[speaker001:] what kind of painting are you planning to do
[speaker002:] well I have wallpaper in both of my bathrooms right now which is really pretty disgusting
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and um it's a rent house and I decided it's too expensive to rewallpaper so I decided I'm going to paint
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and I've been buying some magazines and stuff and looking at different ways to paint and I'm thinking about maybe sponge painting them
[speaker001:] oh what would be interesting
[speaker002:] either that or maybe rag rolling to give it kind of a country look
[speaker001:] uh-huh yeah I've never done any of those fancy kinds of paint treatments but they look very interesting and you get some beautiful effects with them
[speaker002:] yeah uh one of the books that I bought where it's describing describing the sponge painting said you can like layer different colors and
[speaker001:] yes yeah I've seen that done where there's uh oh I saw one that was kind on an ecru undercoat and then it had a little bit darker sort of peachy color
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and in between there was a sort of a rust uh put on very sparingly and it gave the impression of very old weathered stucco
[speaker002:] ooh yeah um what I what I'm trying to do is I've got yellow tile in both the bathrooms so I want something that's going to tie that together
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] and I'm changing the like the towel racks and stuff the the fixtures out to make them wood I'm going to put wood in there so it's going to have kind of a country look um
[speaker001:] oh yeah that should be nice uh-huh
[speaker002:] and I haven't even decided as far as um what kind of paint to buy I don't have an actual instruction book so I'm really in kind of the beginning stages right now
[speaker001:] well uh
[speaker002:] um it's going to be a big experiment
[speaker001:] yeah I was about to say you ought to experiment on at least a small part of it before you just tackle the whole thing
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] because you might find that it's beyond uh what you're willing to put into it
[speaker002:] yeah yeah
[speaker001:] although I think it could turn out really nice I haven't ever done fancy painting but I sure did my share of just regular painting uh I've painted several houses inside no I
[speaker002:] yeah I've um-hum inside
[speaker001:] never painted the outside
[speaker002:] what what kind of what kind of paint do you normally use
[speaker001:] well uh we used a latex uh wall paint and then a semigloss enamel for the woodwork and my job was mostly the woodwork
[speaker002:] okay uh-huh
[speaker001:] my husband would paint the walls and ceilings with the rollers and I got to do all of the masking tape and then all of the little fine uh trim work
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] where I'd use a small brush and uh try to keep the paint from dripping on the windows and things like that
[speaker002:] um-hum well we only have one only one of our bathroom has a window in it so I'm hoping that um it won't be too much of a a problem
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] I'm I'm wondering if my bigger problem is getting the wallpaper taken down first because I I think
[speaker001:] well I was going to ask if you planned to paint over it or try to strip it
[speaker002:] no I'm I'm planning on taking it off
[speaker001:] I have heard that they've got these steamers you can rent now which make it much easier to get wallpaper off uh
[speaker002:] hm
[speaker001:] I tried to get wallpaper off once twenty years ago oh with a just a scraper and wet sponge and it took forever I would not recommend that method
[speaker002:] okay
[speaker001:] uh if
[speaker002:] well that's something that that's worthwhile checking into then because I
[speaker001:] if you can rent a steamer if it's modern wallpaper it should come off without too much trouble If it's really old you don't know what it's put on with
[speaker002:] it it's hard to tell it's the patterns look like they're nineteen sixties style
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and I know the house um was built around the mid fifties
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] so it may be the original wallpaper
[speaker001:] could be yeah um if it's vinyl it should be easier to strip too if it's paper it will probably shred
[speaker002:] um in one bathroom it's um it's probably paper uh it's silver silver and yellow and white
[speaker001:] um uh-huh  well the wallpaper that I was trying to remove was black this this was in a bathroom too and the the tiles were sort of a mottled grey and had a little trim strip of maroon and white and the the wallpaper in that bathroom had a black background and then it had vivid uh almost neon colors of hot pink and turquoise and lime green and silver and uh a little bit of yellow that looked like coral sands and sea horses and things like that
[speaker002:] um that's kind of an odd color for a bathroom
[speaker001:] oh it was awful it was absolutely hideous and and we had a dinner party before we started renovating it and a a guest went in there and he said it's a good thing I went to the bathroom before dinner because if I had had something to drink and went in there I would think I was having hallucinations
[speaker002:] really well I I've also been thinking about after looking at all these magazines um these design magazines and stuff I'm thinking about maybe painting the bedroom walls too in a color that will kind of um tie in our um our um our uh comforter um with a color that's kind of um um burgundy and green and yellow and blue and beige floral design um and I'm not really sure
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] I don't know if maybe I'm biting off more than I can chew
[speaker001:] well I'd say tackle one project first and see how it goes and if you discover you like it then you can always upscale
[speaker002:] yeah well the bedroom would probably be the easier of the two because it would be just plain painting it wouldn't be any kind of special um special effects type thing
[speaker001:] sure yeah
[speaker002:] it would be just plain paint
[speaker001:] well it's not hard to do if you get everything prepared ahead of time because if you uh use drop cloths to cover everything and you use masking tape to trim out uh all the parts that you don't want to slop over onto you don't have to be quite as precise about how you do it and it can be done a whole lot faster
[speaker002:] hm okay
[speaker001:] and with rollers and uh modern latex paints you can wash up easily because they're water soluble
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and they dry fast so you really don't have to be disrupted for more than about a weekend if you have some help
[speaker002:] hm
[speaker001:] and then if that if you discover the little tricks and tips about you know how you get through corners and how you do trim and uh how long to leave the masking tape down because if you leave it too long and it dries it can flake when it
[speaker002:] it it peels the paint off when you take it off yeah
[speaker001:] when you pull it up um-hum well not I if you leave it on for weeks it'll do that if you take it up the next day it should be fine you want it to get dry but not uh just real hard you don't want the gum on the back of the masking tape to get dried too hard that's the problem it'll come up a lot easier if you don't wait too long
[speaker002:] yeah okay yeah
[speaker001:] and I've I was told I always used the nice wide masking tape but I've heard from people who tried to get by and skimp on narrow masking tape that it was more trouble than it was worth because it
[speaker002:] oh really okay
[speaker001:] uh it rips as you pull it off for one thing and then you end up tediously scraping these tiny little shreds of masking tape
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] and the whole point of using it is to save yourself work you can do a little faster painting and much easier clean up if you use the masking tape but use use good uh stuff and buy it at a paint store where they have the right brands that will go down and come up easily
[speaker002:] okay well I really appreciate all the helpful tips I think you are just made my project a lot easier
[speaker001:] well I wish you very good luck with it and I will tell you that I have retired from the painting business the last time I had something done was my kitchen cabinets and I decided that was too much to tackle I'd hire a professional
[speaker002:] if you were if you were closer I'd I'd I'd tell you you could come over and supervise
[speaker001:] well if I were closer I might oh well I hope your project turns out great and I really uh think that it's exciting that you're going to try the sponge painting I think that could give it a really
[speaker002:] well we'll see how it goes I may just be flat painting over it
[speaker001:] uh well of course that's the other advantage of paint if you don't like it all you do is put on another coat
[speaker002:] yep
[speaker001:] I guess we'd better go because our time looks like it's about up
[speaker002:] yep I I need to go to the dentist so it's was nice talking to you Kathleen um bye-bye
[speaker001:] okay bye-bye thank you