Enemies, Allies, and Ninja Painters
The house is our enemy. The neighbors are our allies. In an attempt to brighten up the nicotine stained house, we spent one day scraping the sand walls off, another day cleaning off all the remaining sand particles, and a couple hoursspreading some eco-friendly natural white paint. Even before we finished we could see the evil mold and stains fighting their way to the surface. Now, a few days later, the wall is just a white version of the same crappy looking wall we inherited with the house. We have been browsing some eco-friendly coatings to stop the stains from coming through, but have only found one option that is maybe kinda OK for the environment. Anybody have any ideas?
The kitchen was mostly dirty with obachan (old lady) dirt from cooking and walking and touching walls. The living room walls are unbelievably yellow with tobacco stains.
The living room tatami mats were in pretty bad shape, but we had planned to put them back after a week or two of drying in the sun. Lucky for us, a neighbor stopped by to day and offered to give us enough flooring wood to cover the living room. Another neighbor (a lumber dealer) has some left over wood that we will use to cover the cheap looking panels that surround our kitchen and living room.
The kitchen floor is also cheap panel flooring, and quite worn out. We don't want to pay a lot to replace it, so we are looking into staining options - to cover the un-removable dirt. Tonight I just applied a layer of eco-evil stain. It hurts. But for the other wood, which is in good shape and just needs some staining to match the newly darkened floor we are experimenting with kaki-shibu (fermented persimmon) stains and paints. This is a traditional Japanese method, eco-good, and only slightly more expensive than the stuff that requires masks and gloves. Tomoe had to spend the night upstairs because the fumes from the stains I used on the kitchen gave her headaches.
Below is a photo of some of our nice neighbors - they make the work we are putting into this house worth it.
Comments
This is what finally de-molded my bathroom:
3 thorough wash downs w/ very warm water mixed with bleach (bleach is biodegradable); then, after the surfaces dried, a primer coat, then another drying period. This was followed by two more coats of paint on the walls, and three coats on the ceiling (where it was the worst). I have bad allergies, but as long as I left a fan going to air it out, with most windows open, it isn't bad, just stinky. Good luck.
Posted by: Cheryl K. | October 9, 2007 07:03 AM
cheryl k. is right. bleach then use a primer before painting, esp. with white. it will cover the mold and stains. it may go on gray so don't be alarmed. use at least three coats of white paint over the primer. yes, this means painting the same thing at least four times, possibly more. i have tons of experience doing this and it works but you must come to terms with the fact that a good paint job takes patience and time but is worth it for years to come. if the first primer coat does not cover, do a second one. the paint job on your walls has the potential to make you really hate the living space. a bad paint job is depressing and a great paint job feels right in a room. also, don't use a white paint with a glossy finish. you want the white to absorb light, not reflect it. finally, paint should not go on thick. thin coverings each time are the best - it goes on more quickly and evenly. good luck.
Posted by: joe | October 12, 2007 04:44 AM
Good job on the Tomoe, the wild painter, pictures.
Posted by: billy | October 18, 2007 09:51 PM
Great blog! Keep those pics coming of the house improvements! I'd love to see them...
Posted by: Matt | November 15, 2007 03:54 AM