Alright, y’all. September is here. The long holiday weekend is over. And I spent a relaxing weekend gearing up for this final push between now and the end of the year because I really want to get the foyer and bedroom finished before we ring in a new year.
But I have to admit that I’ve kind of lost steam, and it’s over a stupid but frustrating and recurring issue. I had hoped to be finished with sanding the drywall in the foyer by now. Heck, I had hoped to be finished installing the trim by now. But there’s one thing that has hindered my progress, and it’s literally the dumbest issue ever. I can’t get the plastic between the closet and the foyer to stay up.
I know. It sounds stupid, right? But I’ll put the plastic up, then start working (sanding) and maybe have an hour or so to work before I turn around and see this…
At this point, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve retaped that plastic. I’ve tried different painters tapes, and none of them stick longer than an hour. I don’t know if this is because everything in that closet is painted with Sherwin Williams paint, and it has some kind of non-stick protective quality to it that makes it easy to clean (which, of course, is good in a paint) but also means that tape won’t stick to it. But this has been so incredibly frustrating that I finally just gave up, decided to enjoy the long holiday weekend and not do any work, and then tackle it again today.
Painters tape just won’t work. And it’s not just the ceiling that it won’t stick to. It won’t stay on the sides that are taped to the cabinets, either. My only option seems to be masking tape, but oh my goodness, I hate using masking tape on painted surfaces. If I go to take down that plastic that has been taped up there with masking tape, and it peels off the paint, I’ll cry. That will mean having to go back and do sanding and repainting in the finished closet, and I don’t want to go backwards.
Anyway, I know it sounds stupid, but that one issue caused me to completely lose steam on this foyer. I can’t finish the walls without doing a lot more sanding. And I can’t sand with the plastic down between the closet and foyer. And while I had the excuse of a long holiday weekend to put that on the back burner over the last few days, that excuse has run out today. I’ll put the plastic back up (for about the tenth time) today, and I guess I’ll use masking tape and hope for the best.
I did finally decide to skip the sanding for now and at least get some trim up, though. I needed to see some progress in that direction. So I got the doors trimmed out and the baseboards cut and attached. And then I got the base cap trim cut, but it’s not attached yet.
Of course, I had hoped to get the walls all sanded and primed before any trim went up, but that plastic issue prevented me from doing this in the correct order. This is what it does after a couple of hours every single time.
And because I was so frustrated, my mind wasn’t really on what I was doing, and I cut the side trim for this door an inch too short. I went ahead and put it up, and I’ll just attach the little piece to the bottom, use wood filler, sand, and paint. No one will notice.
And I did decide to go ahead and wrap the trim around onto the jambs of the closet doorway. I’ll also be wrapping the grasscloth wallpaper onto the jambs as well. It’s the only way that really made sense in my mind if I want to keep that doorway tall and open (which I do) which prevents me from trimming out this doorway like the other doorways.
So that’s it. At least there’s a little bit of progress. There would have been so much more if that plastic had cooperated. This morning, I’ll get the masking tape out and see if that works. If not, I really don’t know what other options I have. If you have any brilliant ideas that I’m overlooking, please share!
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
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