Wallpaper Snafu and Painting Estimates

We're chugging right along with our first major transformation: painting and papering.  I met up with Ron Marvin for another power-hour last week (more on that later), with one of the highlights being picking out all of our paint colors.  I had prepped for this meeting with a trip to Home Depot, checking out Martha Stewart's line of Behr paint and selecting a few chips I thought might work.  Martha's selection turned out to be a wee bit too limited, so it was a good thing Ron was packing the Benjamin Moore fan deck, which, as a side note, I want for Hanukkah.

We narrowed the paint down to these winners.

Nimbus - 1465
Hallway, Living Room,
Master Bathroom

Whitesand - OC - 10
Second Bedroom Trim

Blue Note 2129 - 30
Master Bedroom

Whitall Brown HC - 69
Hallway Bathroom Trim

Decorators White CC - 20
All Other Trim

And the wallpaper line up!

Hallway Bathroom Paper

Second Bedroom Paper

I had all our duckies in a cute little row, and sent Aaron off to round up some estimates from painters.  Our first painter came over this past weekend, super professional, and after the longest tour of our two bedroom apartment since our pre-purchase walk-through, he stopped to inspect the wallpaper for the second bedroom.  "Well, that's certainly not enough to cover this room," the painter wallpaper man said.

I stared at the wallpaper in the box.

The wallpaper in the box.

I can't eyeball this one the way the wallpaper person man seems to be able to be, so I checked the packing slip, which says 18 yards.  Hrrm.  I didn't even remember how many yards we were supposed to order, but I was starting to become convinced 18 wasn't enough.  We sent wallpaper person man on his way, and I cross checked a few things with Beck, our former Clarence House employee, and adored friend, who helped us place the order.  It turns out that we tried to order 72 yards, but because we placed the order in a frenzy of several other orders, this one got a little botched.

The snafu fix has two options: I could return the wallpaper, which cost about $500, or I could invest another $1,500 and get enough to finish the room.  Hold that thought, for more breaking news.

The first painter came back to us with his estimate: $7,500.  I believe this person mistakenly thought he would be gold-leafing our walls and bedazzling our doorknobs with diamonds, over the course of three months, with the help of the seven dwarfs.  Nope!

We had two more painters come through these parts, both with wallpaper experience.  I missed the middle person, but came home in time to meet Eli.  The first thing I noticed was his shoes outside our door in the hallway, which was the first sign this person was extremely courteous and deserving of our business.  Eli, without knowing about the pending wallpaper snafu, started advising us on not wallpapering that second bedroom.  Eli believed that the labor costs would be too high, at least another four days work, and that because of the height of the room, the paper would start to sag after a few years.

Well, I was looking at another $1,500 for paper and another four days of labor, or two gallons of $35 paint and one day of labor, with the option of wallpapering in the future.  We decided to follow Eli and his timely advice through door number two; we will be returning the paper and putting those funds into the labor cost of painting the second bedroom.

Eli's quote was $2,600, which was the merry 'ole land of oz compared to diamond doorknobs.  As an added benefit, Eli was a BuJew, which is word I use to describe Jews with Buddhist leanings.  Eli told us that he believed all things happen for a reason, and in a previous life, we had met and he owed us something, and we owed him something, which was why we were together here now.  I found his BuJewness endearing, and want to hire him to be our painter, or our uncle.

There are a few more final steps before Eli the BuJew hits it big with the Karps.  We need to get a quote from our building maintenance staff, who hung our shades for 50% less than everyone else we got a quote from, and we need to figure out what color we're painting the second bedroom.  I might just go with the trim we were planning (which is pictured above).  Will check in with Ron, then away we go!