Painting is the worst

[expectantsteelerfan]

We closed on our new house yesterday, yay!

We promised the kids we would paint their 2 bedrooms, because we were so thrilled to not need to paint any other area of the whole house.  We figured we could easily get those 2 rooms painted this weekend before we move in next week, but man, I had forgotten how much painting sucks!

The taping was actually the worst part.  Ds's room has 2 separate closets, the entrance door, a door to the bathroom, 3 windows, and 2 shelves with curved edges that we are leaving up and painting around, plus the floor trim and ceiling.  It took hours to do both rooms.  My bff and her dh showed up to help us paint when I was afraid we wouldn't even get 1 coat done today.  We're doing brunch with dh's family tomorrow, but we're still hoping to get another coat down tomorrow evening.  

I am never painting a room again, ever.  I will outsource this job from now on.

[steph2008]

We closed on our new house Monday, but don't "get the house" until the 28th (they are doing a rent back now) and on the 29th we have the painters hired. We painted our townhouse ourselves, and it's just SO MUCH!

[dove]

I can commiserate. I, too, painted today. We have 10 ft ceilings so up and down ladders.

It was worth it to us bc we got quotes for $4500 (!!!) to paint my master bed and bath and that was labor only! We live in a low to medium COL area, too. We finished up the bathroom area today. I’m guessing prices jumped up dramatically due to the pandemic because we had another much larger part of our house painted (kitchen living, dining all with 12’ ceilings and the 2 story foyer and landing/loft upstairs) for less than half of that amount right before COVID hit.

[Susie]

Oh do I feel you.  In the last 3-4 weeks I've painted:
- family room with vaulted ceiling (ceiling, trim, and walls)
- dining room ceiling
- living room ceiling
- DD's room (ceiling, trim, walls, closet)
- DS's room (ceiling, trim, walls)
- our room (ceiling, trim, walls, and closet ceiling)
- my dad's room (ceiling, tomorrow will be trim & walls)
- part of the kitchen (ceiling, trim, walls)

and I am worn. out.  I've done all of that alone, while H stays home with the kids.  I'm not mad about doing it, I actually kind of like painting.  I'm just tired and sore, tired of working alone in an empty house, and tired of all my playlists.

[heygrey]

Yup.

We only painted the 2 bedrooms after we moved in and I told H he better be in love with the light grey everywhere else because I am NOT painting another room. We have 10’ ceilings in our main areas with a lot of things to cut around. The whole house was painted less than a year before we moved in (not a quality job, but good enough). We are planning a big reno that involves new flooring throughout and new kitchen cabinets in ~2 years. I plan to get a paint quote as part of that.

I am team diy for so many things, but painting is one of those things that I cannot do as well as a professional.

[cmeon]

I actually don't tape trim/doors/windows/ceiling anymore, I just use a good quality angled brush and cut in with a steady hand. It still takes a lot of time, but when you cut everything in first- rolling the rest on is so fast and easy! But YES- it's physically demanding work, and I will definitely hire painters if we're doing more than a few rooms.

[libbygrl109]

I am not looking forward to painting my son's room this summer. It will be the 3rd time since we moved into our house. It's a small room with lots of cut-ins, which is always my job. DH does the rolling, so he's done in no time, while I'm still working.

I am so happy that we decided to have painters come do our living area when we have the kitchen done. It covers the majority of the square footage of our house. The ceiling was a beast to do the first time so we swore if we ever did it again (because after finally getting it done, we were OK with not doing it for a very long time), we'd pay for it.

[deadwing]

I don't actually mind painting, but I will agree taping is the worst. I am impressed by anyone who can paint without taping - I don't have a steady enough hand to get away with that.

You will be happy (or at least your kids will) when it's done.

[pumpkin]

Jun 20, 2021 13:11:13 GMT -5 deadwing said:

I don't actually mind painting, but I will agree taping is the worst. I am impressed by anyone who can paint without taping - I don't have a steady enough hand to get away with that.

