Benjamin Moore is my favorite brand of paint. I use their "Aura" line of paint whenever possible, because it usually covers in just one coat. They just announced their 2018 color of the year, and wow! What a color! It looks like they're moving on from the white-and-gray trend. This is called "Caliente" and it's an incredible scarlet hue. A color like this can really make a room, but from the painter's perspective, crimson paint offers a few challenges. With that in mind, here are a few Tips for Painting with Red:
Painting with bold hues like Caliente can be a challenge. If you're nervous about doing it yourself, why not hire a professional interior painter like me? I'm good at it!
Spring has come to Asheville, and so have the bugs! It's the time of year when I start installing a lot of screen doors. This is a great time to talk about how to choose the right screen door: should you go for the cheapest option, or shell out a little more money for an upgrade? A client of mine recently picked out this nice screen door from Home Depot. At around $30, it's hard to argue with the price.
Fortunately I've worked with screens before, so I had the right tools in my van. I also had to trim the frame down to fit it to the opening. (Replacing a door is trickier than it looks.) It turned out well in the end, and it looks much better than the sagging and weathered door that was there before. You can make inexpensive materials look good... it just takes a little more work.
If you need someone with the know-how to finish and hang a screen door correctly, why not call your trusty Asheville handyman? I'll be glad to help.
"Cheap" paint is really expensive. The reason is simple: cheap paint doesn't cover as well, so you have to put down multiple coats. That means it takes multiple cans of cheap paint to do the same job as one can of higher quality paint... not to mention more work for the painter. (By the way, primer is a different story. Unlike wall paint, it's supposed to go on thin, and good primer is often translucent.) Brand matters, too. I once bought a rather expensive paint which turned out to be awful. I had to put on two full coats... even though I was just painting white over white! (The old white was slightly yellower and kept showing through.) It turned out well in the end... but only after a lot of patience. So which paint should you buy? My two favorite brands are: 1) Benjamin Moore's Regal series 2) Sherwin Williams's Infinity series (available at Lowe's Home Improvement stores) #1 adheres so well that it's even hard to peel it off the metal ferrule of my brush! Wow! Once you choose the right paint color... and the right paint... it's time to choose the right house painter for the job. If you live in Asheville, give us a call. We love this stuff!
They say you can't do work that's "fast, cheap and good" but I beg to differ. (Please, please, let me differ!) Check out this recent backsplash repair which I did for one of my clients. She had a ledge behind her bathroom sink which was made from particle board. Since particle board is basically just sawdust and glue, it had started to swell and crack: The first thing I did was take out the particle board and replace it with luan board, which won't swell up: Then my client purchased a set of the "gel" tiles from the hardware store. I usually have my doubts about faux tiles, but these looked great. I didn't even have to use a tile saw, since they cut with scissors: They even look good up close: If you've got an ugly little problem like a work-worn backsplash, we'll be glad to help. Just give us a call or use our handy online contact form.
Once the spring was cleared, I read up about some simple low cost methods to cultivate a spring and found a system that looked like it might work. Here's how the spring looks with the first layer of gravel on it, with the overflow valves laid down and ready for more gravel. My first attempts at an earthen dam tended to leak, so this dam is made from a cut-out section of a plastic trash can. So far, so good. The spring measures the same output that I gathered before damming it up, and it seems to be picking up in flow as a couple of weeks have passed. This photo is showing about a 1/4 gallon per minute. It doesn't look like much, but it adds up with a continuous flow. It comes out to 15 gallons per hour or 360 gallons in 24 hours. And as long as I'm making work for myself, I've been thinking of making a pond in this field, with a rock water feature using the stones from the old cabin foundation. On second thought, maybe later. Anyway, this should help with keeping the old spring flowing and unclogged. All in all, this has been an enjoyable project, and I've learned a lot.
Do you have a special project in mind for your home? I can help you enjoy your outdoor space with porch repairs and deck maintenance. |
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April 2022
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