From a Basement on the Hill: From Gray to Great

A couple of weeks ago, after the demolition and trash hauling were complete, I cleaned the basement up and wrapped it in plastic, like so:

Every surface or object that I wanted to keep paint-free needed to be covered, since I began to paint with this new fun tool:

I got a small, hand-held paint sprayer to help me with this part of the project, after realizing that several days of renting one would more than pay for buying one.  After some experimentation, I figured out that I could thin latex paint down with water to a 30-second run out time (if you ever use a paint sprayer, you'll learn what this means!).  I also figured out that, like all the objects I covered up, I needed to cover myself up as well.  I wore goggles, a dusk mask, a bandana around my hair, works gloves, long pants, and long sleeves while using the sprayer.  I still ended up with a fine mist of paint on various parts of myself.

Much like the demolition, this was dirty, exhausting work, not to mention hard to document in photographs.  After the first coat of paint on the ceiling and floor joists (old, old wood that had never had any kind of treatment applied), which took two whole work days, it didn't seem like I'd accomplished anything but spreading around a lot of dust and paint.  But after 2 weeks and 2-3 coats of primer and paint, this is what I've got:

Wow!  What a difference from the first photo in this post!  A week into the painting, I thought it might take me a month to get to this point.  I despaired of having a proper workspace again before fall.  But the work took a turn for the better this past weekend, and now I think I can move on to the next phase.

And look at this beautiful, clean laundry corner!  Now if I can get some better lighting, I don't think we'll lose any more socks.