Cool weather isn’t far away, and I already have a long list of things to perform outside. Replanting a couple of palm trees is one, along with some painting I need to do.
This sun and heat are murder on painted surfaces, and I don’t find any paint better than Sherwin-Williams. My brother’s middle name is Sherwin, so that might be why I’m partial to this brand. Our house is painted with S-W, and it’s holding up just fine.
I can’t say that about our block wall and the Acme brand paint that wall builders used. Their cheap white paint turned pink in just a few years. I’m slowly getting it back to gray, but that project’s now on its fifth year.
A new airless paint gun in the garage, purchased in 2021 specifically for this project, is still unused. So are a couple of pressure washers bought for the same purpose. I find that it’s easier to keep tools looking new and not needing to be cleaned by never using them.
Paint prices have gone up like everything else, which I understand is why so many houses in Havasu need repainting; folks just can’t afford it. I’d bet the price to hire someone to do an average-sized house is around seven grand or higher.
Years ago in Alaska, I did it myself using a handheld sprayer, rollers, and brushes. The Sears sprayers had a one-year warranty, and I went through three. Never again, as it turned into a monster of a job once I started. This was Sears’ finest paint, and after 51 years now, it still looks good. Yep, you guessed right; Sherwin-Williams made the Sears Weatherbeater line of paint.
Grandpa Hankins was a house painter and wallpaper guy. He strapped his equipment and tools to the outside of, or fitted them into, the large trunk and back area of a 1938 Chevrolet.
My brother and I would play with his chalk line, putting blue chalk marks on the outside walls of Grandpa and Grandma’s rental home. Like owners with poorly done pinstriping on their hot rods who like it, we thought our pinstriping added appeal to the structure, although Dad didn’t think so. He ordered us to take a bucket of water and wash things off.
This summer, I painted parts of our house, including a bathroom and a large wall in the living room. Removing everything in the bathroom except for the sink and commode was a tiresome task.
The worst part was taping off the tile and other stuff that didn’t need covering. No matter how careful I was, some tiles still ended up with paint, with a razor blade coming in handy to remove it.
After I finished, I asked my wife to read the article, as she does with all of them before submitting; Joleen told me it was about as interesting to her as watching paint dry.
That’s when I told her that my putting latex paint on the flat walls was on that same level, going one step further to get the final jab in. “Paintin’ is boring, but not as much as those Hallmark movies you watch, touché.
I like to write junk... 