Wednesday, April 18, 2007

A Homeowners Right of Passage

The day we moved in to our condo, our next door neighbor put their place on the market. Unfortunately for them, the market slowed down and it wasn't until last month that they were able to sell it.

Needless to say, since the start of April we have a new neighbor. So for a few days we had contractors coming up and down the stairs getting the place ready for the new owner...this sure brought back memories.

As a matter of fact on Saturday I had a flashback to when we locked ourselves out, weeks after moving in. I was doing some work late night, when I heard some grinding outside my door. Ealier I had heard voices and rumbling up and down the stair case. I figured that the neighbors were moving things in still. But after the grinding continued I went to take a look. Oh oh, our neighbors had locked themselves out and had to call the locksmith to open their door. Man, what a bummer. I couldn't help but laugh.

Seems like the locksmith is to unofficial welcome wagon...."welcome to the neighborhood, suckas!"

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Looks Much Easier on TV

Well, since our move we really haven't bought any new furniture. For some reason, our coffee table kept bugging me. Maybe it was because it didn't really match the rest of our living room. So I decided to be bold and paint it.

I mean how hard can it be to paint a table, I see them do it all the time on HGTV. So I headed off to Home Depot and went straight to the paint aisle. Hmmm, what to buy? So I always see on the Home Depot commercials how friendly and helpful their workers are etc, and they are, but most times they are understaffed and overworked so they are not the cheeriest people. So I asked the paint guy what I would need to paint an old Ikea. He quickly directed me to get some gripper primer and then chose whatever paint I wanted. Ok cool, so far so good.

Next I headed towards the brushes and rollers. Err, to brush or to roll that is the question. Again I asked the paint guy and he said go for the brush. Ok, so which brush do I use? Upon finally choosing a moderately priced brush I'm finally out the door with my paints for about $30. It was about 8pm and I was determined to get the gripper primer on that night and maybe the first coat.

So once I get to the condo, its straight to work. Cleaned the table, put the primer on. The can said it was fast drying so in an hour I could begin painting over it. Well, thats the case if its not cold. It was about 53 degrees and the night condensation was not helping. Nevertheless I quickly put on the first coat before I head to bed. On a side note, I learned its not easy to paint something dark brown at night.

Next morning, bright and early I wake up and go look at my table. Still moist from the morning condensation it had dried with streaks from the brush. It didn't look good at all. Also some of the brissles from the brush had come off and were in the paint. Gees, this was not what I was expecting, I should have used the rollers. So I head back to Home Depot and I buy some sandpaper and rollers. So I began to sand and repaint, and its starting to make a difference.

My wife and I had brunch plans that day, so we took off for a few hours while the table dried. When we came back 3 hours later, the table had dried and it looked good....well, whats that....ah dang it....some dust fell on it and had dried in the paint. Freaken aye! Gees, I guess I'll have to resand it and paint it again another day. I must say, this stuff looks much easier on TV.