I didn't know house painting was this hard!!

[Snow_White]

Please excuse me but I just HAVE to vent....my fiancee and I moved into our very first house about a year ago and now that all the warranty work is done, we can finally start painting! YAY.......or not!! We went to Home Depot tonight, bought some Disney paint (Snow White's Song...a deep pink color), came home and got started on our powder room. WHOA. I had no idea how hard this whole painting thing was!! Our ceilings are 9 feet high and our powder room is BARELY big enough for the ladder. Geeze, I must have spilled a half gallon of paint all over me and the floor. I look like I have a very, very strange skin condition all over my arms and legs since I can't get all the paint off. Plus my hair is now a punk rock pink on the top!!! lol!!!!! I could barely hold the roller long enough to get a few swipes in before it started to get too heavy and I had to put it down....plus I nearly killed myself trying to reach the corners!! Yikes!! We started at 6 pm and we JUST finished at 2 am!!!!! I am DREADING doing the second coat tomorrow. Please tell me this whole painting thing gets MUCH easier...we had planned to do the whole house, but now we're having major second thoughts (that eggshell color on our walls is looking better by the minute, lol)!!

 

[lucky_bunni]

That's crazy! What is taking you so long? Is it the setup or the actual painting?

 

[Snow_White]

Everything from sanding away the rough spots on the walls away to taping everything to the actual painting. I didn't mind the prep work stuff, that was kinda fun! But, all h*ll broke loose when we opened up the paint can!! We just must not be good at this stuff

 

[Pugdog007]

Yeah it's a pain in the butt. I have a myriad of Tshirts with all of the paint colors I used in my old house. My new house was painted professionally... and it makes a big difference. I'm not going to try it again and mess it up.

Hire someone to do the rest of the house.

 

[Pugdog007]

And one more thing... any $ I saved by doing the old house myself was lost when I had to replace the carpet before I sold it. My furniture had been hiding all of my mistakes.

 

[lucky_bunni]

geez.. I've painted entire rooms before and not had a spot of paint of my clothes.

 

[Pugdog007]

Originally posted by lucky_bunni
geez.. I've painted entire rooms before and not had a spot of paint of my clothes.

Guess that comes with being lucky, bunni.

 

[Snow_White]

Originally posted by Pugdog007
Yeah it's a pain in the butt. I have a myriad of Tshirts with all of the paint colors I used in my old house. My new house was painted professionally... and it makes a big difference. I'm not going to try it again and mess it up.

Hire someone to do the rest of the house.

Pugdog, if you don't mind sharing, how much did you pay to get your house painted professionally? After tonight, I'm definitely considering it!! Thanks!

 

[LuvN~Travel]

One of those paint filled rollers with extensions might be a better bet for you guys. It could save wear and tear on the ole arms.
Have fun!
Kim
PS: don't forget the drop cloths!

 

[Saffron]

Oh my gosh! I HATE painting. I'll do just about any other sort of house/home maintainace (or at least try). Ick. Ack. Good luck. It's not easy work, that's for sure.

Thank God my BF is a painter by trade, he doesn't mind painting the house/rooms/cabinets at all and I don't mind letting him do it all by himself! LOL!

 

[FroggyinArk]

owns a home repair remodeling service,, so is knowledgable

painting is an aquired skill. it is best left to a pro or at least an amature who has taken steps to learn proper procedures. pro pricing is dependant on location. around here 1500 to 2000 to paint interior is common. or in the neighbor hood of 25 bucks an hour. always use drop clothes, they sell cheep plastic ones at any dept store,, use a good brush. go to hardware or sherwin williams,, get help getting right brush for paint you are using, and yes i know those brushes are 30 bucks,, they are worth it. always clean your brushes use a good quality roller cover and frame. a cheep one will cause more headaches than the things worth,, dont use the ones with the cardboard core(center) they lose the nap( fuzz) very quickly and nothing is nastier than picking fuzzys off a freshly painted wal andwatching all the bad spots apear. if you tape things off,, ( after 19 yrs i donttape anymore ) please make sure you pull tape off with in 24 hours or so,, otherwise you get a big mess. if you have to leave room for more than 5 min,, wrap brush in wet towel, or roller in a plastic bag. dryed paint will ruin these things and make for a bad coat.

hope these hints help..

 

[Serena]

Originally posted by FroggyinArk
owns a home repair remodeling service,, so is knowledgable

if you tape things off,, ( after 19 yrs i donttape anymore ) please make sure you pull tape off with in 24 hours or so,, otherwise you get a big mess.

I can't stress this enough. I didn't know this when I painted my bedroom. It was a big mess.

 

[IMGONNABE40!]

It does get easier. Bathrooms are hard because of the tight spaces and trying to get the ladder in around the tub and toilet.

