Well, DH has upset the applecart.
After laying out soaker hoses throughout the vegetable garden last week, they've been sitting in the dirt doing nothing. I thought I would advance the cause and place landscape fabric over the hoses, then dig up about 100 pounds of wood chip mulch to cover the fabric to keep in the moisture.
Unbeknownst to me, this is so very very wrong it is worthy of banishment from the garden. I swear, sometimes that man can suck the joy out of a baby kitten.
I'm back to working inside the house, so looks like I'm back on track to finishing up some inside projects.
First thing's first... the upstairs bathroom was painted with antique white flat paint and has already started peeling near the tub insert. We purchased semi-gloss about 2 months ago and it's been sitting in the basement, waiting for some attention.
It's gonna get some love today.....
Showing posts with label paint. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paint. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Dry Wall Finishing & Paint
A lot has happened, and I want to update, but I also want a placeholder for pics and tips that will likely come to mind.
So, this is it.
Aldrine finished hanging all the dry wall in pretty short order. There were few problems, save for a missed closet light ("Funny bulge in there Aldrine..." "Huh? Oops!) and an under-counter light wire that got drywalled over a stud creating a funny high spot. Aldrine just thought we were REALLY bad framers.
While he ought to know (he made our framing looks REALLY good), we aren't THAT bad. The repair was seamless and invisible.
The end result was beautiful.
There are three tips that I want to pass on:
1) Pay attention to your furring lumber. Just discard racked boards. Later in the process you'll know to do this, but we screwed up our finish because of some boards we put up early and didn't catch until after drywall was up and finished. Most folks won't notice but some will. So, when the lumber comes in, look at every 1X4 down its length. If it twists or is warped badly, pull it. You can cut it into short blocks where the twist or warp won't matter.
2) If your ceiling joists are really uneven, run 1x3's at 90' at 16" intervals all the way across them. We screwed them but you can nail them. You can then adjust them by getting your head up very high s you can look down each run and lower the boards in places where the joists are higher. This creates a nice reasonably level, wide nailing area for your dry wallers. Your ceilings will look MUCH better. We're told that a rolling scaffold works very well, but we managed with just 2 6' ladders.
3) Aldrine insisted upon 5/8" board for the ceilings. He just said, "It's better". I agree. As much work as we did smoothing out the ceiling joists with 1x3's, they weren't perfect. 5/8" hides the imperfections and lays much more smoothly. It looks great.
3.5) Aldrine insisted upon "Straight Flex" to deal with the funky angles up in the attic. If you're a DIYer, try that stuff. He also wanted Durabond 20 for some of the finishing, which he's great with, but he's fast and professional. It does NOT leave you with much time to get it up. They have a slower drying compound that's better for amateurs.
Hopefully, we have some close ups to show.
Once done with Dry Wall, we ran on to paint.
Normally, one primes dry wall, then paints. We were told that if we're in a huge hurry to get in, just spray it with 2 coats of primer (it would pass inspection) and worry about paint later. All well and good.
So we went to ICI and asked about primer. We were told that there's primer and there's primer and then there's paint and better paint. We were told that if we're doing two coats of primer, it'll be OK, but it won't look great and we'll have to paint anyway. Two coats of self-priming good quality paint and we're DONE for not much more.
Both of us hate "half a$$ed" solutions, so we picked a nice neutral high quality latex that we could get lots of 5 gallon buckets of and took that tack. The trick here is we used a standard color. Why? We wanted to buy what we thought we needed and a bit more. If we had 5 gallons left, we could return it--not a custom color.
Next up, get a paint sprayer. We thought about buying one. You can get them fairly cheaply. Alas, they are fairly cheap in outcome. You can also rent a good one. For something like $79 a day, you can rent a serious paint sprayer. Folks, in 9 man hours you can easily paint 2000 square feet with two coats. DONE. Including clean up. How long does it take you to roll out a room?
Painting tips:
Take your time and mask everything off before you get the sprayer. It takes time. Paint before flooring goes in unless you want to have drop cloths.
Make sure you get your walls clean--damp mop off the dust that doesn't vacuum or blow off. It has be recommended that one open up one end of the house and then get a leaf blower and a mask and just blow all the dust out. I have no experience with that, but it sounds fun and ought to work. We used a compressor with a blower fitting. If your compressor is large enough, it should work well. If not (our wasn't) definitely follow up with a damp mop.
Cover up. Wear goggles. I was wiping latex OUT of my eyes by the end. Gross. A mask is a very good idea. Preferably a P-100 respirator.
