A field report from the brush of Catchlight's Dawn L:

Showed up Monday to start prepping the new built in cabinets and columns. We had a deadline of three days, in order to have the room finished for staging for a photo shoot on Thursday. Oh, and there was a dinner party for thirty planned for Thursday evening, as well.  Boston's Best House Painters to the rescue!!!

The carpenters, Dave and Mark, were supposed to have finished the installation on Friday. When I arrived, Mark was apologetic as he explained that he had more work to do. He was still tacking up moldings on the right side of the fireplace, as I began filling the zillion tiny holes on the left hand unit. We somehow managed to stay out of each other's way. The cabinets were finished by the end of the day and I had filled all of the nail holes and sanded everything.

In order for this plan to work out on schedule, and because I had promised Nigel I would have a coat of primer on everything by the end of the day, I chose working late over my yoga class--having the place to myself was too good an opportunity to pass up! So...after grabbing a speedy slice at Nimo's, I cranked up the tunes, broke out a mini roller to lay on the primer then back brushed with the grain. I think it was a 12 hour day when I finally left. Then I remembered I needed to drive to Brookline to turn in my timesheet in order to get paid for last week. Sigh!  (Editor's note: timesheets should be turned in every Monday!)

The next day was even more challenging. There were supposed to be electricians putting outlets in the baseboards first thing in the morning and they had not shown up yet. Kate and Alex were there to put on the next coat of paint and the carpenters were still working on the doors in the basement. We needed to get two coats on so they could be finish painted tomorrow. So, when Dave and Mark needed to work in the living room, I got Kate and Alex involved in executing some punch-list items upstairs. Meanwhile, I ran to the hardware store down on Charles Street to pick up more caulk and to CVS to buy a hairdryer so Alex could dry his wall patches so they would be ready to prime. Dave asked me if I could get a coat of primer on the doors while he and Mark are at lunch, so I grabbed Kate and set off for the basement to rock out the doors. When Dave and Mark returned, the doors were ready and waiting for them--Kate and I took a late break.

It was past 1pm by the time I could actually start the gilding I need to work on in the dining room. The owner had decided that the cabinets looked too antiqued and I was painting over (intentionally) distressed underlayers, evening out the surface with more gold glaze. At times, I needed to stop and assure Dave that everything work out and we were strategizing on the best way to keep this production flowing smoothly without stepping on each other's toes. We both agreed that since the electricians had not shown up Tuesday, there was no way for all of us to be working in the same room on Wednesday. Dave asked me to relay this to Craig, the project manager, who quickly agreed with our assessment. The electricians would hang the lights an stay out of our way, since the outlets were not essential for the photo shoot.

Wait, I almost forgot! Mid-morning, a rep from the glass company showed up to install the antique mirror panels over the cabinets in the living room. He used a mastic that required 24 hrs to cure, so the carpenters would have to wait until Wednesday (!!) to actually install the molding aroung the mirrors. Pretty much in the middle of our finish coat of paint... Dave was anxious. He talks a lot when he's anxious. I reassured him that this was going to work out.

At 4pm, I was still involved with the dining room project, when Craig, the project manager, asked if I couldn get someone to paint the inside of the air intake vent beneath the cabinet I had just gilded. Unfortunately, Alex had left for the day and Kate was staying late in the basement in order to get the doors ready for final coat tomorrow. When I offered Craig the choice between stopping what I'm currently doing and waiting for someone to do it tomorrow morning, he wanted to do it himself. He wasn't annoyed with us, just wanted to speed things up...Craig was still wearing most of his three-piece suit and loafers and was going to break out the black spray paint. I feared for the surrounding finished paint, flor, carpet, etc...When he actually walked in the room with the can, I quickly ran over to supply him with a roll of plastic and tape, then proceeded to instruct him on draping the area, as if for surgery. I continued gilding the cabinets on the other side of the dining room, stopping to notice that Craig had done an impeccably precise job.

Hmmm... I wondered if Craig would like to take on another spray assignment? I had purchased white primer for the tiny square holes in the top of the radiator cover. In the distraction of jumping in and out of the project to work around the carpenters, we had overlooked that step. I asked Craig if he would be up for another challenge. He happily accepted and quickly completed the priming. I was working on finishing my fourth and final cabinet of the evening when Craig decided that the wall above the mantel and along the columns needed a coat of paint so he could rehang the mirror on Wed. I set him up with a mini roller and brush, He said he was not going to cut in with the brush, then as he got caught up in the excitement of his work, ended up doing the whole thing. I left at 7pm and Craig was still there.

On Thursday, there were three carpenters, three painters, three cleaners, two electricians, two house managers and three dogs. Two of the dogs were wearing rain gear with hoods and pockets. One chose to relieve himself on our dropcloth over braving the torrential rain outdoors. Leon, who had just stopped by to deliver a can of gloss acrylic polyurethane from the office, was the first to spot the puddle. No problem; it was a rubber baked drop cloth, which kept the offending liquid from penetrating the $8K Persian area rug beneath. I rolled it up and picked up a new dropcloth and more caulk, along with tack cloths, at the hardware store. Even remembered to replace the missing brass screw in the front door plate.

Bruce and Alex were prepping the cabinets for their final coat of Satin Impervo Timid White as Dave installed the mirror molding, Mark cut the screens for the doors, and Gil made stops to hold in the screens. I was adding final touches on the gold in the dining room, then applying the first coat of gloss polyurethane to the insets (Julie wanted them to look "glazed" like a charger that she had placed on the mantel.) One cleaner arrived late morning and began cleaning the chandeliers in both rooms we were working in, borrowing one of our two ladders, which we were also sharing with the carpenters...Two more cleaners arrived around 2:30 and began vacuuming the dining room as I continued to apply the poly. I resisted becoming irritated by their moving chairs all over the dining room and paused my production to move my drop cloths so they could clean the floor properly. Somehow, I managed to get the hardware back on and load out all of the materials by 5 pm. I had to leave to go to a seminar and left Bruce to finish up the living room trim. He was pleasantly surprised that only his tools and the dropcloths remained to be put away at the end of the day. Craig and Julie had already begun staging the area over Bruces head as he worked.

As I was packing up my materials to leave, Craig noticed a few pieces of hardware on the pocket doors that looked shabby. He decided to pull out his own tiny jar and artist brush and paint them gold, while wearing yet another lovely vest, crisp white shirt, suit pants, suspenders and loafers, sitting cross-legged on a very newly reupholstered antique dining chair...