Danelle and I have been waiting for the moment we can add some of our own energy to the house. Today is that day. We purchased a paint sprayer and all the PPE needed to get the job done. Danelle has spent the last few days dust mopping the walls to make sure the primer looks great. In addition, she wrapped up all the windows and doors to keep paint off of them. The house is very dark without windows. Making matters worse, there is a single electric outlet in the basement providing power for the whole house! We’re doing our reasonable best to do this work on the cheap. Keeping with that theme, we needed some light to work in the day and especially as we got into the night. We settled on a $35 five bulb lamp from Walmart. It was cheaper than the others because the covers for the light were different colored plastic pieces. We were not going to use them anyway, so this was the perfect solution. Look at Danelle getting ready to paint with the light in the foreground.
True to her nature, she is holding the instruction book making sure she does everything correctly. Probably for the best because I would have just assumed I knew how to use it and started painting. Likely breaking it for future use. Danelle took her time practicing on a wall in the unfinished part of the basement. This would be the best place to get a feel for the process. We had a 9 foot pour of the basement making 8 foot ceilings. This made it hard to get to the top as you can see even with a tiny step stool.
Eventually, Danelle put the extension wand on the sprayer and used it for all future spraying on this part of the project. It made it a bit difficult in tiny spaces like closets, but made the ceilings and high walls simpler. It is the first coat and new drywall will soak up paint, but its also wet. It is not quite as bad as the photo below shows since the paint is still wet.
Danelle saved paint and time by skipping places like behind the kitchen cabinets.
I was awarded the task of painting the stairwell. This meant putting a ladder on a 90 degree bend with a plank on it to walk on. The wand was critical here so I didn’t have to get too close and fall off.
Painting the hallway, I probably used too much paint. While I was wearing a mask to protect my lungs, I only had my glasses to protect my eyes. I had to wipe my glasses multiple times so I could say. I’m not proud of the job I did here, but it is done. See my glasses below after they had been cleaned multiple times.
And if you are bored, watch the video below with my silly narration of the process.
This process is insane and I don’t recommend it if you can avoid it. I went a bit overboard, but we sprayed almost 75 gallons of primer on the walls and ceilings to prepare for paint!
Hogan