This is a two man job. Get a helper and make sure that they have a roller. There will be drips unless you are very good. Someone needs to get them immediately and roll them out. Also, the sprayer is heavy, as are the 5 gallon buckets of paint. You don't want to hurt your back changing out your paint. A helper, um, helps.
If you have time, get your trim in first (we didn't). That way, the paint seals it in and saves you a lot of detail work later.
REMOVE (don't just mask or use the "shower caps" that come with) your smoke detectors. Modern smoke detectors are VERY sensitive and they are also all connected so that if one goes off, they ALL go off. Killing the fuse doesn't do anything either. There is nothing like being half way through a paint job at 8:00 at night and suddenly having the din of 7 alarms going off. Why? Because the FUMES set one of the alarms off.
We put a fan on the offending smoke detector, and after a couple minutes, it stopped. We set the fan down and it went off again. Fine. We turned the fan up, and set it on a paint bucket. All quiet. The next morning (with the windows open all night) we turned off the fan and WEEET, WEEET, WEEET!. Take it from me. REMOVE the smoke detectors until all paint vapors have cleared the house.
The outcome on painting with a sprayer is very nice, and very uniform. What paint you do get on you actually washes off more easily, though it gets into every nook and cranny. I figure that the paint sprayer saved about 30 man hours, if not more and could have saved more than that had we had time to get everything in place.
More coming soon and we'll also come back and add some pics shortly.
So, this is it.
Aldrine finished hanging all the dry wall in pretty short order. There were few problems, save for a missed closet light ("Funny bulge in there Aldrine..." "Huh? Oops!) and an under-counter light wire that got drywalled over a stud creating a funny high spot. Aldrine just thought we were REALLY bad framers.
While he ought to know (he made our framing looks REALLY good), we aren't THAT bad. The repair was seamless and invisible.
The end result was beautiful.
There are three tips that I want to pass on:
1) Pay attention to your furring lumber. Just discard racked boards. Later in the process you'll know to do this, but we screwed up our finish because of some boards we put up early and didn't catch until after drywall was up and finished. Most folks won't notice but some will. So, when the lumber comes in, look at every 1X4 down its length. If it twists or is warped badly, pull it. You can cut it into short blocks where the twist or warp won't matter.
2) If your ceiling joists are really uneven, run 1x3's at 90' at 16" intervals all the way across them. We screwed them but you can nail them. You can then adjust them by getting your head up very high s you can look down each run and lower the boards in places where the joists are higher. This creates a nice reasonably level, wide nailing area for your dry wallers. Your ceilings will look MUCH better. We're told that a rolling scaffold works very well, but we managed with just 2 6' ladders.
3) Aldrine insisted upon 5/8" board for the ceilings. He just said, "It's better". I agree. As much work as we did smoothing out the ceiling joists with 1x3's, they weren't perfect. 5/8" hides the imperfections and lays much more smoothly. It looks great.
3.5) Aldrine insisted upon "Straight Flex" to deal with the funky angles up in the attic. If you're a DIYer, try that stuff. He also wanted Durabond 20 for some of the finishing, which he's great with, but he's fast and professional. It does NOT leave you with much time to get it up. They have a slower drying compound that's better for amateurs.
Hopefully, we have some close ups to show.
Once done with Dry Wall, we ran on to paint.
Normally, one primes dry wall, then paints. We were told that if we're in a huge hurry to get in, just spray it with 2 coats of primer (it would pass inspection) and worry about paint later. All well and good.
So we went to ICI and asked about primer. We were told that there's primer and there's primer and then there's paint and better paint. We were told that if we're doing two coats of primer, it'll be OK, but it won't look great and we'll have to paint anyway. Two coats of self-priming good quality paint and we're DONE for not much more.
Both of us hate "half a$$ed" solutions, so we picked a nice neutral high quality latex that we could get lots of 5 gallon buckets of and took that tack. The trick here is we used a standard color. Why? We wanted to buy what we thought we needed and a bit more. If we had 5 gallons left, we could return it--not a custom color.
Next up, get a paint sprayer. We thought about buying one. You can get them fairly cheaply. Alas, they are fairly cheap in outcome. You can also rent a good one. For something like $79 a day, you can rent a serious paint sprayer. Folks, in 9 man hours you can easily paint 2000 square feet with two coats. DONE. Including clean up. How long does it take you to roll out a room?
