onto the top of the wall. This improvement should help keep water off the top of the wall. In retrospect though, I wish I had added some kind of rafters extensions to extend the roof further over the edge of the wall and give it a proper overhang.  This would have done an even better job of keeping water off the wall.

A look at the sill, rafter, and facia board repairs.

With the structural repairs done, we were ready to patch the roof deck and move on.

We replaced the rotted decking at the eaves with 3/4" plywood.

Unfortunately, the decking was made from old (1920's era) planks, whose depth (7/8") wasn't easily matched, so we ended up going with 3/4" plywood, with shims at the edge to smooth the transition. Moreover, even after replacing the worst of the rotten eave planks with plywood, we realized there were numerous gaps and voids in the remainder of the decking. The rolled-roofing specifications limited plank gaps to be no more than 1/4". To meet that spec, we'd have had to repair a lot of decking. Instead, we decided to apply a layer of 15/32" plywood over the entire surface. That was an unexpected expense (in time and money), but in retrospect, it was worth it.

John preparing for rain.

There was no way we were going to get through this project without dealing with some rain. We used bricks from the old chimney to hold down the tarp. It worked pretty well. Luckily we only had a few days of rain to contend with.

Applying the "Base" ply.

Once the rain passed and the new layer for decking was down, we started to lay down the first of three layers of roll roofing. This first layer is the "Base Ply", which was nailed to the underlying decking with 1-1/2" roofing nails through 2" tin disks.

John and me nailing down the Base-ply.

Successive strips of Base-Ply were overlapped by 2". 

Finished with the Base-ply.

(Details: once the job was done, we did notice a few little "bubbles" in the rolled roofing. These were traced back, not to the mid-ply or cap-sheet, but to this base-sheet. It seems, we should have been a little more careful to get this base ply down super flat with no "bubbles", since those bubbles in the end allow the mid- and cap-sheets to float ever so slightly above the deck, leaving "bubbles" that are visible at times. If I ever do one of these jobs again, I'll be sure to get the Base-ply is down nice and snug, with no bubble or wrinkles in the material.)

Layering on the mid-ply.

Next came the Mid-ply layer. The Mid-Ply is "optional", but it adds an extra layer of water protection. Since we want this roof to last a good long time, we figured it was worth the extra cost and effort to do a Mid-Ply. The Mid-Ply is "self-adhering", which means, it's like a giant sticker. You lay it out, then peal off the backing and press it into place (with rollers). We followed the manufacturer's instructions and didn't seem to have too much trouble. Still, it took time.

After putting down the mid-ply, we installed the edge flashing. Also, as recommended by the manufacturer, we sealed all the mid-ply seems with caulk-grade adhesive. This optional step (sealing the seams), turned out to be a messy hassle, since it put down a layer of caulk on the surface, which later, in spite of our best effort, we couldn't help but step in while we rolled out the cap sheet. (If I ever do this type of job again, I'll won't bother sealing the mid-ply seams with caulk. After-all, the seams are already sealed via the end/side-lap stick-on adhesive.)

Rolling out the Cap Sheet with a heavy roller.

Finally, came the 3rd and final layer -- the Cap Sheet. Like the mid-ply, this layer is also self-adhering, peel-and-stick. For the most-part it went down reasonable well. However, to avoid having too many end-laps, we rolled out full-garage-width 24-foot strips. These long pieces were tough to manage with just three of us (John, Cathie, and me). Also, as per the instructions, we attempted to put down all three layers in a single day. For us, the task was too big for one day. We pushed on as best we could, working a good 15 hour day; But by 10pm we finally called it, having only about half the cap-sheet on.

The next day, we picked up where we left off; swept the mid-ply clean, then continued laying down the last of the cap-sheet.

From start-to-finish, it took us about 20 hours to put down the 3-ply system (including flashing) for a 24' x 18' low-sloped roof. We probably could have finished sooner if we hadn't a) used a mid-ply layer, b) sealed the mid-ply seams with caulk, c) used (difficult to manage) full roof-width pieces.

