When a friend discovered how much experience I had in my previous homes, remodeling them, he asked me to be his strategic advisor as he hunted for a townhouse to buy in Northern Virginia.
Although I needed to focus on gleaning income amidst the newly descended era of disease that shut down the world, I had always enjoyed model home tours in the past. Why not?
Meanwhile I could build a resume from this experience for a job gig.
STRATEGIC ADVISOR
Despite my thumbs down at most locations (too much work involved to make it liveable for this busy bachelor who doesn’t diy), I gave a thumbs up to a few.
Flabbergasted by much that I saw, I could have easily built an entire blog and youtube series on that experience.
However, buying houses in Northern Virginia is tough, because the better the house the quicker they are snatched, at a higher cost.
The lower costs that are easier to snatch need lots of elbow grease.
THE INSPECTOR DISAGREED WITH ME
Eventually, the bachelor found a unique townhouse with great bones…however I pointed out some major projects he’d have to tackle that the inspector shockingly pooh-poohed.
Time will tell who was right…because the bachelor bought the place!
WALL COLORS AN ISSUE
Although the bachelor loved the massive deck, he abhorred the wall colors.
We followed the dark grey walls that predominated the main floor and its powder room, up and down the stairwells of the five story town house.
However the house had great bones…loved the uniqueness of the balcony in the stairwell, which can be seen here on the third level looking down at multiple shelves filling a two-story wall in the living room, collecting dust since they are impossible to reach.
Mentally, I made notes that he need to contractor painters to reach all the two story walls in the living room, the stairwells, and every bedroom, and pull down those impractical shelves over the flat screen tv.
And how about that pale pink bathroom with brown tile and mixed styles, where you can see the reflection of the hot pink bedroom, with a peek at the purple bedroom on the right?
The hot pink bedroom needed work to become the bachelor’s office…
And the purple bedroom around the corner needed to be neutalized to become a guest bedroom.
Following the dark grey stairwell to the fourth floor, we found more grey in the master suite, as well as a fifth level loft overlooking the master bedroom, the rails of which can be seen to the right of this photo.
The door near the loft in the right of the photo is the master bathroom full of golds, blacks, and whites and mixed styles.
From the loft we followed the dark grey stair well from the fifth story to the basement, where the wall color abruptly became a dark brown textured paint.
TIP: PAINT EMPTY HOUSE
Asking me where he should start, I suggested that he paint the walls BEFORE moving in, so that none of the furniture or boxes would be in the way, since he still had a few more weeks in his apartment before that lease was up.
Practically, that would also give him time to conquer the purging of his clutter he’s been complaining about hauling everywhere, to deeply minimize the move with the stuff he actually wants to keep!
Since painting would be the cheapest of all the projects on the renovation of this fixer upper, the foundation would be laid for future design decisions.
FORMING A PAINTING STRATEGY
Since the second, third, and fourth floors all had two story walls, he’d need to contract painters.
However all four bathrooms, the laundry room, and the rec room in the basement were all one story, which I’d love to do myself!
It would save him a ton of money and would be a good stretch of my limbs from my cramped apartment across the river, while helping me feel creative again, after moving from my last house in a major life change. =(
AUDITIONING PAINT COLORS
Exploring Home Depot, we obtained a granite sample very similar to his current kitchen granite.
Since he didn’t like all the granite running up the walls from the countertop (neither did I), I showed him a limestone tile option for a new backsplash (which he liked).
Organizing paint chips by color family around the granite and limestone samples, I saw an ah-ha moment in his mind.
Although his favorite style is mid-century modern, he did not want a single shade of grey, so we took those out.
Saying that green was his favorite color, he asked me what I liked.
I told him that I liked the sage greens for the second, third and fourth floors, since they neutrally warm up the house in a cool way without minimizing the feel of the space.
However for the basement lacking natural light, I like soft warm yellow to visually enlarge the space, while brightening it.
For the bathrooms and laundry room, I like the opportunity to use other colors, even more bold, since the proper lighting can offset the color and create variety in a fun and unexpected way that wouldn’t overwhelm the main living areas.
Liking my ideas, he chose a few paint chips of his favorite soft warm yellows and light sage greens for the main areas, as I suggested.
WANTING BEHR MARQUEE PAINT
Since he wanted light colors on dark walls, I suggested Behr Marquee paint + primer, that guarantees one coat will cover everything.
After he purchased small sample cans in his favorite tones of yellows and greens, I showed him how to brush them on the walls to audition.
I suggested live with them for a week, checking in at different times of the day, to see how the hues change throughout the day, from morning to evening.
