Been working on a 98-year-old place in the M Streets — full downstairs interior repaint.

I always hear clients say some variation of “it's just a room or two - it should be a quick one!,” but, from experience, on older homes it’s the opposite. We've been on this job 7 days total so far, and most of that time hasn’t been painting. Granted I did most of the prep solo! lol

What actually took the most time:

•   Fixing cracks from foundation movement (a lot of mudding)

•   Removing old caulk and redoing it properly

•   Random patchwork: spray foam, wood filler, joint compound in weird spots

•   Taking down years of hardware (blinds, curtain rods, brackets, etc.)

For these two rooms, they were *way* more prep-heavy than expected. The “90% prep” thing is real on houses like this.

Some things that surprised me are how much time disappears into small fixes vs big obvious work. Every wall had something slightly off. Nothing major, but it adds up fast.

A couple common mistakes I see (especially in older Dallas homes):

•   Painting over cracks without addressing movement first

•   Skipping prep and wondering why the finish looks off a year later

•   Not budgeting time for all the little removals/patches before paint even starts

One thing that worked really well here is that the client went with everything the same color (Alabaster) — walls, ceilings, trim. Gives it a clean, almost European feel and actually speeds things up a lot.

Still have trim + doors left, but this one really drove home how different older homes are vs newer builds.

Curious if anyone else in East Dallas has run into the same level of prep work on these houses.