Nearly everyone has to be familiar with the kid's book, "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie", the ingenious story where if you give the mouse a cookie he'll likely want a glass of milk to go with it, which progresses to the mouse cleaning the whole house (where can I get a mouse like that?).
I recently had a day like this, right in the middle of our EPIC MOVE. Our realtor, who I must say has bolstered my spirits by being insanely upbeat and optimistic about being able to sell our house without losing our pants, did ask that I repaint our front door. I admit that the door needed painting - BADLY. It's been on my to-do list for two years now. It wasn't a good paint job to begin with - the former owners of our house were inexcusably sloppy painters - but what really made it bad was that we'd changed out door handles and locks. They are a completely different shape than the old ones that the former owners just painted around rather than removing.
So, while Mom continued to cram stuff into boxes, I sanded down and painted the front door, as well as the side window panels. It looked so good that I decided to also paint the inside of the door with some leftover paint I'd found in a closet. Then I decided to touch-up the white railings to the porches, which made the badly stained porches look all that much worse. A trip to Sherwin-Williams had me supplied with deck stain. A a whole day later I had all three porches spiffed up.
I must admit, it now looks darn good - everything is new, crisp, and clean.
In the process, I also discovered a new item to add to my "Best Things Ever" list: Frogtape. I'm not usually one for painting gimmicks that promise straight lines and "easy application", but for some reason I decided to give Frogtape a try. Everyone who has panted anything and tried the blue tape knows it doesn't work...this stuff does. It's kind of high-dollar, but worth every penny!Tomorrow is the EPIC MOVE. Anyone travelling along Hwy 65 beware.
2 comments:
I am so glad you recommended the frog tape. We are getting ready to do some painting, and I've used the blue stuff with mixed results--better than nothing but not like it's advertised. We are going to paint our living room/kitchen and the room upstairs that it opens into. We've done all our other painting, but because this room has that vaulted ceiling we thought we'd just get a painter to do it. That is, until we got an estimate. The guy wanted $5000, yes, that's right--$5000, and said it would take him about two weeks. Can you believe it??? So, OF COURSE, we are going to rent scaffolding and do the job ourselves. You are welcome to help, of course.
Btw, your entryways look awesome. You are a woman of many talents.
5000!!! Holy Cow! I might become a professional painter, at those rates. I'd be happy to help with your project if we weren't in the middle this moving/remodeling mess. I've helped so many friends paint. And, I've been told I'm weird because I enjoy painting - it's just very satisfying for some reason to see a room improve just by slinging a little paint. Just don't ever ask me to do wallpaper...I detest wallpapering.
The frog tape DID surprise me. Usually I just freehand, but I had some hairy areas around windows and I thought it was worth the try. Glad I did!
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