It's all about the primer...

Next to the light demo we did removing all carpeting and the stuff from the basement, one of the first things we have done since we took possession of the house is prime the walls and ceilings in the bedrooms and living room with Kilz. Tom and I had both used this stuff previously with construction projects and have always been happy with the results.

We did two coats of primer. All of the walls and ceilings in our bedrooms and living room are plaster. They soaked up the primer so much we decided to do a second coat! And Tom just likes doing two coats of primer to cover smells and any stains that might exist. We got so used to putting a nice thick layer though, that this did cause a bit of a problem in the one small room that had been painted dark blue (I think they might have used an oil based paint. Not sure is this had an influence on the running or not). In the corners of the walls in that room, there were pretty significant runs. Nothing a bit of sanding after letting it dry wouldn't fix. 

We even primed the floor of the living room with 2 coats of Kilz. When we move into the house, we are going to be staying in the living room since the floors aren't done in the rooms yet. And it will be some time before we have enough money saved up to put down new flooring.  

We primed the walls even before we redo the floors. Primarily just because of how timing is going to work out for us to rent the sander and do all that work on the floors start to finish and moving into the house. My preference would have been to paint first so that we didn't have to worry so much about drop cloths and worry about any dust on the walls but oh well!

We began cutting in on the 20th and had everything done (walls, ceilings, and closets) in the three rooms and the living room in the late hours of the 21st. We primed and primed away! We had some Help from Tiff during priming also!

Guest Room Before (sort of... we had already began cutting in when I took the pictures):

Guest room during: 

This picture, if you can tell, shows how we had some running in the corners with the primer on top of the blue painted walls. 

Office before: 

Office During:

Mauve is almost gone!

I didn't include the after pictures or pictures from the master bedroom. I honestly think I forgot to take before pictures of the master. It was the room in the best condition so I don't think I was worried about it at all. The after pictures are hard to tell which room is which after a certain point. I mean, they just all end up being a nice blank white. Use your imaginations.