Nevertheless

In spite of whatever I might find out about my attic storage space this Saturday morning, I'm still proceeding with getting the 3rd floor study repainted.

The stair stringer, which I stripped of paint last year when I was removing the old shellac from the treads and risers, ended up needing three coats of paint in addition to one coat of primer.  Not sure why; maybe it's because the 3rd floor trim paint had thickened up in the can and I added too much water to thin it out.  Seemed the right consistency to me.

Had a dickens of a time cutting in a clean edge between the stringer and the natural finish stairs.  That's what happens with old construction: you get those tiny gaps that paint inevitably finds its way into.  When I get done, I'll take a dental pick to it and see if I clean it up a bit.

I had second thoughts about painting some of that woodwork-- after I had two coats on and it was too late, of course.  But the question would be, where would the natural finish stop?  And the white, I knew, would look better once the walls on either side of the stairs were repainted.

They're getting a more intense shade of yellow than was on them before.  I wanted them to pop when I first painted the study in 2003, but in the ambient light they looked practically the same as the pale yellow walls of the room.

Old color left; right, the new

And pop the new color (Sherwin Williams' "Decisive Yellow") certainly does.  Especially on the panels of the attic hatch doors.  There I didn't prime over the previous color ("Daffodil", I think it was), unlike with the stairway walls.  Not having the white underneath definitely affects the tone.  Funny, I was in the middle of priming the stairway walls when I heard it probably wasn't necessary, and new latex adheres better over (clean) old latex than it does over primer.  Never mind.  Those walls had so many patches, splashes of old shellac, scrape marks, and other blemishes, the primer was needed to even things out.

First coat of the "Decisive Yellow" went on tonight.  Weird thing, I had to brush it on, because both rollers I tried to use left bubbles on the surface.  The 9" one was one I used successfully on the ceiling, and the 4" one was a special no-texture foam roller that should have been perfect for keeping the brush marks out of the door panels.  Didn't matter.  I got bubbles.   I let the brushed-on paint dry a little, then went over it gently with the 9" roller to get the brush marks out, but the paint shouldn't act that way.

Maybe I should call my Sherwin Williams store tomorrow and ask them what they think is going on, before I do the second coat.