Rustoleum

While visiting my family, and still riding high on a few productive weeks on home improvement projects at the Northeast Portland Bungalow, I pitched in with a few odds and ends to help out.

I noticed the back door at our family home needed a paint job. The paint was peeling off the aluminum door is big pieces, and looked pretty bad. Using the scraper and sander attachments of a borrowed Dremel Multi-Max™ 6300 oscillating tool, we made short work of removing the old paint. We washed the door down with mineral spirits and were ready for paint.

We were instructed specifically to use the leftover can of RustOleum Protective Enamel. The can hadn't been sealed after it's last use, and had a thick skin on top of the paint. I punctured the skin by poking it with a scraper. I had to pull the skin out of the can with my hand, covering my hand in oil-based paint.

Have you tried to wash oil-based paint off your hand? It's not easy. First, clothing detergent (because I went straight to the utility sink, in the laundry room). No luck. Next, dish washing detergent- still no luck.

I was beginning to worry- it was getting very sticky and "smoke gray" skin is not too attractive. Luckily, we found instructions on the internet. It should have been obvious- so if this happens to you, do this: Scrub your hands with a good handful of vegetable oil and salt. The paint comes right off. I washed up after that with the dish washing detergent. My hands actually felt smooth and soft afterward!

I have to admit, I was a skeptic. I did not think the paint was going to look good- not after pulling that skin off the top! But the paint easily mixed, had good coverage in a single coat and did not show any brush or roller marks. It settled to a very smooth and even finish.

I had read some tips about painting with oil-based paints- load your brush or roller generously, and do not over brush. These were great tips. It gets tacky fast, so keeping the brush loaded helped. I had also read that it dries slowly, so we put the painted door in the sun. It was dry with no tackiness in about 2 hours. And it looks great! The paint is smooth and even. I can't believe I forgot to get before and after photos- but trust me- it looks a lot better. 

I want to recommend this paint to you, if you have a similar project coming up. I'd love to say I was being paid to say that, but no, I'm saying only because I used what I assumed would be a ruined can of paint and it came out great. 

Tips!

• There are some major fumes. You'll want to work in a well ventilated space! We were in a garage, with doors and windows open wide. 
• If you can, dry the door, appliance, or whatever you've painted in full sun.
• Keep the vegetable oil, salt, and dishwashing detergent handy!

More Time in the Yard

Yard work kept on through Friday. The vines came down off the fence.

Before (side view):

After (looking straight on):

Then Norm came over to help us remove the holly. It was growing too close to the house and was well on it's way to damaging the eaves.

Saturday I spent several hours stripping one side of the closet door for the office/guest room.

It's not quite done, but it's close. I'm debating whether I want to strip the interior facing side of the door. It's roughly 4 hours worth of labor that I'd rather put towards something else. So I may just sand it to clean up, and repaint. Or I may give in to the guilt and strip the paint anyway.

So far as a day spent stripping paint goes, it was pretty awesome. I had music playing, it was warm and I was well shaded by the giant fig tree.

When I decided to call it day, I still had enough motivation to clean up the front room, which has been a disaster area since starting the office project. Yep, it was a good day.

So, how did you spend your weekend?

Moss killer

Like the rest of the Pacific Northwest, our roof has provided a great a habitat for moss. This does not thrill these home-owners, so out came the moss killer. Not our most exciting project, but still... You know we have way more than just one picture, but let's not go overboard. After all, it's just moss killer.

Gutterly awesome

Our home inspector had alerted us to the fact that our gutters sloped the wrong direction, but we figured this was a simple enough fix that we could take care of ourselves- and yes, we can do that. But it was never a priority.

This week, we spontaneously fixed it. We took turns with the hacksaw, to cut through the screws that were used to mount the gutter (and were then sealed with caulk, which disallowed us from unscrewing them) and finally, broke through. After that, it was simply a matter of holding the level to the bottom and repositioning the gutter nails.

Cutting through that one screw:

That night, it rained, and continued to rain for 48 hours. First time I was ever so happy about 48 hours of rain in June. It gave us a chance to admire our properly sloped gutter. Now, to fix the others...

A little work in the yard

Attempted some yard improvement today. The giant lillies have been moved to the small strip of no-man's land, along the side of the house. When these babies reach their 7 foot max height, I'll enjoy seeing and smelling them from the kitchen window. Here's what we had today:

Before:

After:

Didn't even realize that the moss washed away, until I saw these pictures.

Artifacts, left from previous owners:

Why was burying garbage in the yard so popular? Some of this stuff is less than 10 years old.