Adventures in Painting

[Bailey Guns]

In preparation for moving the wife and I are doing some home improvements to help sell the house. We asked ourselves, "Let's just paint the interior ourselves. How hard can it be?" We decided to start in the upstairs loft bedroom.

So, here's a typical process for painting a room...at least how it's worked for me.

• Make the mistake of allowing wife to choose colors. Wait one week while she contemplates differences in shades I can't even see.
• Colors picked. Go to home improvement store to buy paint.
• Spend 2 hours at home improvement store paint section reassessing color choice. Decide against previous choice. Go home, wait for wife to contemplate new colors.
• Colors picked.
• Return to home improvement store to pick up paint.
• Buy colors originally picked because new colors, upon reflection, just aren't right.
• Buy EVERYTHING else needed for this project on this first second trip because efficiency is important and time is critical. Spend LOTS of money.
• Get everything home and setup to paint room.
• Cuss...lots.
• Go back to hardware store to buy things that were forgotten on the second trip.
• Get back home. End of Day 1
• Get up early to paint bedroom.
• Don't start on painting project until 2pm because of other issues that come up.
• Finish taping/masking at 7pm.
• End of Day 2.
• Begin Day 3 fairly early. Everything looks good and taping and prep is complete.
• Start painting ceiling.
• Realize ceiling painting is a lot tougher than previously thought due to skylights, light fixtures, etc.
• Thankful that paint is "one coat" type paint.
• Finally finish first coat.
• Realize "one coat" paint, isn't.
• End of Day 3.
• Start putting 2nd coat of "one coat" paint on ceiling.
• Finish 2nd coat late afternoon. Too late to start walls. End of Day 3.
• Up early on Day 4 to start on walls and trim.
• Start painting walls.
• Stop painting walls.
• Use up remainder of day removing old wallpaper residue that previous owners painted over because it's bubbling and pealing itself from freshly painted wall.
• End of Day 4.
• Start Day 5 by cleaning up all the wallpaper mess made previous day.
• Re-start painting walls. Much easier than ceiling.
• Finish walls...two coats again. Looks great in the dim evening light. End of Day 5.
• Start Day 6 by saying "WTF?" because walls don't look nearly as good in actual daylight. Lots of thin spots that need another coat get painted.
• Start painting trim.
• Finish painting trim.
• End of Day 6.
• Begin Day 7 by saying "WTF?" again as more thin spots are noticed. Spend 10 mins touching up thin spots and double triple-checking walls for thin spots. None found.
• Spend 1 hour cleaning up.
• Go back to admire finished room.
• Scream "F**K" loud enough to hurt own ears.
• Get paint and brush out and touch up thin spot.
• Spend another hour cleaning up again.
• End of Day 7.
• Start Day 8 by looking at extremely large open-concept living area with 16' ceilings that need to be painted.
• Call painter and make appointment.
• Drink beer two beers while sitting on deck contemplating never painting anything ever again.

So after struggling with 2 bedrooms and the foyer/sunroom, I called a friend of a friend to paint our large living/kitchen/dining room with 16' ceilings. Guy comes over at 5pm, looks at this room and says, "How about $300?". That was THE BEST money I've ever spent. He cancelled an outdoor job due to weather the next day, showed up at 0900, prepped and painted and was done at about 1900. Everything looked fantastic.

Now I'm contemplating how stupid I am for not calling this guy before.

[Irving]

Painting is one of those things that is viewed as a beginner DIY thing that anyone can do, and everyone should start with. I run into the same problem every time I/we paint. It always looks like garbage when I'm done. Paint is like makeup, it can really make a room look much better, but it shouldn't be "noticed." Just like make-up, if you are noticing paint, it's usually because it doesn't look good.

[beast556]

Painting sucks no matter what. Being in the maintenance feild I have spent many hours behind a roller and brush. Its all about prep.

[glenncal1]

I had the outside of my house painted a couple summers ago. Got a good referral, same thing. Called painter, got reasonable quote to do whole job, three days later wrote check and had painted house.
Paint in hair-zero
Paint on clothes-zero
Paint on dog-zero
Curse words used-zero
Beers consumed congratulating myself for making the smart choice-several
Cigars enjoyed with beers-two

Odds of me doing the interior in preperation of home sale-zero

[clodhopper]

I think there is a painting gene. Actually my wife says it. She always wants to start painting projects and tears into a room, gets started and it quickly goes the way of the OP story. About 10% of the way through, with paint all over her and everything she touches, she gets pissed and tells me I need to finish that blanket-blank project cause boop-beep-beepidy-beep. That is when I give a big sigh, and knock it out in an afternoon without getting paint on anything but the walls and ceiling. Which of course makes her even more angry cause it seems so easy for me to do. I cannot tell you what I do differently, I haven't had lots of training or professional experience. My dad (also a shade tree diy-er) gave me some tips on painting when I was young, which I have tried to pass on to my wife, but it doesn't seem to get through. I have just come to the realization that this painting arrangement will continue for the rest of my days with my wife, there is no use in changing it.

One thing though, I don't mind the actual painting. It is all the prep (taping and pulling elect plates, moving furn, etc) and then putting it all back that I hate to do. And since I am a guy, the fact that the drywall actually has paint on it is plenty good, who cares about the color?

[ruthabagah]

Your "Day 1" activities looks exactly like mine.... Wife will get HUNDREDS of samples, ask my opinion but ignore it, and finally choose the most basic color which was her first choice anyway.

I hate painting.

[lex137]

I was prepared to spend 5k on interior paint. The company never gave me a quote after multiple calls we gave up. We did the yard instead, guess my job wasn't big enough for them...

[Mazin]

I was a Commercial and Residential Painter for 8 years, yea painting blows. The only paint I could truly do one thick coat (brush and roll) was Benjamin Moore, it really is the best paint you can buy.

[clodhopper]

Spend your money on the best grade of paint. It really isn't that much more. Otherwise you will be paying to double coat, ie spending more than you would otherwise. Quality paint will save money and headache in the long run.

And don't try to stretch it by rolling it too far. Keep the roller loaded, roll slower, work a small area at one time, maintain your wet edge. Be nice to your wrist, buy an extra extension rod and cut it in half to roll the walls.

[Grant H.]

Quality paint is a must.
Proper prep is a must.
Proper gear is a must.

When we bought our house, we ripped all the floors out, spent a week taping and masking things, and then blasted through the house in 2 days with my brothers pro-grade paint sprayer. Very little needed anything after.

Then I spent an eternity laying hardwood and tile, but paid for the carpet install.