Painting tips:
Take your time and mask everything off before you get the sprayer. It takes time. Paint before flooring goes in unless you want to have drop cloths.
Make sure you get your walls clean--damp mop off the dust that doesn't vacuum or blow off. It has be recommended that one open up one end of the house and then get a leaf blower and a mask and just blow all the dust out. I have no experience with that, but it sounds fun and ought to work. We used a compressor with a blower fitting. If your compressor is large enough, it should work well. If not (our wasn't) definitely follow up with a damp mop.
Cover up. Wear goggles. I was wiping latex OUT of my eyes by the end. Gross. A mask is a very good idea. Preferably a P-100 respirator.
This is a two man job. Get a helper and make sure that they have a roller. There will be drips unless you are very good. Someone needs to get them immediately and roll them out. Also, the sprayer is heavy, as are the 5 gallon buckets of paint. You don't want to hurt your back changing out your paint. A helper, um, helps.
If you have time, get your trim in first (we didn't). That way, the paint seals it in and saves you a lot of detail work later.
REMOVE (don't just mask or use the "shower caps" that come with) your smoke detectors. Modern smoke detectors are VERY sensitive and they are also all connected so that if one goes off, they ALL go off. Killing the fuse doesn't do anything either. There is nothing like being half way through a paint job at 8:00 at night and suddenly having the din of 7 alarms going off. Why? Because the FUMES set one of the alarms off.
We put a fan on the offending smoke detector, and after a couple minutes, it stopped. We set the fan down and it went off again. Fine. We turned the fan up, and set it on a paint bucket. All quiet. The next morning (with the windows open all night) we turned off the fan and WEEET, WEEET, WEEET!. Take it from me. REMOVE the smoke detectors until all paint vapors have cleared the house.
The outcome on painting with a sprayer is very nice, and very uniform. What paint you do get on you actually washes off more easily, though it gets into every nook and cranny. I figure that the paint sprayer saved about 30 man hours, if not more and could have saved more than that had we had time to get everything in place.
More coming soon and we'll also come back and add some pics shortly.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Back Door Brick Problems
Update to the UpdateOK, ok-- it's 145 years old, but come on....
And we did have the earthquake on April 18th, 2008. That sure didn't help much. Neither did the door insertions (original and subsequent).
But the brick from the right corner of the second floor window all the way down to the middle of the back door is just a mess.
After a little digging, we actually discovered that five courses of the bricks under the window (where there's a straight vertical crack) was actually *built* with half bricks. Read: no, they didn't crack in half, someone absolutely brilliant actually planned it that way. Needless to say, two halves were removed and a whole brick installed the way is *should* have been in the first place. Actually, the entire back of the house's brick work is wonky. The rest of the house is so good, but the back is wavy, almost.
The remaining cracks were patched and a few other places where the bricks looked weak, they were taken out and replaced with strong bricks from the fireplace demo.
Now we can prime the back. The Door will be trimmed out shortly as well.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
More paint decisions
I've tried to determine the paint layout on the decorative corbels under the front boxgutter. Thinking that they're only going to be seen from three stories below, I didn't want them to look too cluttered, but couldn't pass the opportunity to add some color.
We've decided on the pewter base, the green (main house paint color) for shadow, and a burgundy accent.
I hope it doesn't suck, because the painters told me I'm not allowed to make any more changes.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Picking the paint colors- exterior
We've settled on a paint pallet.
We've been picking up paint swatches for months now. We knew we wanted to go with a sage-greenish color and sandstone colored trim, but you'd be amazed at what that range actually turns out to be, and how many of the colors we *thought* we'd love actually turned out to look like baby poop or just sickly.
So we gave up on swatches. No matter what we looked at in a small patch just didn't work out (look right ) on a larger scale. We know because we would go up to a house that we thought was just awful, compare a swatch, and of course it would turn out to be one of our top three choices.
Lesson: Learn from the mistakes of others.
Corollary: Imitate the successes of others.
While driving around, looking at corbels, cornices and whatnots, I yelled out "stop the car!" and there it was. The perfect paint color, the perfect trim... the house was similarly aged and brick.... and these people had class.
We knocked on their door and a wonderful woman answered and we talked about the paint job on the house and where the paints came from (turned out to ber ICI paints here in Covington- they manufacture paints for Glidden, Dulux, etc.) I was desperate to know what the exact colors were, so I gave her our card and hoped she'd find out when her husband returned.
Not to let it go, but I did a google search the next day and found out their phone number from their address. I called, apologetically for being so intrusive, and left a message.
