finish painting my room

(Believe it or not.) I got the semi-gloss door paint, which had been holding me up for a while, so yesterday I painted a couple three doors.

I put two coats on a door-frame; the first was the older eggshell stuff that wouldn’t stick, and the second the newer semi-gloss in the same color (I’m too cheap not to use the eggshell I bought, dammit!) and, oh my gawd, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but it seems it is NOT able to be scratched off with my fingernail, and is in fact shiny and tough and stuck to the wood, like PAINT SHOULD BE.

Yay!

The ceiling now has at least one coat all over it, and two in places. I’ve painted some of the woodwork (and it had better stick, dammit) and it’s looking nice. Little by little it’s getting there.

I’ve tried washing, sanding with 120 grit, then 60 grit, then priming these fool doors and trim with Kilz and I can still scratch off the top coat with my fingernails. Not that I intend to go around scratching at the doors; however the cats do it all the time, and I’ve been known to bump things like heavy unwieldy furniture-type things into the doors &c. I’m pretty aggravated with this. I don’t think I got a bad batch of paint, but maybe?

Some good news, though, I did finish painting the walls mauve. They’re plaster and take the paint quite nicely.

This trim stuff is getting to the point where any procrastination will soon be eclipsed by vengeful ANGER. —DAMMIT! I’m gonna paint this room if it KILLS me! That’ll show it!!

I’ve scraped off some of the old paint and I’ve bought more of the trim paint in semi-gloss this time. I was wondering if the old paint I’m trying to paint over was originally oil and that’s why the latex isn’t sticking, but the previous painter swears this is not true, so?

I’ll have to take some sandpaper to it I guess.

The new paint is just not sticking to the old paint. I thought it was because it just needed to cure a bit, but still a week later I can just scrape it off with a fingernail. All right, I suppose I should prep the woodwork (wash it, sand it) properly and not just paint over the dust and smudges.

Also the earlier paint is sorta glossy and I’m sure that’s not helping.

I started this last year some time and since then the room has been mauve (new color) and green (old color), not a particularly attractive combination. I’ve recently bought more paint for the woodwork and trim (I live in a splendid old colonial), and though I probably shoulda gone with something a little higher on the glossy scale, I think it’ll work. So far I’ve been trying to do a little every day, which has been working. However I’m going to have to rearrange and reorganize the room to get to some of the walls/woodwork, and that’s holding me up.