Thursday, May 14, 2009

Picture Perfect

We are in the process of having our house painted. The people we bought it from painted it themselves 5 years ago and they did a horrific job. They did not thoroughly scrape the house before painting, and very shortly after we moved in the paint started chipping off and blowing away. Needless to say, I was mighty pissed. Especially since the woman we bought it from is a realtor. Shame on her.

So now, if we ever want to sell it ourselves, we have to spend the money to have it painted. Knowing our own limitations, we've decided to hire the job out. The guy we chose was recommended by our realtor (not the one who previously owned the house). So far, he seems maybe slightly odd, but okay. However, he has brought his 2 yapping runty dogs with him everyday. I'm tempted to deduct from the contract for every dog shit I find in my yard.

The dogs aside, he and his crew did a thorough power wash and scraping, and they've taped plastic covers over all of our windows except the back door. It's feeling extremely claustrophobic not being able to see outside. Our front door is even taped shut. I can feel myself gasping for air....

On Saturday they applied the first coat of primer. I say first coat because shortly after they finished a thunderstorm blew in and poured rain and hail, and then it rained for 24 hours straight. A lot of the primer sluiced off the house with the rain, so I suspect they're going to need a second coat of primer.

It rained yesterday and Painter Guy didn't show up or call. Hubby called him and left a message, but he didn't answer. I'm hoping that since it seems to have cleared up today he will show up and continue working. I really want the plastic off the windows.

I'm also significantly concerned about how he plans to clean up all the paint chips he powerwashed off the house. He promised me that the contract includes cleanup, but I'm at a loss to figure out how he plans to pick the billions of paint chips out of the lawn.

After the house is done I'll post a before and after picture. I'm hoping that once it's all done it looks awesome. Everybody cross your fingers....

4 comments:

Angie Ledbetter said...

Hope painter guy has an industrial outdoor vacuum! Happy wishes for a quick un-taping.

Michael Horvath said...

I thought I would save some money painting the inside of my house myself. It would have been a good investment to have someone else do it.

I bet your home will look great!

Cheryl said...

Wow, I wonder how he will, too. When my mother was remodeling houses, she had the painters protect all surfaces, and throw all trash away. Some stuff, paint dust, there wasn't much to be done about. But by and large, esp. paint chips which could poison a child, were picked up and removed as much as possible.

Anonymous said...

Ah, painting the house. At first it seems impossible to paint something so big. Like your own Everest to climb.
It just feels so good when you are done. I did it! I painted a huge cube! Why wouldn't anyone want to do a good job at doing it. I mean if you think of it in the abstract. Painting a house is as close as most people will come to building a monument. Even if it only lasts a few years before you have to re-er-build it.