Friday, June 6, 2014

Up on the Ladder

One of the areas my husband and I choose to be thrifty is painting.  We do all our own painting, inside and out.  If you have a fixer-upper house, you have to decide how to maximize your dollars and your time.  I know painting is time-consuming, but we need to save our money for plumbers and electricians and other skilled people with specialized tools and licenses. The way we save time is by ignoring some of the shabby paint!



Of course, we did have to acquire some painting equipment over the years, but this has easily paid for itself as we have used our own time instead of hiring painters. We also buy quality paint (Benjamin Moore) from a local store with wonderfully helpful, knowledgeable staff (locals, email me for my recommendation if you want).  It's not worth it to me to have cheaper paint, especially coupled with the hit-or-miss customer service you get at a big box store.


For example, I've been painting exterior surfaces recently, and I was asking the local paint store
guys for advice on how to paint my Victorian porch railing with its terrible-to-access curls.  We talked about custom spray paint, paint mitts, sponges, and a dab-dab (I bought a dab-dab for $1.89 and it works somewhat better than a paintbrush and isn't splaying out bristles). Over the years, I have picked up lots of professional tips and practices from them.

So when I get down off the ladder (soon! the porch floor is the last hurdle!), I will have some sewing projects to show you and some thoughts on food preservation.


7 comments:

jenny_o said...

What beautiful architectural details on your home, although the flip side is all that work when it comes to painting. But ... what beauty.

We save money the same way. But my husband has to do all the ladder work. I always feel like the earth is pulling me over and down, like a giant magnet ... It sounds like you're comfortable on a ladder!

momma-lana said...

Every time I am tempted to complain about our 60 feet of deck railings that have to painted about every two years I hope I remember your railings and I will feel better about our job!

I wish I could do ladder work but it terrifies me.

Anonymous said...

Your porch rails are beautiful.. We too, paint our house inside and out..[Our outside is brick, but we paint the carport and the eves of the house.
Have fun..

sk said...

Margo, I like the way you save time.

(I like your blog, period.)

Now I have to go look up dab-dabs.

sk said...

Um, Margo? Dab-dab? Help!

Margo said...

sk, I'm sorry! I assumed it was a common paint brush and easy to find online. I have just spent 15 minutes googling around and it is NOT online as far as I can tell (whaaaaat? I thought EVERYTHING was online!). So, a dab-dab shaped like a popsicle, made out of some kind of fleece, with a metal frame inside and metal handle. No bristles to get bent & twisted as I wiggle-reach inside the wrought-iron curls, sturdier than a foam brush, and reusable.

BLD in MT said...

I need to paint...but I am VERY good at ignoring shabby paint...and so it STILL needs done.