Learn from my mistake....sigh/sob

I wish I could be blogging about the newly installed carpet we were suppose to have in our family room aka man room upstairs. But I can't since it's not in.

Why?

Because for the past 2 days (4 hours on Monday night, 12 hours yesterday...yup TWELVE) we had been peeling off 3 layers of paint off the walls. Yup, that's right. The 3 new coats we had painted on Sunday.

Why?

Because, unbeknownst to us, we had painted with latex on top of oil paint. We have painted at least 20 rooms throughout our marriage and different homes, and NEVER has we even thought that interiors would have been oil based. Stupid us.

That dumb mistake of not checking has cost us a total of 16 (insert expletive of choice) hours. Geoff has to use his usual Monday day off yesterday to help. Peeling for 4 hours the night before barley made a dent (I have the pictures to prove it.) Sanding took FOREVER. Finally I found this product called Krud Off (take notes here people) and sprayed it on the walls....and used a Spackle knife to get it off the walls. It still took a long time but at least no more dust to inhaled....ok ok ok the fumes for the Krud off were probably worse for us but we were ready to be done with it!

Then more sanding, taping and finally primer on 3/4 of the room. Even with a mask on...poor Geoff was high off the fumes (you could smell them even downstairs...it was REALLY strong and we couldn't open the windows since the humidity outside was so high!

My goal is to get the paint of the remaining 2 walls and paint and sand. Hopefully by tonight we will be done.

I swear every bone in my body aches. My hands are swollen, and I think we just took a week off our life expectancy.

Lesson of the day: Test before you paint. Rub white rag/towel with water onto small area of wall. If the paint comes off it's latex, if not, it's oil.

Remember this always! Tell anyone you love!!! Feel free to send this to all your friends/family. This may be a widely known fact to most, but for some, you might be saving them HOURS and HOURS of frustration!!!!

Below: After 4 hours of peeling...this is how far we got the first night.