CONTRACTORS’ PRICEY PROPOSALS
Then the bachelor had me join him at the house to interview a few paint contractors, who provided estimates after assessing the entire house.
All of them were high quotes, all of them disliked Behr paint, preferring another brand that required primer plus at least two layers of paint, at least, on every wall.
The basement, they said, would need to be sanded since they identified the textured walls as an old Ralph Lauren suede paint.
MY PLAN
Knowing I could save the bachelor a lot of money, I suggested he let me paint the one story basement.
Since I disagreed with the contractors, I wanted to test drive the effectiveness of Behr primer+paint in one can.
BEHR PAINT AMAZINGNESS
As I taped the edges of the walls, the bachelor surprised me by leaving work early to help.
Since he doesn’t like the desk niche in the corner, I suggested we remove the dark brown walls and the granite counter top, but he preferred to paint around it now and deal with the niche later.
The paint samples barely seen on the left side of the photo is for the hallway…
The “basement” hallway with four doors for access to the garage, a half-space storage unit, a powder room, and the laundry room under the stairs.
The paint samples are of light greens and yellows…
Not really a basement, but dubbed as such in NoVA because of this typical townhouse style of a utility area underneath the main floor of the house with the official front door on the second level.
After a full day together, we covered the entire room in yellow: Spanish Lace of Behr Marquee paint + primer…and it looked great!
It was such a positive turn around in the feel of the space…but I never thought to take pictures.
Since some areas needed random touches, we agreed to paint a second coat that would seal the deal of success!
No sanding, no extra primer coat needed. Behr Marquee paint + primer for the win!
PREPPING FOR GRANDBABY ARRIVAL
Meanwhile I received an emergency call from my daughter (C), who was soon due to have her first baby.
I was on the back up list if she needed a ride to the hospital while her hubby (A) was at work.
Since it was during the world wide disease, only one person could be with her during delivery, and no guests after the birth. =(
No, she wasn’t in labor…but she hadn’t yet prepared the baby room. Could I help?
After painting on Monday, I spent Tuesday through Friday at her apartment, organizing everything!
Oh, my…all the baby gifts were stacked up in the living room and spare bathroom. Where did they want all that to go?
They somehow wanted to squeeze all that into the spare bedroom, which had all the overflow stuff they hadn’t been using since they moved in nine months ago.
Her hubby told me just tell him what he needs to throw away/donate, and he would, and did.
By Friday, my kids and I had a baby room ready!
SHE’S A YANKEE DOODLE DANDY
Meanwhile, the bachelor scheduled Saturday, July 4th, to finish the paint job.
Awww…not the way I hoped to spend my favorite day of the year, but since my son had to work that day, and my daughter and her husband had their last weekend alone before the docs induded labor, I agreed to painting. 😉
Well, imagine the bachelor’s surprise when I arrived, announcing the wonderful text I received that morning!
My daughter had been admitted to the hospital, since she was in labor!
Months ago A said he wanted the baby born on the 4th of July…and here he was texting me that it was going to happen!
That afternoon, A phone called me so I could hear my new granddaughter crying! Awwww….
Since no guests could visit at all due to the worldwide disease, I had to wait until Monday when C came home with the baby.
CONQUERED WITH BEHR MARQUEE PAINT
Since Behr Marquee paint did such a fabulous job with nearly one coat of paint, no one would ever know that a suede texture lies underneath!
So the bachelor chose a contractor and negotiated only the spaces with 2 story walls to be painted, with Behr Marquee…with up to 2 coats needed, but no extra primer coat…which saved him a lot of money in time and labor costs.
Meanwhile, I drove across the river to check with the painters each day, while the bachelor was at work.
The painters all told me how much they loved the color choices, brightening the dismal dark grey that previously overruled the townhouse.
The house looks so much brighter! I wish I had taken pictures, but I forgot in the few moments I was over there.
REMOVING DESK NICHE
Later in July, I suggested we get rid of all the random pieces of granite, but they were all too heavy for us to dispose of ourselves.
When he feared he’d have to pay to haul away the massively heavy granite slab in the desk niche to the county dump, he started listing all the clutter he’d stuff into his car to get the most bang for his buck.
Immediately, I suggested I use my Nextdoor App for all those items, including the smaller pieces of random granite we found in various places: free for whoever comes to haul away.
Proclaiming no one would ever come, the bachelor was flabbergasted when many people happily hauled away everything the bachelor was willing to yield!
That’s how I spent my unique summer of 2020 during a dreaded worldwide disease! 😉