(Detail: after the rolled-roofing sat for a few days, I inspected it for so-called "mole-holes". I found a few along the roof edge, where the cap-sheet overlapped the edge flashing. It turns out that, in places, we probably didn't let the metal primer adequately "flash-off" before laying down the cap sheet -- after all it was 10pm! what do you expect?! Anyway, by following the manufacturer's directions, the mole-holes were easily fixed -- by heating the surface with a heat-gun and re-rolling by hand the cap-sheet in that area. It worked great and I subsequently went around and heat-sealed the entire edge.)  

By the time the low-sloped (roll-roofing) side of the roof was done, I was exhausted. Luckily, we had a spot of rain in the forecast, so we covered the roof and took the next day off. We hadn't yet removed the old shingles from the steep-side of the roof, so we didn't have too much trouble protecting the exposed ridge with tarp.

Starting to lay shingles.

After a day of rest, we took on the steeper sloped side of the roof. This surface, at 6' x 24', is substantially smaller than the low-sloped side of the roof.

Here's a summary of the steps involved applying shingles to this side of the roof.

• Remove old shingles -- only 3 layers this time!
• Detach gutter-anchors in order to clear the deck.
• Install drip-edge flashing on the eave edge.
• Roll-out and nail-down new underlayment.
• Install drip-edge flashing on the rake edges.
• Re-align the gutter and re-attach the gutter hangers to the roof decking.
• Snap guide-lines for shingles.
• Cut and install the "starter course" of shingles along the eave edge.
• Install shingles (in triangular pattern) across and up the roof. 
• Install the ridge cap shingles.

We faced a few challenges on this part of the roof. 

• As before, the decking was made of wood planks. Nailing into planks turned out to be a hassle when installing the shingles. Call it Murphy's Law, but it seems that I couldn't help but hit a seam between planks when nailing the shingles. As a result, I often had to fight to get the nails into solid wood. If I had to do over again, I would have put a plywood cover layer over the original planking just to have a solid sheet to nail into.
• Rotten eave planking. In spots along the eave edge of the decking there was some wood rot in the planking. At the time, it seemed rather minor, and I decided not to replace it. However, when I installed the drip-edge and starter-course, I felt (at times) the softness of the old wood when nailing. In retrospect, I should have repaired the bits of plank that had rot in them. (Also, applying a cover-layer of plywood would have addressed this problem.)
• Keeping the shingles aligned. As we applied the shingles up the roof, it seemed that the guide-lines we snapped on the deck, didn't line up very well with the natural alignment inherent in the shingles. This gave me no end of fits for a while, until I realized that perhaps my chalk lines weren't all that straight. I eventually just went with the natural alignment suggested by the shingles, and stopped worrying about being *exactly* on my lines. Then things went better. In the end, it worked out fine.

It basically took us two days to do the sloped side of the roof: One day (ok, really a half-day) to remove the old-roofing and detach the gutter; And another (full) day to do the underlayment, flashing, and shingles.  I admit, I'm somewhat of a careful worker and this was my first time shingling. As a result, I was SLOW. 

The ridge cap shingles and the transition to the roll-roofing.

To blend the shingles into the rolled-roofing, I applied two layers of shingles to the low-sloped side of the roof, then added a layer of ridge cap shingles. 

The custom-built corner piece, used to blend the old-crown molding with the new. 

To finish the job, I had to add trim to the facia board on the back-side of the garage. Unfortunately, this little task wasn't so easy. We weren't able to find new trim that matched the pattern of the old (rotten) crown-molding. A custom woodworker, down the street, could make it for us; but it'd cost a couple hundred bucks. So after futzing around for a full day, I came up with a corner design that allowed me to blend the old with the new. Overall, I think it turned out pretty good.

In the end, it was a pretty big job. From start to finish it took more than a month -- much of that time involved research, planning, then waiting for materials! The actual works probably involved a half dozen long days (with multiple helpers). Nevertheless, I'm glad we did it. We certainly saved some $$ and I think we got ourselves a pretty good roof.

Here are some pictures of the finished product.

The new roof, as seen from the front of the garage.

The steep-sloped (shingled) side of the new roof. 

