Painting is a great way to improve the look and value of your home. Here are some tips for the next time you decide to brush on another coat from Mrs. FIXIT™, a site of helpful household hints.
1.) If you wear contact lenses, cover your eyes with something (goggles, glasses, etc.). The fumes will cause your contacts to irritate your eyes. 2.) To get good brush painting results, dip the brush in the paint no more than two inches and tap it against the sides of the bucket. 3.) When painting stripes, paint a thin coat of base color over the tape in order to seal it. 4.) If you’re painting a window frame, overlap the paint onto the glass slightly to seal the seam between glass and wood. 5.) Wrap a rag around your painter’s tool when you’re finished and rim it around the can. This will close the can tightly.
Older homes may have the architectural details and charm you're seeking, but don't forget that many house a hidden danger: lead paint. This video on MSNBC should remind people that lead paint is still a concern. According to the Center for Healthy Housing, an estimated 38 million homes in the U.S. still have lead paint. If your house was built before 1978, when lead-based paint was banned, you should have a certified lead-based paint inspector check it out. Today, 250,000 children suffer from lead poisoning, which can lead to permanent brain damage. Most people believe that it is lead chips that poison people, but in fact is it usually lead dust from deteriorating paint or renovations that are the cause.
Anyone who has ever stripped paint knows how unpleasant an experience it can be. To avoid the problems that sanding and stripping paint present, check out Franmar’s SoyGel. The SoyGel is a 100 percent organic paint stripper made wholly from soybeans. This product offers a biodegradable, non-toxic alternative to the harmful and strong smelling chemicals that are often used, and it’s less time consuming than sanding. The SoyGel will take a bite out of your wallet, however. At $64.95 a gallon (which covers approximately 200 sq. ft.), it is often twice as expensive as chemical paint strippers. This product does seem to simplify the process of paint stripping, though, and the time it saves might well be worth the cost.
With checks already in the mail, you may be wondering how you are going to spend (or save) the tax rebate that is part of the government's economic stimulus plan. According to a survey conducted by building products manufacturer Johns Manville and reported on the Building Online web site, 24 percent of U.S. homeowners are "considering using" the money they will receive as part of the federal economic stimulus package to upgrade or improve their homes. One in five said they would "definitely use" their rebate money for a home improvement project. Respondents had definite ideas on what those projects would be. Here's how they said they'd spend the rebate: "household upgrades, including landscaping (23 percent) or an upgrade of the bathroom (13 percent) or kitchen (12 percent); improving their homes' energy efficiency, including adding attic insulation (9 percent), caulking or sealing (4 percent), or installing energy efficient light bulbs (4 percent); or painting a room (10 percent)." How will you spend your rebate?
And I thought I was so slick when I put little glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling of my dorm room in college. Star Murals of Beverly Hills makes incredible, moving replicas of entire galaxies on the ceilings of luxury buildings across the nation. During the day, the mural is invisible, but when the sun sets and the lights dim, the stars come out on the ceiling. According to their web site, each mural is custom designed to recreate sleeping under the stars and includes stars that actually twinkle and shooting stars that move across the panel. Althought he's based in Southern California, the artist behind Star Murals does travel to do jobs and works on a commission basis. Check out his web site if you've always wanted to recreate the night sky in your bedroom.
Fall is the perfect time for wrapping up projects left undone from the summer. Perhaps top on the list is paint touch-ups. Painting is the perfect way to get up close and personal with your house. Not only do you spruce up the trim and seal any bare spots, but you can find any water damage or insects. Take the time now—before the winds, rain, or snow of winter—to find the problem spots and fix them once and for all. Now that cooler temperatures are here, the paint will adhere better with less bubbling. But be sure to paint only dry surfaces—moisture that seeps out from the wood can ruin your freshly painted exterior.
One of the biggest DIY questions is how to remove popcorn ceilings. Once the "groovy" feature of '70s and '80s homes, popcorn ceilings are now passé. The problem is that many of them contain asbestos, particularly those installed before 1980. While the standard advice is to wet the ceiling down and scrape the popcorn off, test the material first. Do not sand or scrape the ceiling until you know if it contains asbestos, which is dangerous to humans only if it is disturbed. It's simple to take a sample to the lab—just call your local health department and ask for guidelines. Results usually come within two weeks. There are also testing services and kits that can be ordered online and mailed to the lab for analysis. If you find you have asbestos, you can always encapsulate the paint with fresh wallboard. Releasing carcinogens into the air you breathe is just too big of a risk to take when updating your home.
