My Old House - Part Four

My Old House - Part Four By Theresa Grant Real Estate Columnist I am sure I cannot be the only one that this has happened to. When I bought my current house, it was wall to wall light greyish blue. I was not a fan. Especially given that house I was coming from was exactly that colour from top to bottom when I purchased it. I spent the better part of a year redoing the colours in that house only to find them hugging the walls of my new house. So, I went to a store in Oshawa and purchased a beautiful creamy white for the kitchen. It went on more like a soft yellow. Absolutely beautiful. Then, I moved on to the earthy cocoa colours for the living room. I did the front hall in a seafoam green, and it is beautiful but too much to carry through to the living room. I then decided that because the living room is open onto the kitchen I would simply get more of that beautiful creamy white for the living room. Well, I went back to the store, showed the girl the picture of the top of the can which I had specifically saved for just such an occasion. I was told that they had reconfigured their computer for paint matching, and Behr had also made changes over the last couple of years to their line, so she would have to start the matching process from scratch. At first, I thought oh no, this is not going to work but then I saw the shade and it looked pretty good so I went with it. Well, I’m not exactly sure what the issue was but the guys painted the creamy colour over the cocoa and of course it’s always a two-coat job even when companies claim total coverage in one coat. I have yet to see that. After two coats, the fellow came to me and said that it really didn’t look good and needed a third coat. I looked at it and whole heartedly agreed. It looked terrible. Streaky and patchy. He went ahead and put on a third coat and to my dismay it was still terrible. Would you believe that this room actually needed six coats of paint to give it a finished well covered look! I was shocked. Given that I have another floor and a few odd rooms here and there still to paint. I will now be looking for the best quality paint out there. I will also be very cognizant of lighter colours going on top of darker colours, and how much paint that actually takes. Happily, they finished the final coat of creamy white in the living room today. So, it’s on to the laundry room!