Paint or Sleep

It is done.  In only 2-1/2 weeks, we packed up our apartment, stored our stuff, moved in with family, and set-up our place to sell.  Just this past long weekend, we moved (with the help of 4 friends, thank you!) on Saturday, and spent 3 nights painting and cleaning in the wee hours while our little one slept.  The home that we lived in for 5 years is now emptied out, listed on the market, and waiting for a new owner, with fingers crossed.

I've never painted walls before, but I'm hoping it'll be one of many home DIY skills that I pick-up over the coming years.  We ended up saving a few hundred dollars by doing the work ourselves, but lost out on many hours of precious sleep.  I read up on some painting tips prior to starting, so that even before I cracked the paint can lid, I knew how to cut in, correctly apply painters tape, and reduce brush strokes from the get go. But of course, with anything, I learned a few things the hard way:

• If you can only buy one brush, make it a 2" angled brush.  The 2.5" angled brush recommended by some is too thick and awkward for some finer jobs, like doing edge work around wall-mounted hardware.
• If you bought colour-matched paint, and need to buy more, bring the can lid to the store.  The lid has a dab of colour, plus a detailed description of what colours were used to mix the paint.  Otherwise if you just rely on the store swatch, you seriously risk buying a very different colour. (It happened to us!)
• Do at least 2 coats of paint.  Yes, we saved time by doing 1 coat, but the work was much patchier than if we had applied a second coat.
• Make sure your painting area is very well lit, so you can see where you've applied/not applied paint.  In other words, try NOT to paint at night.
• When rolling on paint, use the short handle of the roller.  It's tempting to attach the roller to a broom handle so you don't have to use a ladder, but it's a lot more difficult to get even coverage with a long handle.
• After you painted each wall, do a visual inspection to clean up any drips.  It can be done very quickly and easily with a brush (for painted areas) or damp cloth (for unpainted areas) when the paint is still wet.

It was a lot of work, but the place really perked up after a fresh coat of paint.  A few well-placed pieces of furniture and accents, and it's all tied up beautifully into one nice little apartment package.