The low-sloped (rolled roofing) side of the new roof.

The new crown-molding trim and corner transition-piece on the back-side wall.

I'm happy with the new roof... and glad to be done! :)

Renovating Bedroom 2 (aka the Master Bedroom)

Cathie and me.

Warning: This post is less for public consumption and more for my personal use. The purpose of the entry is to document changes Cathie and I make to our Green Street place. The entry is filled with boring before, during, and after pictures. Entries remind us of what we've done, and hopefully will give us pleasant memories down the road. I imagine most folks will find this entry (and this blog, in general) painfully boring. Read on if you must, but remember, you've been warned.

Renovating Bedroom 2 (aka The Master Bedroom) turned out to be more work than I thought. Well, yes and no. I knew from the outset that it would be a challenge. I just didn't know exactly how challenging. In the end, I spent a little over a month working on this room.

The room was a challenge because of the baseboards. Specifically, the edge between the baseboards and the wall was uneven and ragged. In some places the baseboard was even and looked good. In other places it seemed to almost disappear into the wall, with the top edge coming almost flush with the wall. Before starting the renovation, I didn't fully understand just what was going on with the baseboards or why. However, they were visibly uneven (with respect to the wall) and in places had gobs of caulk along the top edge. This phenomenon is present throughout much of the house.

The root cause of the baseboard problem became apparent after removing the first piece of baseboard. Apparently, the house walls were originally finished in a material called "Beaver Board". Beaver Board is a man-made material that was manufactured in the early 1900's. It's about 3/8" thick and is apparently made from pressed wood chips (or wood shreds). It looks almost like hardened cardboard. It appears that at some point in the house's history, someone decided to renovate and apply modern (gypsum) wallboard to the walls. However, rather than remove the existing baseboards from the walls and then applying new wallboard, a challenging task, given the baseboards were nailed to the wall below the hardwood floor line, they choose to just apply the wallboard above the baseboards. This was a functional, but somewhat unattractive, solution, as the edge between the wallboard and baseboard was ragged. Moreover, it appears the wallboard wasn't applied too evenly across the wall, resulting in an uneven appearance at the top edge of the baseboard. To minimize the visual effect of this decision, the renovators applied generous quantities of caulk. The result was a baseboard that looked fine, so long as you didn't look directly at it.

While the main goal of the project was to repaint the room, I wanted to take care of this bit of baseboard messiness while I was at it. In the end, fixing the baseboards was at least half the work.

Here is a summary of what we ended up doing to renovate Bedroom 2:

1. Remove the old baseboards -- this turned out to be a pain, since the original baseboards were put down before the hardwood floors. As such, they had nails below the floor-line and had to be cut/chiseled out instead of just pried off.
2. Add "wallboard extensions" to provide a kind of wallboard backing behind the baseboards. 
3. Plaster walls as needed to provide a smooth, straight surface for the new baseboards. This step turned out to be a challenge as well, since the walls were not particularly straight. I spent a lot of time (and plaster) trying to more or less take out the deepest warps in the walls.
4. Fabricate and install the new baseboards. 
5. Prep the room for paint, including spackling, sanding and caulking everything as needed -- walls, ceiling, windows, doors, baseboards, access panels, skylight.
6. Remove, clean and paint old hardware (e.g., door hinges and window latches).
7. Apply primer (2 coats of Kilz) to all surfaces -- walls, ceiling, windows, doors, baseboard, access panels, skylight.
8. Apply top coat (2 coats) to all surfaces -- walls, ceiling, windows, doors, baseboards, access panels, skylights.
9. Re-install door and window hardware.  

"Before" Photos:

Here are some photos taken before the renovation began.

The view looking toward the west wall.

The view looking toward the south wall (south-east corner)

The view looking toward the north wall (north-east corner).

The exposed beam on the north sloped-wall. The plaster and caulking around this beam was chipped and flaking away. Also, the plaster along the wall edge was cracked along the edging seam.

An example of the relatively poor quality finish work of the baseboards. Also notice the poor quality of the wall plaster work. In many places the plaster/joint compound was wavy, chipped, blotchy and/or uneven.

