<p>yeah I guess they are baseboards.</p>
<p>So you think, under the circumstances, I should try eggshell for the walls, or go with the flat due to the imperfections?</p>
<p>mony, I would go with eggshell but that’s just me. Can you buy a sample size of a flat and a sample size of an egg shell and see which one you think looks better?</p>
<p>Personally I like to see the imperfections. 
I like flat for plaster walls, but that is just a personal preference. Other people love the shiny look. My newest discovery is Behr flat enamel. It looks flat but wipes off pretty easy.</p>
<p>The baseboards sound very nice. Your house sounds beautiful. :)</p>
<p>oh one more thing, I have plaster walls too. I tried to patch up what you are describing in my kitchen when I repainted. I went through a nice sized container of spackle and I still didn’t get it perfect… and it took me forever because it was literally everywhere on every wall. Looks much better then it did originally though… but I’m not a big fan of that look. The rest of the rooms in my house weren’t nearly as bad, so I think they must have touched them up over the years. If you don’t mind the look, you could just leave it as it is.</p>
<p>
Roughness? 
</p>
<p>
Your plan sounds fine, I would just add one small caveat - ideally, you should never do less than an entire wall at a time, because when you go back later to finish, where the newest overlaps the dried paint will often be noticeable because there are now a different number of coats on the overlapped section. How noticeable depends on the color, it’s just something to be aware of.</p>
<p>I would vote for eggshell, I don’t like flat on walls.</p>
<p>I would vote for eggshell because it’s a hallway and people/kids have a tendency to put their hands on the walls which means it would be good if you could wipe it when you need to :).</p>
<p>Keep us posted on your progress!</p>
<p>re. patching plaster walls. Some people use sheetrock mud applied with a trowel and smoothed out. It takes a bit to master the technique, but if you like rough walls it doesn’t take very much technique. For more serious repairs, there is a kind of mesh you can purchase to cover the hole/damage and trowel real plaster over it. I don’t think that is an amateur DIY project.</p>
<p>I like BIN primer for plaster.</p>
<p>Here’s another tip - remove those face plates, gizmos, etc. so you don’t have to mask them (imperfectly). It’s worth the effort.</p>
<p>I’m cringing as I read this, because I have to clean up old paint before I paint any room in this house. The people who had it before us were sloppy. I had to remove tons of wallpaper too - uuuugh. And we removed paneling from the bathroom (!) and there was a rough mess behind it. Keep the paneling if it is in good shape!</p>
<p>“ideally, you should never do less than an entire wall at a time, because when you go back later to finish, where the newest overlaps the dried paint will often be noticeable because there are now a different number of coats on the overlapped section.”</p>
<p>Hmmm… Well that section of the wall is sort of mostly discrete, it 's the very front end of the East wall, adjacent to the front doorway wall on one side, and on the other side it’s separated from the rest of the wall by the molding framing the living room entryway. Only the top 15 inches of it continues above the entryway with the rest of the wall. So sounds like if I just paint that one section of wall completely, and don’t paint over that section again when I subsequently do the first coat for the rest of the wall, I probably should be ok.</p>
<p>Alternatively I could paint the wall around the front door, that one I could easily do the whole wall, but there’s some alarm system monitor in the corner up there I would have to disconnect somehow. And also that part may be a little less instructive re: how the major expanses of wall may look, because there’s more door than wall, and the lighting is a little different.</p>
<p>Will keep you posted, may take a little while.</p>
<p>you haven’t posted your location, because I’m thinking that enough of us might live in your area that you could have a cc crew on site with just a little more information :)</p>
<p>lol, jmmom, picturing a cc crew descending on monydad tools in tow. Afterwards we get to shout “move that bus!” ;)</p>
<p>Both Behr and Benjamin Moore have paints that include the primer. This supposedly saves on the labor cost/time, since you only put on 2 coats of paint instead of a prime coat and 2 coats of paint. The trade off is that the paint is roughly twice as expensive as the “normal” paint.</p>
<p>If the paint truly includes a primer, can you put on only one coat of the paint including primer, then put on the second coat of “normal” paint?</p>
<p>I love the painting party. It would be a lot of fun. Count me in - I’ll bring my brush and a drop cloth. It may save you some labor costs, monydad, but you’ll have to buy the refreshments. And knowing our crowd, the cost of wine, beer and cupcakes will be a Behr.</p>
<p>
brush? drop cloth? I figured we’d all just show up with laptops. Wouldn’t do much for the wall, but we’d certainly be able to demonstrated infinite varieties of virtual color schemes using the online software… and debate the relative merits of every option</p>
<p>^^ With many insisting on only using the color - ‘ivy’.</p>
<p>lol (10 char)</p>
<p>We use two drop cloths—first we put the plastic one on the floor. Then we put the old sheet on top of that. The old sheet absorbs the drips & splatters, which plastic does not do. But the plastic keeps the paint from bleeding through the sheet to the floor.</p>
<p>You get to reuse the sheet many many times–more green to do so. </p>
<p>We have begun to use the brand “California Paints.” They have many textures and finishes and my husband says they go on better than any other paint he has ever used. They have lasted longer than other paints we’ve used, too. </p>
<p>We found out about them because of their very high rating in Consumer Reports.</p>
<p>After all that:</p>
<p>We just got another estimate to do the job for nearly half the price, which is a lot better. So we’re paying, not doing. This time around. I’ll still do it next time, for a bedroom or bathroom. The hallway seemed like too much work to start, after we started discussing it here, and now the cost is a lot more reasonable.</p>
<p>The first guy’s quote said the sponge paint was a textured finish that he was going to sand down and skimcoat two coats . The second guy is not doing major wall sanding, so far as I can tell, and is skimcoating one coat. He said if we were doing flat paint, which is what he would choose personally for these walls, we wouldn’t even really need to skim coat.</p>
<p>The existing paint does not really feel textured to me, it’s the underlying wall that is not completely smooth. I think. They are interior walls that it turns out are not plaster after all, at least he said that about the West wall where the door damage is.</p>
<p>We’re going with the second guy, probably having him skimcoat and still deciding flat (my preference) vs. eggshell (hers). I’m voting for flat because it seems like, with so much less sanding and less skimcoating, the residual wall imperfections may be more noticable with eggshell. She’s still thinking eggshell because some decorator (without knowing about all this other stuff) said eggshell, and also because she says she sometimes puts her hands on the wall near the stairs, it might show smudges more if we use flat paint . (BTW the existing paint is flat, I see no smudges).</p>
<p>So anyway thanks guys, sorry for that false alarm.</p>
<p>Do let us know how it all looks after they are done, monydad. And it would be a good idea to “observe” the crew any chance you get so you get a little more comfortable with the idea of doing something yourself next time :). In my experience those guys like to talk, and won’t hesitate to tell you tips on how they like to do this or that.</p>