We Painted the House
We tried our hand at painting our house and love the result. Every house in our neighborhood (some would argue the city) starts off as some sort of dirty tan, brown, or beige. Appropriate for the area I suppose, and we lived with it for 14 years now since the house was built. It was time to do some repair to the stucco. Pieces ripped off by the lawn mower’s wheels. Cracks from the sun. A couple months ago, we decided we’d paint, but we also didn’t want to paint in 11oº weather. We learned and gathered our materials and waited for the right time and temperatures.
After reviewing different spray painters I decided on the Avanti Paint, Primer & Stain Sprayer from Harbor Freight and bought an additional 50-foot spray hose so I wouldn’t be moving it more than one time per side. Through some magical coupon and event timing I ended up getting the sprayer for around $140 – a substantial savings from the regular $250 regular/$199 cyclic sales. Through the years a sprayer definitely would have come in handy. I see future yearly uses with it as a stain/sealer sprayer for our cedar fence boards. You literally spend more time taping off what you don’t want painted than you do spraying paint.
We spent last weekend repairing the walls. Filled in the small cracks with caulking. Repaired the spots where small chunks of stucco fell out. Sealed new stucco. This past weekend we shot the paint. We chose Valspar Sparkling Sage (flat) for the main color and complemented it with Mother of Pearl for the pullouts and trim. Having painted our porch/patio after we added it to the house, I can tell you what a game changer using a sprayer is. It cuts off literal hours from your job. I believe our total cost was $1300 for all sprayer/parts/supplies and a weekend of labor.