We have had such dismal luck with having other people do work for us around here. It's gotten to the point that we more-or-less only trust ourselves to do a job right. So when it got to be time to put a new coat of paint on the house, we knew we were in for a big job. We started in January (this photo is from then) and we are still less than half done.
Yeah, it takes a lot longer, but at least it only costs us our time and a few hundred dollars. Plus, it's a family project that we can all work on together.
Out of curiosity mostly, we did have a painter bid on the job, and he said it'd be over $2800. Yeah, right. And, based on our past experiences using outside help, the job would have been done really poorly and we would have ended up pissed off. Oh - and out almost 3000 dollars. Screw that.
In the process of painting, we are also re-caulking the windows and doing all of those other little side jobs that come along with the project.
The side of the house that faces the street was done first, out of respect for the neighbors. The new colors (both trim and main) are visible at top.
Just to let you all know, painting soffits really really sucks.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Little Pink Houses For You And (Not) Me
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8 comments:
I have a neighbor who says it takes four years to paint a house. One year for each side. By the time you're finished, it's time to start on the first side again. (We get a little more mileage out of our paint jobs than that though.)
I JUST made that joke with the Wife the other day. I said the house would be like the Golden Gate Bridge, and we'd have to start painting it again just as soon as we were done!
That's why you should paint each side of your house a different color.
don
We're doing the same thing with the house we bought 3 years ago, only indoors (which, here in the northeast, means the most hideous, horrible, fake-Victorian Home Depot wallpaper decor imaginable). True to form, it's taken us 3 years to do 3 rooms on the first floor (the "right" way of course -- apparently none of the previous owners believed in primer, which means endless woodwork scraping).
Maybe by the time we have the mortgage paid off, the house will be respectable enough to actually invite someone into it.
firefly - You don't EVEN want to hear about our tiling job debacle, then! Good luck on getting that house all set up. Thirty years (or so) for the mortgage is a long time, so MAYBE y'all can get it done...
Don - The neighbors probably wouldn;t complain, but I think my wife would. Alas, I have to heed her advice and keep the house a more traditional 2 color theme. When I have my own work/potting shed or greenhouse (dream on) I will take your advice and paint it several different colors! Just you wait.
After the flood tile was the least of our problems. The walls were the worse. Lucky I had a buddy that does tile.
We were also given a quote of about $2K to paint our house, and I think it was about 5 years ago. I didn't want to pay that, and hub didn't have time to even think about doing it.
I ended up painting the whole thing myself, and most of it is stucco and brick. Oh gawd, talk about hard labor! I remember thinking my neck was going to develop a permanent crick in it.
In any event, I managed to finish within a few months, but I didn't want to touch a paintbrush for years to come.
But I'm still glad I saved us a good 2 grand in the process!
I like the colors you used here, looks great with the landscaping, too.
One last thing, what is it with all the pastel colors in South Florida? Your house was peach, I see that a lot up this way as well.
Our long time neighbors, who have lived here 50+ years painted their house a pale shade of lime green. They love it. Yech... They're insane.
SB - I can only imagine the hassle of replacing WALLS. UGH. Hopefully we will never need to know what that's like... Best of luck to you with your repairs.
Laura - I don't know what the deal is with pastels down here. Florida is weird. People choose weird colors for their houses. Maybe it's the different cultures we have down here or something. To some, having their house "look like it's Carnival" (the Wife's words) is normal. I don't begrudge them - it's just not for us. But neither is a boring pastel color like the one we had on the house before.
I have a friend who is going to loan me a paint gun to do the rest of the soffits. We'll still roll out the walls. And I definitely know what you mean about that crick in the neck.
Thanks for the props on our choice of colors.
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