A view of the unevenness of the baseboard trim along the south-east nook wall. Notice how the width of the top edge of the baseboard varies along the length of the wall. The baseboard itself was tucked under the lower edge of the wall-board and caulk was used to fill the gap. The varying width was due to warp/bend in the wallboard as it was applied to the backing wall studs.

"During" Photos:

Here are photos taken during the renovation.

Removing the baseboard:

The first big step was to remove the existing baseboards to see what was going on.

Removing the first piece of baseboard.

Getting the baseboard off was a pain. The baseboard was installed before the hardwood floor. As a result, nails attaching the baseboards to the walls were frequently located below the finished floor line. That made it impossible to simply pry the boards off. At first, I used a chisel to split the wood the length of the board; remove the top piece; then pry out the bottom piece.

That was a lot of work. So I bought a flush-cutting power saw at Lowes. I tried this. It worked ok, but before long, I burned out the saw. I took it back and got a better quality one. I worked with it for a while, then gave up. While the saw worked, it took forever to cut the wood the entire length of the board. It was exhausting. I returned the saw to Lowes.  They gave me a full refund. Thanks Lowes!

I went back to my chisel and worked my butt off proceeding around the room piece by piece. Just getting the baseboards off took a few days.

The baseboards were made of old clear pine. I did my best to preserve them. I hope to strip them and use them for furniture in the near future.

Behind the baseboards, I found "Beaver Board". This was the original material used for the walls. When a previous renovator applied (gypsum) wallboard to the house, he apparently decided to leave the baseboards (and underlying Beaver Board behind it) in tact. It appears they only removed the Beaver Board and applied new wallboard above the baseboards. This explained the uneven (sunken) baseboards.   

The west wall without its baseboard. Here you can see the gap where the baseboard fit below the floor-boards. 

Unlike Bedroom 1, this room had nice even wall studs. This simplified the task of fixing the walls and attaching new baseboards.

Fixing the walls:

Once the baseboards were off, it was time to fix the walls. This involved applying a strip of wallboard at the lower edge of the walls, to serve as a kind of backing for the new baseboards. I also took the time to straighten out the walls -- as best I could. It was important to straighten the walls, since the new baseboards were rather tall (8+") and not too easily bent. Straight(er) walls minimized baseboard bend and just generally looked better. While I was at it, I patched the worst of the wall blemishes with Spackle. I consider myself a seriously bad novice when it comes to plaster, so this plastering step was rather painful.... and messy. 

Extending the wallboard to the floor -- the south-east corner.

Extending the wallboard to the floor -- the west wall of the south-east corner nook.

The south-east corner nook with plaster repairs along all three walls.

A look at the south-west corner of the room, with wallboard extensions and plaster repairs. The sloped ceiling also got some repairs.

The west wall with baseboard extensions and an initial coat of plaster.

The view looking toward the north-west corner, with wallboard extensions and plaster/spackle repairs. 

The north wall (and north-east nook) with extensions and plaster repairs.

The east wall with extensions and plaster repair. Although it isn't easy to see, the west wall "seat" needed extensive plaster repairs. The "walls" of the seat were badly warped and had a nasty gob of caulk jammed between the wallboard and the (old) baseboard. After smoothing the surface with plaster, the fit was much cleaner. I was really happy with the result.

While we were at it, we prepped the doors and windows for repainting.

As you can see, no wall was left untouched. Whew. That was a lot of work. But alas, it was only the beginning.

Each wall had to be sanded, then cleaned, and another coat or two of plaster applied. In all I applied either three or four coats of plaster/spackle to each repair. I kept at it until I got a smooth surface.

The sanding was a dusty mess. 

The dust got everywhere. Cathie, bless her, did a great job of cleaning up the dust. Man I was sick of it.

Installing the new baseboards:

Once the walls were more or less fixed, it was time to install the baseboards. A strip of baseboard is comprised of three pieces: 1) the main board -- made of 3/4" MDF cut 7-1/4" wide; 2) a top cap -- made of 3/4" MDF cut 1-1/4" wide and given a bull-nose edge; and 3) a bottom piece of 5/8" quarter round trim. To save money, I cut the main pieces and the top pieces out of 4' x 8' sheets MDF.  I used my router table to put the bull-nose on the top piece.

