Prep then Paint

As a child I had to do things because I was told to do them.  Over the years, as I got older, I realized there will always be something we have to do, not because we want to, but because it may be necessary, i.e.  I don't eat healthy because I like to, I do it for my wellness; I don't enjoy cleaning my house, but if I don't the bugs will take over; I don't enjoy going to work every morning but the bank will reposess my house if I don't meet my mortgage.

The same goes for painting, I don't always enjoy painting.  There are days I would prefer to do something else, like lay around and watch TV, but I ask myself the question "Can I afford to pay someone to do the painting for me?"

Today I decided to finish painting my interior doors.  Understand it's low 90's and I don't have central air.  I look at my doors and dread the thought of tackling this job but I have to.  As I take off my clothes to adorn my sleeveless T I keep wishing I could paint in the nude.... five doors in total - two baths & 3 bedroom doors... I sigh as I tackle the job.

In painting 101 you learn you have to prep before you paint.  Unfortunately, I didn't take painting 101 so when I began painting I didn't know about the prep.  In my earlier blog I had mentioned that I had painted my door frames maroon & green.  Usually high gloss paint is recommended for door frames so you should sand the frames to give them a grip for the new paint to stick on; I should have also wiped down the frames to remove any loose dirt, etc.  I didn't know, so I didn't do it, but my frames turned out  nicely!  So why sand?  Well because the paint has no grip if you bump against it, it will chip showing off all of that old white paint underneath. It started happening to me.

That was last year, I know a little bit more now, well I should anyway, but when my house is hot I'm lazy.  So, I decided skip some of the prep, like wiping down the doors because they didn't look all that dirty anyhow.  But here's another reason why it's important to prep, it allows you to identify any defects that have to be corrected before you start painting.  If I had done the proper prep work I would have noticed this small hole in the back of the guest bathroom door. By the time I got to the bottom of the door I was practically through painting.

  

Rule 1 - always do your prep, you might think it's unnecessary but the end results are worth it.

Okay, because I don't always enjoy painting, I'm always looking for an easy route, or a lazy route, it depends on how you look at it.  When I was ready to paint the doors I deliberated for an hour, yep, I wasted a whole hour trying to decide if I wanted to use a roller or a brush.  A roller would have been easier but I thought about having to dig out the paint pan and pouring paint and then later cleaning the paint pan and roller.  Whereas with a brush that's all I needed, no need to pour paint.  My decision was made.  

The easy way, isn't always the best way.  I forgot brushes often leave brush strokes, and if your lighting is bad, you can easily skip spots.  I painted two bath doors and one bedroom door and decided to take a break.  Early the next morning, I observed my work, a five year old would have done a better job.  There were noticeable brush marks everywhere plus a few spots I missed. I pulled out the roller, the paint pan and poured paint - it sucks being lazy.

Rule 2 - Being lazy makes you work harder the 2nd time around.

Here's an interesting clip on paint preparation that can be of help Interior Painting Preparation by Danny Lipford.

LET YOUR CREATIVITY FLOW!