Painting Tips

I spent yesterday painting my son’s bedroom a wonderful yellow. I hadn’t painted for about a month and I’d already forgotten some important tips that make the job a whole lot easier.

1. You should fill in all holes and cracks with filler at least the day before you start painting, giving the filler time to dry. If you are a sadistic perfectionist you fill one day, sand the next, and than paint. Sanding makes a huge mess. I’ve found a neat trick that really works for me: as I’m filling the cracks and holes, I wipe right after with a damp cloth. This eliminates the excess and gives a smooth finish without sanding. This doesn’t work though when you are trying to smooth an extended surface. For that you need to learn to use a spatula (or whatever they call it). If you’re good at it you can eliminate a lot of sanding time.

2. Prepare the room, preferably the day before. I put everything hanging about the room away in drawers and than moved the furniture out of the room. This makes it easy to move around the room and I don’t have to worry about drips. The bed was too big to move easily so I just covered it with an inexpensive plastic bash. Since the paint I’m using cleans up easily I just let it drip on the floor. I will have to spend about an hour cleaning the floor afterwards but I was going to do it anyway.

3. Assemble your tools. Paintbrushes, rollers, bucket (great for tossing used brushes and rollers in), rags, paper towels, newspapers (to put under the pots of paints when mixing or pouring – I don’t mind a few drips of paint on my floor, but I don’t fancy cleaning up a spill). I like to have a variety of brushes and rollers available so that I always have the perfect one for the job. And pay attention to brush and roller types – different ones for different paints and different effects. .

4. Block out time for the job, including time to clean up and relax afterwards.  You don’t want to have to stop in the middle to take the kids to soccer practice.

5. Put on your painting clothes, ones that you feel perfectly comfortable wiping your paint smeared hands on. I wear a pair of ratty slip-on shoes that I can take off when I leave the room – this keeps paint from spreading about the house. I also put on a pair of old glasses because paint always ends up getting on them.

6. Try mixing your own paint. It’s fun and I’ve saved a lot of money by buying white paint and adding in the color myself. It is best to keep it simple – use only one hue and mix it in until you get the shade you want. If you just have to have a color that requires mixing different hues, use a small amount of paint and mix up a sample. Otherwise you risk ruining an entire pot of paint and may even feel obliged to paint your walls a color you hadn’t intended. It’s happened to me.

7. Do the ceiling first using a roller fixed onto the end of a broomstick. Paint is going to drip a bit on the walls no matter how careful you are and this way you can clean it up when you do the walls afterwards. The ceiling is a pain in the neck no matter what. I do find that using a footstool and getting closer to the ceiling helps. Start in the corner of the room that is farthest from the window.

8. Put the radio on and enjoy the sudden transformation of your room. Have fun painting.

9. Clean up. If you’re not done painting and are going to start again the next day, just wrap your tools in a plastic bag and put your feet up. If you are done, consider throwing away used brushes and rollers. They are not that expensive, especially if you consider the money you’ve spent on paint. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a paint brush completely clean in my whole life. After getting all the paint I can off of the rollers at the sink, I have had good results washing them in the machine. I wrap them up in an old pillow case and wash them with a bunch of rags so they don’t damage the machine.

Painting is a relatively cheap and easy way to change your home. I am loving the new color on the walls of my son’s bedroom. His room feels so much warmer and inviting with the new color. Today I’ll get to work on the woodwork and hopefully in a couple of days it’ll be ready for a few photos.

Feng Shui Dreaming

I have been attracted to feng shui for years but have never taken the time to delve into it. Lately I have been exploring some on the internet and have seen enough to know there are a lot of different opinions out there about what feng shui is. Some of these things I am uneasy with. For example, giving people advice on their homes based on the year they were born in or their house was built puts me on shaky ground. Maybe time does play in the equation of whether a house is supporting good energy or not, but there are so many other levels that are working on a house that I feel they must outweigh such factors. Apparently though, dates are an important aspect of feng shui. Chris Shaul of 168 Feng Shui Advisors  recently replied to an email of mine questioning why dates would be important. I appreciated his response that in feng shui we consider heavenly forces upon man, and that celestial bodies create specific energy patterns. By the way, I recommend his and Sophia Tang Shaul’s site as a good place to begin an exploration of feng shui. They even have a free downloadable ebook to get you started. However, I’m still not ready to accept the idea that some far away star has an effect upon my energy and the energy of my home. Maybe I just need to progress.

Another qualm I’ve been having with a lot of feng shui is the way it is used, the outcomes it seeks. I find a lot of people using it to answer superficial questions like why can’t the second born daughter in the house find a husband? I am hoping feng shui can answer questions like why do I feel the need for my daughter to find a husband at all? How can I improve my environment so that I have renewed confidence in the universe to care for my daughter? I want it to help people in their metaphysical journey. Rather than just addressing exterior problems and desires, I would like it cut to the heart of what we are seeking.

I am going to see how far I can get.

Gotta get painting.

Dawn

“The winds of change can’t move you unless you are already moving.”

There is a start for everything that ever existed and this is the start of Water to Wood. I have spent a long time it seems in the darkness of winter. I have been gathering my resources and shifting my thoughts about, trying to find my path. Only yesterday I saw it referred to as the Golden Path. The one that is uniquely mine, that fits me just right. But I found myself endlessly turning inside, never able to pin it down. The more I tried to articulate exactly what this path is the more elusive it became. There were times of great excitement that this was it, finally the true path. But I am learning to be wary of enthusiasm, for it passes quickly.

I finally realized that I was becoming completely stagnant. And that at the risk of taking the wrong path, I simply must choose and see what happens. One can always change paths. That is a wonderful part of life – mistakes! What a gift a mistake is. Perhaps this blog is a wonderful mistake.

I have been reading about Chinese philosophy. I am taking the plunge into the world of yin and yang and the five elements and onward. How I love the elegance of this way of thinking. But there I go getting all watery on you and I promised some wood.

Feng Shui. I am exploring this environmental science. Being a homemaker for probably entirely too long of a time, I have observed many things about decoration, room arrangement, cleanliness, and the seasons and their effect on myself and my family. I am someone who feels uneasy if the furniture is in a certain configuration. I have often noticed that corners of tables and even entire walls leap out at me. I thrive on order and cleanliness. My family, a gang of guys, do not seem to notice my efforts. They continue on their slovenly paths. But, if perchance I do not exercise my amazing powers of housekeeping, they notice right away. They too are effected by the energy I’m busy moving about! Just not enough to do anything about it. Oh well, chacun son chemin.

Specifically, I am painting my son’s bedroom. He has gone to ski school in the Alps for two weeks and I have this wonderful opportunity to redecorate his room. He is a great little guy by the way (ouch I miss him!). His room is in the very back of the apartment and faces north. Very yin hangout it is. The former occupants put up blue wall paper. More yin. But it doesn’t stop there. Wouldn’t you know that the motif on the wall paper is a water scene! Overwhelming yin. One of the principles of feng shui is to strive for balance. So I’m painting the room yellow. Yippee. I’m really excited about it.

Coming soon: other changes to the room, before and after pics, and an observation of the effects of these changes (feng shui in action).