Painting isn't fun anymore | Life of an Architect

Painting isn’t fun anymore

On July 7, 2011, in Life in General, My House, by Bob Borson

Painting is a drag even under the most ideal of circumstances but in the case of my interior masonry stucco walls?… Let’s just say I would rather be caught in a biker bar at last call wearing pants made out of bottle caps. My better half and I decided it was time to paint our “white” stucco walls because they were looking a little yellow … and brown. This is the 5th house my wife and I have own in 15 years of marriage and we are highly skilled painters – so we were confident heading into last weekend thinking we could bang this out in a day, maybe a day and a half tops.

Soooooooo wrong.

This is a look at the stucco wall partially painted. Hopefully you could guess which part is existing and which is new. If not, here’s a clue for you: the new color doesn’t look like “hobo urine”.

Because we were staying in the house during this period, the paint I chose was Sherwin Williams ‘Harmony’ line. This is an interior acrylic latex paint that is low odor, zero VOC paint, and we have used it for the last few interior paints jobs with great success. The smell is almost non-existent and makes sleeping in this room just a few hours after painting a piece of cake. I’m sure that the exhaustion from actually working didn’t hurt either.

Since my walls have a lot of texture and dimension, I went with a flat paint and selected the “Colossus” roller from Purdy. This roller has a huge amount of nap to it which made it possible to paint all the deep crevices in stucco.

All those crevices is why this painting job just about killed me and my wife. The stucco walls run right up to every edge – which isn’t nice and sharp. As a result, cutting in around door frames, wood beams, wood siding, the floor … was horrible. You couldn’t tape it off because painters tape wouldn’t stick to the rough wood very well. We also had to use a pointillism technique to get the paint everywhere. After 6 hours of “cutting” in, we were barely halfway through.

See what I mean? That is some nasty business to work around.

Once the cutting in was finished, the Colossus made quick work of the wall areas.

Part of the rush to get this room painted was we sold all our old bedroom furniture and upgraded to a king size bed … which was being delivered the same weekend. As soon as Saturday morning came, I had to disassemble all the old stuff and move it out of the room so the people who bought it could come and take it away. As the final piece was being loaded onto the trailer, the new stuff showed up so I barely had time to snap off a few finished product room shots.

All in it took close to 18 man hours to paint this one room – my back hurts just thinking about it. Almost all the other walls in our house have the same stucco finish and browny-yellow-pretending-to-be-white color and the thought of painting them all makes me want to reconsider my options. If the tape would hold well enough I would have masked everything off and sprayed the walls – avoiding the lengthy pointillism process all-together.

Why don’t I have weekend projects that are described using the words “sitting on the couch watching TV”?

Cheers

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About the author

Bob Borson

Dallas architect who specializes in modern design. I'm AIA, Leed AP, NCARB certified, and previous Dallas AIA Young Architect of the Year (2009).

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Tagged with: a day in the life • My House • Products

architectrunnerguy

Once again “Architectrunnerguys 90/90 rule” is proven correct.

The first 90% of a project will take 90% of the time. The last 10% of the project will take the other 90% of the time.

Doug
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com Bob Borson

can I blame your rule for my experience?
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com Bob Borson

can I blame your rule for my experience?
architectrunnerguy

Does the sun rise in the east?

Doug
Terry Kearns

Wear bifocals yet? Painting ceilings and cutting in while looking up is miserable with bifocals. The neck pain ruins all the fun.
Grusso

I love the wall to floor transition without baseboards…looks great in the photos at least.

Also, despite the trouble in painting, I think your texture is wonderful…beats the heck out of freaking orange peel or flat wall. Have you had to try and patch it anywhere? Imagine that it is a bit of a pain to try and match.

Oh…king size bed! Need I say more.
Grusso

I love the wall to floor transition without baseboards…looks great in the photos at least.

Also, despite the trouble in painting, I think your texture is wonderful…beats the heck out of freaking orange peel or flat wall. Have you had to try and patch it anywhere? Imagine that it is a bit of a pain to try and match.

Oh…king size bed! Need I say more.
Grusso

Didn’t see the patches around the door frame first time through…is that what they are? They almost seem like areas where door casing was at one time…did you remove door casing at some point in the live of this house?
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com Bob Borson

No bifocals for me – at least not yet. One thing I didn’t mention was all the paint that ended up all over my face. I had to mash the roller hard against the wall and since the nap was so thick, the roller had about 2 lbs of paint in it. If I was too aggressive with the speed, I was barraged with paint being thrown back.

It was lovely
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com Bob Borson

Thanks – we like the texture as well – even though I am a big fan a walls with no texture.

We haven’t ever patched the walls and from what I can tell, the original owner never patched them either. There are some areas wherever the wall comes to a surface that is at 90 degrees (i.e. the door casing, and adjacent wall, etc) where you can tell the stucco was knocked down a little differently – most likely because the tools they used for the installation couldn’t be used in a similar manner. There are a few walls we want to modify and yes, I am a little concerned about matching the stucco. The good news is that if there was any place in the country that has skilled labor that could do such a thing, it’s Texas.

Thanks for the comment
Craig

Bob, there is no arguing with the fact that “cutting in” on rough surfaces is more challenging. I learned years ago that a good Purdy brush was the first step to success. The next step is to thin your paint out 1 part water to 2 parts paint. You will find that the paint flows into the rough surface like stain. You will have to do 2 coats but it dries so fast you can re-cut a wall section within 20-30 minutes and the cutting is so much faster because you cut just like on a smooth surface. I hope this helps.
Craig

Bob, there is no arguing with the fact that “cutting in” on rough surfaces is more challenging. I learned years ago that a good Purdy brush was the first step to success. The next step is to thin your paint out 1 part water to 2 parts paint. You will find that the paint flows into the rough surface like stain. You will have to do 2 coats but it dries so fast you can re-cut a wall section within 20-30 minutes and the cutting is so much faster because you cut just like on a smooth surface. I hope this helps.
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com Bob Borson

Thanks for the pro tip. Considering the effort that went in stippling in the paint, your method – despite requiring 2 passes – sounds much better.

but I’m still not excited about it ;)
Eve

I agree! Had the same problem few years ago and solved with water and a brush.
http://twitter.com/Alexandrafunfit Alexandra Williams

a. Why 18 man hours? I thought you had wifely help. Shouldn’t that be 17 woman hours and 1 man hour?
b. Nice butt shot. Does it come in a medium?
c. Will hobo urine be the color for 2012. I want to plan my non-shopping.
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com Bob Borson

since you are silly I will provide a similar response:

a. 17:1 ratio is about right for the amount of work actually accomplished
b. no – it is only available in a small
c. “Hobo-Urine” color is rarely at the top of any lists but it’s usually in the running … as in “running to the alleyway because I have to go”

Cheers
http://twitter.com/Alexandrafunfit Alexandra Williams

Ahahahah. Say, El Presidente, you are funny. Have you ever thought of writing a blog? I can share a few hot tips with you! Ouch, hurt myself laughing.
http://twitter.com/Alexandrafunfit Alexandra Williams

Ahahahaha!. Say, El Presidente, you are funny. Have you ever considered writing a blog? I can share a few hot tips with you. They all involve tiny hineys! Ouch, hurt myself laughing.
Jeb Hasenjaeger

Mixing water in paint is never a good idea, there are products specificly made for thinning latex paints. You could have used H&C Concrete Stain from Sherwin- Williams. It is thinner, provides good coverage, and absorbs into the stucco so if you get a surface scratch or other light damage, it would be less noticeable