Did you know you can resuscitate an almost dead paintbrush? I mean one that is almost petrified. Like this one that had been “saved” far too long and had turned inflexible and totally gunked up. This is my favorite kind of paintbrush –not available locally – so when I found this artifact in amongst the paint cans it was worth trying to save. I stumbled across this trick that is so easy. It not only rescues the really bad cases, it is so easy to do you’ll never let your brushes get this terrible shape ever. First I tried soaking the brush in water and brushing through the bristles with a really stiff brush. That only took off the top layer, but the paintbrush was hard and inflexible because of all the gunk still inside the bristles. I spied a bottle of rubbing alcohol I ... [Read More]
painting
Front Door Makeover and the five stages of a DIY Project
We've been planning to paint the front door and the perfect weather this weekend was just the motivator I needed. This is the finished door -- visible from the street, lighter color to brighten up the small entry area, a happy pop of color! As I painted, I thought about the 5 stages of almost every DIY project we've done, big or small. And at this point, after three houses -- that's a lot!!! Stage 1-- Planning Figure out what you want to accomplish with the project -- in other words set the parameters. For this project our goals were to: make the door visible from the street, using a lighter color to brighten up the small entry area, creating a happy pop of color! This is the time to solicit opinions, to research options, if necessary and even figure out how the job can be ... [Read More]
New Home Update: Painter’s Progress Week 19
This time last year, I was finishing the design for the new home we were going to build. We loved the design and the details, but other important things – like the builder and the right land -- just weren’t coming together. A few months later, we found this house on the third “shopping trip” 1000 miles from our Ohio home. (Thanks so much to my patient, hospitable and helpful sisters and families for their help and support!!!!) It was quite similar to the design we had planned -- except we wanted a big front porch. Instead of building a new house, we’ve been painting this one. Probably could have built a new house in the same amount of time :-) But we are done with the big paint projects. Happy dance! Here's what we've done most recently: Wheels is putting a coat of primer on the ... [Read More]