Installing the first new baseboards. I put the main-boards on first, then followed with the cap and base-trim pieces.

I did my best to get clean joints. Because the floor was sloped in places, I cut the main pieces to varying widths to track the floor wobble. I also used my rasp to shape the bottom edge to fit the floor. The net effect was a horizontal top edge and a bottom edge that fit snugly to the floor. 

The baseboards (with top cap) for the west and north walls. After repairing the walls, the baseboard went on reasonably straight.

The newly installed baseboard (main, top-cap, base-trim) for the south-east corner nook.

The newly installed baseboard for the south-west corner and walls.

While I was at it, I cut a new piece for the "bench seat". This piece was custom cut to match the curvature of the wall.... in this crooked old house.

In general, I was happy with the quality of my work, but it wasn't perfect as you can see from this picture. There is a bit of a gap at the joint here.

Once the baseboard was fully installed, I went around and caulked everything. The caulk filled and smoothed out any remaining gaps. I used quite a bit less than the previous renovator.

A sample of the baseboard with caulk applied. We also filled the nail holes with spackle and sanded everything down, including the walls. Actually, we did our spackling and sanding before applying the caulk.

I was especially pleased with the new bench seat. This seat previously looked terrible.

A view of the baseboard edge at the access-door shows the three piece construction. 

A view of the closet (east wall) with the new baseboard installed. On this (east wall), I also relocated a wall socket. The original socket was embedded in the baseboard. To be consistent with the rest of the room, I moved the outlet above the baseboard. You can barely see the socket, just behind the chair in this picture.

A view of the north-west corner with the new baseboard fully installed.

While I was at it with the caulk, we re-caulked the windows and door frames. I also re-caulked the joints between the walls and our exposed beams. This one originally, had no caulking and at night let light seep in from the upstairs hallway.

A view of the fully installed baseboards for the south-east nook.

Overall, we were happy with the result. Initially we were concerned that the new baseboards would appear too big and bulky -- given that we raised them up to 8+" above the floor in order to cover the "wallboard patch". But in the end, they looked natural and substantial. The design was also relatively simple, keeping with the simple, rustic style of the house.

Painting the doors:

While I fretted with the baseboards and bedroom paint, Cathie helped with the doors. She did a fantastic job. She also did all the prep and painting for the windows and door frames. Since the windows can only be done a bit at a time, they were a ton of work, especially since she put multiple primer and finish coats on each window. 

Cathie painted the doors (entry and closet), plus the storage access-doors. When she initially primed the front-face of the access-doors, the badly warped. She fixed this problem by painting the back-side. In the end, it worked out just fine. 

The new paint looked terrific, especially along side the old hardware. These doors are so old, it's hard to find good wood to screw in the door knob. Someday before too long, we'll probably have to replace them, but for now, they look and work wonderfully.

Applying the primer coat:

Once the baseboards were in, and the wall spackled, sanded, and clean, we were ready to start priming. We used Kilz. Two coats.

The baseboard primed. Painting the baseboard was a little tricky as we had to tape off the floor.

Cathie primed the windows. I did most of the cut-in on the walls.

Baseboards and cut-in on the north-east nook done.

The north-east nook completely primed.

A view of the primed room, looking toward the north-west corner.

A view of the primed room, looking toward the west wall.

A view of the primed room looking toward the south-west corner.

The primed bench seat.

The primed south-east corner.

Applying the top coat:

We applied two finish coats. We started with the baseboards, trim and windows, then did the ceilings, then the walls.

It took us a while to settle on a final paint color. We considered a wide range of natural tones. Eventually, we devised a process-of-elimination scheme, which after several rounds brought us to our final color. In the end, we were both happy with it.