We are in the mode of getting rid of all the beige walls the builder left behind now that our warranty work is done too. Now that the bathroom is done I am actually having fun with it. Since I was not sure what colors would work well for us, I bought small cans of several colors and now have multicolored patches all over the kitchen! It looks pretty funny, but I have ruled out the color I thought I wanted in favor of some other colors. A friend gave me a book on painting techniques and I have been having some fun with sponging and other things. Since not all of my walls will be the same color, I have decided to paint one wall at a time, whenever I have some extra time. This way the job does not seem overwhelming. Good luck. I hope you have fun with it.

 

[AmazingGrace]

They make it look so easy on Trading Spaces. We're moving into our house in a few weeks, and thank God, we can live with the current color scheme. I hate painting. Good luck,

 

[HollyJoy]

I very much dislike the process of painting, but love the outcome! I'm sure yours will be worth all the work!

 

[clh2]

Bathrooms are by far the most difficult room to paint.

We've done some painting ourselves, but not recently.

We found the most fabulous painters, and have most of the 1st floor painted in the last couple of months. We were doing 1 wall in the family room in a dark navy, and 1 room in the kitchen a dark burgundy. We just didn't think we could get the coverage good, plus with the other walls being a taupe color, we didn't want the corners to look amatuer-ish. We also needed a 2-story foyer painted. They did a wonderful job.

In the next year - we should probably put a coat of paint in the utility room. Since that is not a "public" part of our house, we will probably just do it ourselves.

 

[aprilgail2]

I paid my painter 1500.00 to do the living room (15X18)Newly renovated Kitchen (8X14) and newly renovated Dining Room (12X12), Hallway (18X5)- he supplied the benjamin moore paint.

 

[disykat]

I did my entire interior last year and it DOES get easier. Once you've worked out all the kinks about your preferred equipment, routines, etc. I am a very messy painter so I always tape, cover, etc. I have designated painting clothes all the way down to shoes and socks. I also keep a damp rag handy to immediately wipe little spills and spots. A friend came to help me paint one room and she was surprised at all my taping, but had to admit it ended up looking really good.

The bathrooms and kitchen are the hardest. Other rooms have more large open walls and you can see lots of quick change.

 

[kadaten]

Originally posted by FroggyinArk
owns a home repair remodeling service,, so is knowledgable

painting is an aquired skill. it is best left to a pro or at least an amature who has taken steps to learn proper procedures. pro pricing is dependant on location. around here 1500 to 2000 to paint interior is common. or in the neighbor hood of 25 bucks an hour. always use drop clothes, they sell cheep plastic ones at any dept store,, use a good brush. go to hardware or sherwin williams,, get help getting right brush for paint you are using, and yes i know those brushes are 30 bucks,, they are worth it. always clean your brushes use a good quality roller cover and frame. a cheep one will cause more headaches than the things worth,, dont use the ones with the cardboard core(center) they lose the nap( fuzz) very quickly and nothing is nastier than picking fuzzys off a freshly painted wal andwatching all the bad spots apear. if you tape things off,, ( after 19 yrs i donttape anymore ) please make sure you pull tape off with in 24 hours or so,, otherwise you get a big mess. if you have to leave room for more than 5 min,, wrap brush in wet towel, or roller in a plastic bag. dryed paint will ruin these things and make for a bad coat.

hope these hints help..

LOTS of good tips here! I'm a "professional amateur"....meaning I've watched enough home improvement shows and learned from those who know how to do it.....to do it myself I can't afford to hire someone (and I HATE white walls...or beige!) so it was learn or deal with the white!! We always use drop cloths.....if you get good ones you can use them again when you change colors We move every 2-3 years so we bought the good ones....same with equipment...brushes, rollers, etc.....always worth it.

Will also note that we LOVE our mini-roller....it's not high quality but so cheap we buy a new one every time we move...it's only 4 inches wide or so, and is perfect for getting up close to the trim or doing small areas like between windows, along side doors, etc., as well as small furniture pieces, where the big roller would be too big but a brush would take too long.

We've tried all the "neato" gadgets and honestly find that none of them work well.....stick to the basic supplies and do it the old fashioned way.

We always tape off to maintain straight lines. And I will say that "good" quality paint is worth the extra money...at Lowe's buy the American tradition rather than the cheap one....the extra $5/gallon was worth the extra coats we didn't have to do

I have a few spots of paint on a shirt or two (why they're called my paint clothes ) but have never had as much trouble as you seem to have had.... hopefully just first time jitters! Good luck!

 

[Snow_White]

Wow guys, THANK YOU so much for all of the tips and words of support!! After reading this thread this afternoon, I literally RAN to the paint store and got a telescoping roller, a mini roller, and high quality brushes!! Man oh man, was the second coat easier than the first!! Our bathroom is now TOTALLY done and by some small miracle, it actually looks good!! The color is really cool--not too garish at all, but a very pretty deep pink. I called on my Aunt Kathy (who died 7 years ago of cancer) MANY, MANY times to help me out this afternoon and she must have been listening, lol! I'm so proud of myself for having finished the bathroom, and now we're already talking about buying even more paint to get rid of these boring off-white walls in other rooms! Seriously, thanks again for all of the replies, I really appreciate it!!

Jenn