This is me too! I don’t mine the painting, it’s the taping that does me in, and in my condo there are sooooo many cut-ins. I’m always amazed at those who are steady enough to just do it free hand.

[TBM]

I don't mind painting (or taping, for that matter), but I usually don't have to tape or cut in unless DH isn't home. He's good at that and likes to do it.

What both of us really dislike painting is ceilings and trim. I would gladly pay someone to do those.

[bunnies]

Jun 19, 2021 23:03:07 GMT -5 cmeon said:

I actually don't tape trim/doors/windows/ceiling anymore, I just use a good quality angled brush and cut in with a steady hand.

Same! Taping sucks. I actually enjoy the painting.

[sb]

Don't tape! I actually find cutting in relaxing.

I also promised my kids I would paint their rooms before we moved in and...I didn't. Vaulted ceilings, a non-functioning AC upstairs for several days, and just too much other stuff on the list. I told them I'll do it later and they were okay with it.

I did paint our bedroom, the living room, the dining room, and kitchen cabinets (minus some doors that a friend is spraying for me) in 5 days though, so I'm choosing to be impressed with myself.

[macmars45]

Before we sold our TH last summer H was positive we could repaint the entire house ourselves. We had 9'-15(ish)' ceilings. I laughed in his face and hired a handyman to do it. Done and done.

[wildrice]

I hate it too. I have learned to plan on a full day of work for each room, and would likely plan on more if you have very large rooms or high ceilings (we don't).

Next in my house is our first floor, which is our kitchen and living room. I plan to break them into at least 2 days, even though they are connected - not completely open concept, but enough continuiting between the rooms that there are shared walls and everything will need to be the same color. I am dreading it.

[expectantsteelerfan]

We finally finished after a few touch-ups this morning. We only did one coat on dd's room (because we realized that she was going from a shade of gray with a hint of blue to a slightly lighter shade of gray with a hint of blue and you really could barely tell a difference), but ds's room took 3 coats plus touch ups to get it white. I'm SO glad we only had to paint those 2 rooms! I'm so sore!

[dr.girlfriend]

When we bought our house I was SO excited to paint because I've always had rentals and was never allowed to paint. That lasted for all of five minutes. Painting SUCKS! Well worth the cost of hiring for me now.

[simpsongal]

I guess I'm in the minority of those who enjoy painting - see e.g., the entirely stenciled walls of our nursery.

[k3am]

simpsongal, my sister is a weirdo like you - she loooooooves painting. For a while, every time she came to visit, we'd usually end up painting a room. She's so mellow and relaxed while she's doing it that it's a really enjoyable process.

She's coming tomorrow and it will be the first time in 4 years that we don't plan to paint, and I'm having to hold myself back from painting our family room... because then I'd want to do the dining room, which connects to the living room, which connects to the entry, which connects to the stairs and the stupid vaulted ceilings.. But I am desperate to get away from all the gray in my house. I hate it.

[lo]

Give me a good murder podcast and I’m good to paint for a couple hours every day. Currently painting most of my walls white. I just want everything bright and fresh and then maybe I’ll repaint a room or two down the line. My staircase is currently half painted as tall as I could reach so I need to figure out something to paint the top half with a ladder set up of some sort.

[scm1011]

Ugh I hate it AND I’m terrible at it. No matter how well I tape or how careful I am it always looks a mess.

[simpsongal]

k3am, Just so you don't seem completely off the wall - I DO NOT enjoy painting ceilings! Two shoulder surgeries probably aids in that perspective, and all the little paint splatters always end up on my glasses.

[icedcoffee]

I hate it. We hire it out. I used to feel bad about it because my parents always did it themselves and I felt like I was supposed to, but I do not enjoy it, I am not good at it and I don’t want to. I no longer feel guilty hiring it out. :::shrug:::

The few times I’ve done small paining projects I’ve been instantly reminded that hiring it out is the right choice for my family.

[divanerd]

Call us lazy we paid painters

@simpsongirl nice stencil!

[deadwing]

I feel like hate for painting ceilings should just be a given. It's awkward and uncomfortable at best.