Nice day for a white decking

My first clue that something new was going on in the house yesterday was this view at the top of the entryway stairs:

That is one large pile of stuff sitting in front of one large expanse of tarp.

And why, you ask? The painters were back, tackling the somewhat crazy challenge we presented them with: paint the ceiling decking white, but leave the big dark beams unpainted. I know, could we be a bigger pain in the neck?! It looks like they've got a system all figured out, though. They did a test run in the master bedroom, covering the beams with brown paper and painters' tape, to see if they could get away with using a no-VOC paint. Unfortunately there was a ton of bleed-through from the original stain, as you can see if you look at the photos in that older post. It wasn't purty. We gave the green-light to use a stain-blocking primer - still low-VOC but a bit stinkier than the original plan. It worked like a charm though, and the ceilings are looking great. I can't wait to see them without the beams all covered up...