Second Annual Labor Day Paint Fest

No one got on the roof this weekend. AJ got her annual back-to-school cold, and it seemed like the shingles needing replacing were in a tricky spot, so we decided to skip it entirely & call a professional. I also didn't continue on with the black paper strips on the shoji wall. I got sidetracked by the discovery of the mouse highway on-ramp in the garage:

They have been burrowing up through the insulation behind this new sheetrock in the garage, straight into AJ's office and the kitchen. I had to move a bunch of stuff to get in there to block that off, so I took the opportunity to paint that sheetrock, as well as the new firewall in the garage:

As beautiful as the construction project has turned out, at its core, it was about bringing a number of things up to modern building code standards, including adding a firewall between the garage & living space. It's not glamorous, but I'm really happy that out of about a dozen things we were told to get done "very soon" by the guy who inspected the house for us when we bought it, we have just two left (replace the mud sill at the back of the garage, and cap the foundation in the garage). From multiple gas leaks around an old and improperly installed water heater, to the light fixture in the kitchen secretly sparking in its junction box in the ceiling, to the imminent collapse of the whole back quarter of the house (which would have landed on the neighbors downhill), it's not an exaggeration to say that this house was a hazard. It's an appalling comment on the local real estate market that you can spend such an astronomical sum for a house and still have serious problems like this, but it is what it is. At the end of the day, we plan to be here for many decades, so it's satisfying to know we've already gotten through so many items on the Serious Things To-Do List, and that our home is safe and sound for the long haul.

Anyway, it was really warm this weekend, so I decided to keep painting, and get the foundation layer of the bamboo mural up on the walls under AJ's office. Here is the space before:

And here it is after:

(Yes, it's supposed to look mottled like that.) I finished off the ceiling the same light gray as the trim on the rest of the house, as well.

Two days of painting and no one has gotten food poisoning or fleas, unlike last year's Labor Day Paint Fest (click here and here to refresh your memory), so I think we can call this year a success!