I'm not busy, I think I'll paint the house (says Michelle)

After graduating from University of Washington nursing program in June 2016, passing her Medical Boards and accepting a job at Swedish Medical Center in the Postpartum Unit, Michelle had a few months before she started her new job, she decided to keep herself busy, also save a lot of money, by painting their house.

Her first task was to get motivated (took a while), next was to put forth a plan of action on what needed to be done.  She spent a few weeks scrapping off the old paint and caulking ever little crack she found. 



Chris was on call , so he had a “ Stay at Home” weekend, which gave him time to finish caulking the garage.

I was recruited to do some carpenter jobs, rebuild the front door handrail and trim the garage doors.

With the house ready to paint, Michelle assembled her painting crew, Chris, Andre’ and me.  

Andre’ was assigned to the Wagner Paint Crew sprayer.
Michelle assisted with back brushing until she had trim work available. I was assigned back brushing. Chris was assigned stirring the paint, getting the sprayer ready and prepping the gutters and painting when possible. Kim had granddaughter duty, a task she dearly loves.  

We got off to a bad start; a coupling on the sprayer hose was not tight enough so a little paint spilled on the patio. After a few tense moments, (Michelle being slightly sensitive about the spilled paint while Andre’ was trying to fix the issue) we were all ready to do some painting.

I was proud of Michelle and Andre’ being able to get past the miss-communication issue and working together once we had the sprayer going. Yep, they are fine young adults.


The garage and back of the house were painted by mid-day.  After taping all the windows, Andre’ was ready to put the second coat on the garage.  

Just before the sunset, we encountered issue number 2, the sprayer decided to stop working properly. It was determined that a trip to Home Depot was needed to purchase a new trigger spry nozzle; by the way triggers are not cheap. The new trigger was attached to the unit, no go, still didn’t work, the motor was the issue, trash one Wagner Paint Crew. On the positive side, I now have two spray nozzles. I foresee a new Wagner Paint Crew in the near future.

Not to be outsmarted, I had another sprayer available. I unpacked my Wagner Airless paint sprayer. Yep you guessed it, it didn’t work either.  Trash one Wagner Airless Sprayer.  Since it was dinnertime, we decided to regroup in the morning.

In the morning, our Project Manager (Michelle) decided that Chris, Andre’ and I could use rollers to apply the paint and back brush at the same time (after all we have 2 hands) and she would do all the trim application.  By Sunday evening the garage and the back of the house had two coats on.  Michelle was making great progress on the trim work.  
 

After the weekend’s effort, Michelle figured we could finish the project, only part left was a small amount of trim at the peak of the house. No go, had to stop, weather was not cooperating.  She will have to finish in the spring.

I still consider it “Mission accomplished”, the house looks great, reminds me of a little cottage tucked away in green foliage. Great job Brown and Martin family. 

Andre’ was voted “Project MVP”