Before painting the walls, we painted the ceiling. Once this was done (and dry), we masked off the ceiling so we could cut-in the wall color along the ceiling-wall edge. Unfortunately, the edge between the ceiling and wall was less than straight and sharp, so in places we just did our best to fudge it. Generally, our technique was to run the wall color slightly up (e.g., 1/4") onto the ceiling to get a straight edge. Overall, this approach worked well. 

We used a ton of tape. About $100 worth for two bedrooms. We used frog tape. Green for windows, Yellow for pretty much everything else. For the most part, it worked well. In places where paint bled under the tape, I touched up after-the-fact with a Q-tip swab or my fine paint brush dabbed in paint. That worked really well and made a big visual difference. 

Cutting-in the walls of the north-east nook.

Cutting-in around the closet door.

Cutting-in along the ceiling on the east wall. In general I cut-in about 6 inches. This was probably overkill, but I didn't trust myself to get too close to the ceiling with my roller, while painting the main body, so I played it cautious.

Cutting-in along the ceiling edge. This was tiring, tedious work. But also fun, for it gave us our first glimpse at the final coat.

Cutting-in around the wooden beam on the north wall.

The north wall cut in. 

The west wall taped and partially cut-in.

The south-east corner cut in along the ceiling.

Cutting in the bench seat.

The north-east nook fully cut-in.

The bench-seat fully cut in. Indeed, I just painted the seat completely. By now were beginning to see how the room would look when finished.

The baseboard trim on the bench-seat. I was pretty pleased with the quality of the work. Not bad for a rank amateur!

The south-western walls cut in.

The cut-in under the north-east window. This view have us an early look at the finished color combinations. It looks good, don't you think?

Once the cut-in painting was done (two coats), it was time to do the body. Unfortunately, I struggled some rolling on the body. My tendency was to over-roll the paint, putting it on two thing. This lead to a couple spots where the texture was a little coarse. Overall, the result was good, but in the future, I'll be careful to not put the paint on too thin and not over-roll it. Also, I'll be sure to let the paint dry for at *least* 24 hours before applying a second coat. And during that second coat, I'll definitely not over-roll. I know, I know, lessons learned. Overall, the result was good. Here are some photos.

Getting started on the body of the west wall.

Finishing the first coat on the west wall.

A view of the south-west corner with the final color on the wall.

The final coat on the west wall.

The final color on the north wall.

The final coat on the northern walls.

The north-eastern nook with it's final coat on. The wall-edge of this eastern wall had to be redone a second time, since the first approach looked a little bit amiss. In the end, I pulled the wall color just slightly up onto the ceiling to get a nice clean edge. You really can't notice it unless you get up close and look directly at it.

The final coat on the north-eastern wall, near the closet.

The upper edge of the north-eastern wall. If you look closely you may notice how the wall color rides slightly up onto the sloped ceiling. Doing this helped give me a clean, straight edge.

Notice how the wall color is carried ever so slightly onto the sloped ceiling. Again, this made for a nice uniform edge.

The eastern wall in its final coat. Overall, I was happy with the way the embedded beam looked.

"After" Photos:

Here are some photos taken after completing the work.

Looking into the finished room from the upstairs hall.

A view of the south-east nook.

A view of the south-west corner.

A view of the west wall and north-west corner.

A view of the north-west corner of the room.

A view of the north-east nook, with the entry door and bench-seat in the foreground.

All the door hinges and window hardware were removed, cleaned and repainted. The result looked good.

The freshly painted ceiling fan. A previous renovator did a sloppy job of painting the fan-blade arms. The paint on these metal pieces had sags, runs, and was uneven. I assume the poor job was the result of trying to paint the arms without first removing them from the fan body. To clean up the mess, I disassembled the fan and fully removed the arms. I then used a steel brush (powered) to scrape off the old paint. Unfortunately, the steel brush was too strong and it stripped the "antique brass" finish off, leaving only bare metal. So I decide to just paint the arms uniformly white. Once I put it all back together, it looked reasonably good. Maybe someday, if I manage to find a good (matching) antique brass paint, I'll go back and repaint the arms "antique brass". .... then again, maybe not. 

Well that's pretty much it for this project. Next up for this room? Furnishings and curtains! That's Cathie's domain. Yeah! :)