House Decorating

Best Way to Paint a House Fast!

By John E. Grey

When you have an investment property, it is very important to spend the extra money to make it look nice so you can keep it rented. An empty house is a negative return on your investment.

I had a tenant move out at the end of last month. I got a call from our property management company last Friday saying they had someone who wanted to move in this Friday! Not bad having a property sit less than a month. The property management company had a list of items that I needed to either pay someone to do or do myself, but fast either way. One of those items was repainting the interior of the house because the last paint job was bleeding through and looked spotty. We got a quote to paint the house. It is not a large property...just 1112 sq ft. They wanted $1950.00 to paint the house. We decided this was far too much to pay and that we would do the work ourselves.

We completely repainted the interior of the house in one and a half days. The "we" was me and a friend. The tools we used were varied. We used old fashioned rollers, a roller that had a reservoir that you pulled the paint into and then painted until it needed refilling, and an airless contractor series paint gun with the roller attachment.

The airless gun worked well, but was heavy and required two people to move from room to room without making a mess. It also took twenty minutes to clean. I like this tool for fast exterior painting when you can afford to have overspray, but it wore me out for interior painting. Still, it gave excellent results. I do recommend cleaning the roller after each room.

The tool with the reservoir worked well and was less cumbersome. Because we bought 5 gallons of paint in one can, it required we have a smaller container to put the paint in to before sucking it into the reservoir. Overall, it worked well.

Then, the old fashioned rollers...they worked well. You had to keep going back to the tray for more paint. They took the least amount of time to clean as you could either rinse the roller to use later, or just throw it away and start with a new roller later.

The first day, we tried to paint room by room. Things were going pretty slowly and we were worried that we might not finish in our allotted timeline of being done that weekend. After two rooms, we realized this was not the most efficient method and we decided a new approach.

We decided that framing each room was the most time consuming part of the job. We both started painting along the ceiling line and around the doors and outlets. We did the rest of the house and called it a day. A very long day...

***Important note! Only frame the rooms that you have enough paint to complete. If you are low on paint, go buy more and start fresh on the next room. Otherwise, you could end up with extra work on your hands when you realize that the paint does not match perfectly.***

The next day, we went back and finished the house in just a few hours. Because we only had to focus on painting the large areas, the painting went much more quickly. After finishing, we left the house for a while we allowed the paint to dry and our eyes to adjust back to seeing normal things. When we went back, we looked for any spots that needed to be touched up and happily found that there were very few to touch up.

So, save yourself some time and make sure that you have the right tools and frame the rooms first.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_E._Grey

Decorating Paint Colours

Brick House Colors - Including Paint Ideas

By Sara Gilmore

Brick house colors can create a lot of problems for you. You might find the perfect material and then you get sick of it in a few years. You might have moved into a house with a lot of brick that you really didn't care for. Here are a few ideas to pick the right brick color the first time or change the existing material.

Go with classic colors. They call it brick red for a reason. Red brick is a classic and can work in all areas. Sure, red is usually a really overpowering color that you'd normally associate with a barn. However, red brick houses are traditional even though it uses a saturated color. You can always bring in your favorite accent colors through your trim paint, shutters, and general landscaping.

Look to your neighbors for inspiration for painting your brick. This is especially important if you live in a townhouse or a row style home. There might be an entire line of brick homes. If they have been around for a few decades then it's probably pretty likely that at least some of them have been painted. Whether you like it or not you'll have to work with your neighbors' colors choices as well. Try to work with their same design style whether it's bold or neutral so your house doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.

Simulate stone. Stone is all the rage both in exteriors and interior. You could mimic the same look with a lot of different shades of gray or brown. It's unlikely that you'll get the exact same look because brick is a uniform shape and stone is more organic but you can at least choose the same color as natural stone.

Paint what you can and work with what you can't. There is almost always something around the brick that can be painted. You might just want to give your house a little spruce. Painting brick isn't something that you can easily change back to its natural state. Instead, try painting any siding or trim around the brick. You could make it feel lighter and cheerful by going with a gold color used in moderation on the trim. You can update it in the interior of your home just by giving the mantle a fresh coat of white or a dramatic black paint.

Picking a brick house color is a big commitment. Choose a lasting style that you can redecorate in a lot of different ways. This will benefit both you and any future homeowners and save you a lot of headaches.

Want to find out more about brick paint colors, then visit Sara Gilmore's articles on how to choose the best brick house colors.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sara_Gilmore