Painting 101

“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.”
-Henry Ward Beecher
Things we learned this weekend!

• Taping up a room takes twice as long as you think. Don’t plan to tape up three rooms in one evening—you won’t finish.
  
• Also, have more tape than you expect. Luckily, we had each brought our own rolls, not knowing the other person had already packed some.
• Splurge on the wider tape—you can be a lot more haphazard with your painting that way.
• Don’t judge a paint color until you have a whole wall painted. I promise it will look better once you start rolling.
• Leave a pair of flipflops outside the door of the room, so that you don't track paint all over the house.
  
• But if you do, paint will wipe of hardwood and tile, if you can catch it soon.
  
• Our new house has great acoustics. You can turn the radio on in one end of the house, and hear it all over.
  
• Invest in the more expensive roller extension (and handle, too). Over the course of the weekend, we broke three extension poles and two handles.
• Don't bother with cleaning paint trays. Buy tray liners that you can toss!
  
• A room with nooks and crannies take a whole lot longer to paint than a room with four straight walls.
• It’s best if you don’t switch off the breaker before you paint, however, if it’s necessary, wait until daylight to paint—you won’t be able to see what you’re doing otherwise.
• Bring socks because the metal ridges on the ladder will cause your feet a lot of pain.
  
• Rob and I battle each other when conquering a familiar task (one where we both think we know the right way to do it), but when it comes to something new (like painting a room), we get along just splendidly.