It is a daunting task. I'm in the process of doing it in our own home on the lower level.

One step I would add is after you prime it, run some caulk (either clear or white would be fine) where the molding butts up against the wall to fill in any gaps. That's a step many DIYers leave out, but is a professional touch. Also after priming, if you see any nail hole indentations or deep dings, fill them with wood filler and sand once dry.

If you can't get the Impervo, a similar paint is SW ProClassic waterborne satin. Put on two coats of finish paint, sanding lightly between.

One other step I would do to protect your beautiful floors from paint seepage is, once you've taped them, press tape down firmly twice with a flexible putty knife and you might even consider running a line of clear polyacrylic along the tape edge to totally seal the tape edge. If you can get the tape edge under the bottom of your molding, then you won't need this step. That would save you from having to go back and scrape off any paint seepage from your floors. Then when you pull the tape, you'll get a real clean line with no seepage.

Once you're done, stand back and admire the results as I'm sure you will be pleased.

Good luck.

Thanks for the tip about the tape and the putty knife. I think I might also get a huge roll of masking paper and cover the areas I'm working on at any given time. Just in case. We had the floors finished with a new coat of poly just a few weeks back so I don't want to be scraping paint off of it if I can avoid it!

Is your project going smoothly? This was a big decision for us, but I know it's the only way to make the house "mine". How long are these steps taking you? I'm curious if I'll be able to finish priming a room in a day or if it'll take mulitple days per room.

I like to let the coats of primer and paint (two coats) dry for 24 hours, so one room is a multi day task, but you should be able to finish one coat of either primer or paint in one room per day. I've also been working around furniture which has to be moved around constantly.

Are you doing doors and windows as well as trim? Trim goes fast, but doors and windows slow you down. If you don't have time for doors, you can always get to them later, even after you move in. As long as you paint the trim around the doors, you can go ahead and paint your walls, which you'll want to do before you move, I imagine.

You should definitely be able to prime a room in one day. One time saver for doors is using the mini-koter rollers to roll the primer or paint on, then back brush to smooth.

Once you get going, you'll probably have different rooms in different steps of completion. I.E., prime as much as you have time for in one day. Next day, paint all you can of the primed surfaces and if you have time left, prime in a different location or prep a different location for the next day's work.

It would definitely be a good idea to tape some newspaper on your floors around the edges. Don't know about you, but no matter how careful I try to be, drips of paint magically appear and I have no idea how they got there. Sometimes paint drips on a dropcloth and I step in it and track it around.

Oh, I highly recommend a Chinex brush, although I have heard the Dales are very good (haven't used one). Don't know about BM, but SW now carries Purdy Chinex brushes. I got some Corona Chinex brushes in different sizes from thepaintstore.com and have used them to death. They clean up as good as new every time. I LOVE them. But if you have used the Dale and like it, stick with it.

Are you doing white or cream trim?

6. Curse husband for not hiring a professional

Absolutly!

It is so nice to know someone else is already going through this process. I'm a firm believer in trying to learn from the experiences of others! I've read through the forum quite a bit and your posts, along with Michael's and bayareafrancie have been invaluable in sorting out what I need to do this project and what I can expect.

Your method of priming, painting, then priming elsewhere sounds logical. I'm going to follow that advice. I think that way too I can see some of the end result and hopefully not lose steam.

I've only used the Dale brush for cutout work (it's great for that) but I might buy a couple of different brushes in different sizes and see which one works best and then buy a few of them. I've read elsewhere that with the Impervo, if you are painting for long enough, the brush can get gummed up and it's nice to have an extra to keep going. I'm going to practice some on shelves in my daughters room first to try and get a feel for how it works.

I am painting doors and window trim. The doors I know are going to be a project. I think we might take them down and spray them, (I might even be able to convince my husband to pay someone for that!) but I'm doing them last, regardless. But they are ugly flat panel doors and the finish on them doesn't even match the current stained trim. They may have to wait until after we move. A bunch of the closets have louvered doors (they do match the trim!) too so spraying is really the best way to go.

I'm going with white, not cream. I've got to decide on which white in a couple of hours though. I'm buying everything today and hope to start tomorrow. BM White (01) or White Dove is what the Impervo comes in. I'm going to go ask in the decorating forum for opinions. I'm leaning toward White (01) just because it's a "cleaner" white. But then I think White Dove is probably a little more forgiving, not being so stark. Are you doing white or cream? Now that you've done it, do you find that painting the trim really does lighten up a room?

Sounds like a great plan - taking the doors off and spraying them.

YES, the painted trim really brightens up a room, esp. in the case of the doors. It also unifies the house from room to room if you are doing different paint colors in each room. What really made a difference for me is that our den had dark paneling in it at chair rail height. I toyed with removing it, but was concerned about what I would find behind it, so I just painted the paneling white with the thought that it would resemble wainscoting. That REALLY helped brighten up an otherwise dark and dreary room.

I'm doing white white (SW Extra White) mainly because the upstairs trim was originally painted white and I'm just working on painting the downstairs stained trim - it's a colonial style house. The white does look super crisp.

That being said, I think that in our next home (we plan to build a one story retirement home in a few years), I would probably do a cream color-just slightly off white.

I don't think you could go wrong with either the White Dove or the plain white. Up against a more saturated wall color, the cream will look white. If you've chosen your wall paint colors already, you might ask what the decorator at BM thinks regarding which white might look best with your wall choices.

When I painted all the trim and doors in a previous home I skipped the sanding, but did clean everything with TSP substitute. Then used a good bonding primer (Zinsser or BIN, I don't remember which one). We lived in that house for over 10 years after I painted and only had to do minor touchups when we sold it.

Hey randita- hope you see this! The trim painting is coming along, but wow is it tedious. How are you doing? I had some dripping issues with the Impervo that I've resolved by switching to wider 2.5" Purdy Chinex brushes- they really are the best and clean up really well.

I have a question for you or anyone who can answer: what type of caulk should I use along the trim? I wasn't going to do that despite the suggestion but I realize now that it will look way better if I do. I stood in the caulk aisle at Home Depot and was overwhelemed with the choices, there were so many! Suggestions?

Go back to Home Depot's caulk aisle.

Find DAP Dynaflex 230. It's an acrylic, elastomeric caulk.

That will take some practice too.
Be sure to snip the tip to about 1/8" working tip. A large cut will waste caulk.
Cut tip at a 45 degree angle and apply the caulk at that angle. Caulking is best done after primer. It adheres readily to primer. Wait at least 4 hours before painting over the caulk.

For deep voids, be sure to insert a caulking backer rod (foam like) to prevent sagging and excessive caulk use.

Apply caulk, wipe with damp finger or better than that, a small portion of a damp grouting sponge.

Use caulk on miters too!

Michael

Thanks for the instructions and the exact name of the product! Really, this board has saved me so much time, money and headaches. I've caulked a bathtub before and know it isn't quite as easy as it looks. I've started this whole project in a utility area of the house so hopefully I'll get the hang of it before moving on to the more public parts. Off to HD!