ShareThis1 |
Hire someone to paint upper 1/2 (there are some tall parts) and we'll do the lower. |
2 |
Qs: Can we do it? How hard will it be? How long will it take? What techniques will we learn? How much will we save? |
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When we're done! |
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Listen to music, books on tape. Get to know my wife better. Enjoy simple labor. Reflect on savings! |
Create an Experiment
Matthew Cornell
- Member Since
- 07/02/09
- About Lover of experimentation and leader of Think, Try, Learn, the scientific method for discovering happiness. Creator of Edison, the Think, Try, Learn experimenter's workbook. http://edison.thinktrylearn.com/ http://www.thinktrylearn.com/ http://www.matthewcornell.org/
- Web http://www.matthewcornell.org/
- Experiments 98
- Observations 1262
Comments & Observations
Matthew Cornell Today we completed our front porch! It's the most complex part of the house because it has a natural ceiling that takes lots of painstaking detail to not paint over! Looks great, not that hard.
Aug 09, 2009
Matthew Cornell Interesting: I found my wife gets overwhelmed thinking about the project because she plans far out - what's next after this. It's a good habit, but applying TTL to it (Liza's a great model for it - she did her own house) makes it easy. This is exactly what I teach in my consulting. Break it down, it won't seem so overwhelming. It's hard for her, though. But she's getting it! A good sport.
Aug 09, 2009
Matthew Cornell IdeaMattBlog: When to be latex, when to be oil
while painting the lower 1/2 of our house (an experiment) I realized that latex paint (vs. oil) is an important *enabler* of applying TTL. It allows breaking it down into small non-resistant chunks (easy cleanup), and therefore frequent analysis of the process.
Oil is good when you've committed to a direction, and you want something that will last. It's like LizaCunningham's waterfall model vs. TTL
What's the productivity equivalent? have all the tools in place, break down into small tasks, ...?
Sep 18, 2009
Matthew Cornell Wow - interesting idea (IMHO). I realized I make experiment-related observations and insights in my big arse text file, ones that I might use to blog about (blog ideas). I just pasted one in when I was reminded about Agustin's insight that "experiment = blog". This is deep? It explains why we have RSS feeds for individual experiments.
Sep 18, 2009
Matthew Cornell It's been going well. What remains:
o paint final coat on south face, doing some final caulking and finishing. est time: 4 hours
o start north face. less area than south, less prep too. est time: 8 hours
Problem: Warm temps are fast departing, and I want to get it done before winter. That means some "dim the lights" activity (prioritize the project over most others). This highlights a challenge in being self-employed. Unlike my wife's work (when she's done, she's done), there's always more I can do. So there's an expectation that I should be the one to do these kinds of jobs. It's a family discussion that's still in progress (with some welcome professional help!)
Oct 15, 2009
Matthew Cornell Almost done with the south wall. I'm getting out there when the temps are 50+, b/w winter's a-comin'. Mini sub-experiment: Will try Bondo for repair of punky window ledge.
Oct 19, 2009
Matthew Cornell Boy, the latex paint is a major enabler of this experiment - little and often - due to easy of cleanup. A principle for all TTL experiments? Lower The Barriers to Experimentation.
Oct 19, 2009
Lizzy [Liza wrote] So true Matt, latex is so much easier to work with and clean up! And that barrier to entry is huge. The right tool for the right job. Paint rollers are a barrier to entry on a small job, it seems like they will be better than the brush but the cleanup and water waste is a barrier.
Oct 19, 2009
Brock Tice Bit the bullet and bought a cordless paint sprayer to paint my shed. Worked really well! It only took me about 30-40 minutes of actual painting time. Set-up and take-down were doubled because I neglected to get enough paint the first time. Oops.
Oct 20, 2009
Matthew Cornell Cool, Brock. How did you find the coverage? I don't see how it could be as thick as a brush. Then again, if it's that much easier, painting more often might be a good tradeoff.
Oct 21, 2009
Matthew Cornell Funny story: I started prepping the north face by scraping. I laid a tarp down to catch the scrapings, and noticed a lot of interest by some bees. When I rolled it up (carefully!) I saw them entering the ground, so I gently pushed aside the leaves. Bingo: A golf ball-sized hole right next to the house. Then my brain disabled itself and for some reason I reached down. When I came within ~2' I felt a *strong* bite of pain, then ran like the dickens. No more stings, but that SOB hurt! No screwing around with those yellow suckers. Took about 12 hours for the pain to subside. :-)
Oct 21, 2009
Brock Tice Actually I found the thickness of the coverage to be pretty good, I think that's why I ran out of paint sooner than I expected. One gallon should have been enough for one coat of the shed, but I needed two.
Oct 21, 2009
Matthew Cornell Done! And before the winter weather. Overall, this was highly successful. Latex was an important enabler, as was having a flexible ladder for our oddly-shaped lot. Most painful was prep and minor repair, and trim requiring careful detailed painting. Asking a pro for tips would have been a great idea. Celebrated low-key with a drinking chocolate and a bit if reflection.
Nov 01, 2009