Smooth Moves

One of the things we discussed when we were planning was trying to make the new rooms match the old ones as much as possible. We don't want people to walk in and say, "Oh, this is obviously an addition." If you walk into the new rooms and don't even realize it, then we'll know it was successful. That's why we have the 70-year-old doors and the cast iron bathtub, we're replacing the hardwood floor in the entire house so the rooms flow, and we chose a sink and toilet with an old-time style.

Darryl and I decided that the most important way to make sure the new rooms feel like the rest of the house is to match the walls. We have plaster throughout the house and we were adamant about plaster in the addition. Of course, the drywall had to go up first, but we asked the contractor to plaster over them. When Ron showed up to organize the plaster, a 70-something man who never seems in a hurry, we knew we had the right guy for the job. Sure enough, he has been working hard (along with his worker Pablo) to make sure the walls are just what we wanted. They had to find the right texture and thickness of plaster and apply it in such a way that the patterns looked right too.

Of course, as we have come to learn, nothing ever goes perfectly the first time. When the walls were "finished" they had a somewhat sharp feel to them. When I put my hand on them, I could feel angles and lines. Not what I wanted at all. So Pablo had to come back and adjust the texture. He went over all of the of walls and the ceiling and sanded it down inch by inch. (By the way, all of that sanding created clouds of dust. What's new?) It took him two days to get to every part, but he made it and now when I touch the surfaces, they're smooth and cool with just the right hint of bumps and indentations. Best of all, they feel like the walls in the rest of the house.

So now we can start painting. Ummmm, not "we" I suppose. My job is just to choose the colors. Done! Somebody grab a brush.