Minutes passed.
The phone rang.
You'll never guess what the husband did for a living.... Yup, he was a house painter. (Now a custom metal worker.. helooo wrought iron fence...) In any case he spoke with my hubby and yes, he knew not only where the paint was from, but it was a custom color and he still had the specific numbers (recipe) and now it's ours!!! (Thank you Kimberly and Dan!!)It's perfect! (see above)
And below is a rudimentary approximation of the colors & placement for ours: (I hope it ends up looking a lot more like his that this picture!) But you get the general idea.
It's such a relief knowing such a major decision is behind us.
Monday, May 26, 2008
How to know when NOT to hire a house painter
1. "What color are you wanting to paint it?" Should not be the first question he asks. The color should be the most irrelevant question this man ever has to ask. I'll have it painted neon yellow if I want, all In need to know is CAN he apply the paint in a manner consistent with the "inside the lines" genre of house painting.
2. When you tell him that the West wall is to remain unpainted brick, and that you only want the front, the East side and the back painted, and you want it painted in three colors, if he looks at you, cocks his head and says, "You want me to paint each side a different color?"please, for all that is good in the world, do not hire him.
2. When you tell him that the West wall is to remain unpainted brick, and that you only want the front, the East side and the back painted, and you want it painted in three colors, if he looks at you, cocks his head and says, "You want me to paint each side a different color?"please, for all that is good in the world, do not hire him.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Lead Safety vs. Lead Hysteria
I'm one of those sorts who views any "health epidemic" with a seriously jaundiced eye. Most times, the louder the drum beats, the less I should be concerned and the more it's going to cost me. I had been viewing the lead paint issue the same way.
Due to the undertaking of this project, however, and the fact that the missus is still of child bearing age, I decided to take the Lead Safe Work Practices course on my birthday. It was sponsored by National Paint and Coatings Association and was hosted by the Northern Kentucky Health Department (more info at www.leadsafetraining.org).
I have to say, it was worth while. I had a few take-away notions:
I urge anyone who is going to be undertaking a rehab or who does work in older buildings to take a Lead Safe Work practices course. Those dusty work clothes that you come home in, or that bathroom remodel you're doing could be causing neurological and developmental problems in your children. It won't take a whole lot to dramatically decrease the health risks to your family, but you have to know what they are before you can do anything about them.
The good news is that these courses are often free or very affordable. The Northern Ky. Dept. of Health plans to be offering them quarterly (www.nkyhealth.org) . Cincinnati is also offering these courses.
Course Cost: Only $25
Work safe folks.
Due to the undertaking of this project, however, and the fact that the missus is still of child bearing age, I decided to take the Lead Safe Work Practices course on my birthday. It was sponsored by National Paint and Coatings Association and was hosted by the Northern Kentucky Health Department (more info at www.leadsafetraining.org).
I have to say, it was worth while. I had a few take-away notions:
- Lead is both far more dangerous in some contexts than most folks realize, and yet less dangerous in other contexts than many think.
- Don't ignore serious lead risks, but don't panic, either. It's not that big a deal to deal with lead paint hazards in a safe manner, and it can be extremely dangerous to do a "quick and dirty" removal of a lead hazard.
- Lead paint is not nuclear waste
- Even very small amounts of lead can be a very serious threat to children and pregnant women.
I urge anyone who is going to be undertaking a rehab or who does work in older buildings to take a Lead Safe Work practices course. Those dusty work clothes that you come home in, or that bathroom remodel you're doing could be causing neurological and developmental problems in your children. It won't take a whole lot to dramatically decrease the health risks to your family, but you have to know what they are before you can do anything about them.
The good news is that these courses are often free or very affordable. The Northern Ky. Dept. of Health plans to be offering them quarterly (www.nkyhealth.org) . Cincinnati is also offering these courses.
The University of Cinncinnati and Cincinnati Health Department
Combined Lead Safe Renvoator/Essential Maintenance Courses
For more information or to register, contact:
Barbara Boylan (513) 681-4995
barbaraboylan@gmail.com
Course Cost: Only $25
2007 Course Dates:
Wednesday, September 5th
Wednesday, September 5th
Friday, September 28th
Wednesday, October 3rd
Friday, October 26th
Wednesday, November 7th
Friday, November 30th
Wednesday, December 5th
All courses are scheduled from 8 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.
All courses will be held at the Cincinnati Health Department
Work safe folks.
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