RenovateKC

Last Saturday we had finished scraping around the lower half of the house, and we were looking for something to do on Sunday since our scaffold wasn't scheduled to arrive until the middle of this past week. Priming the bare portions of the house seemed like a great way to move the exterior forward while waiting for the scaffold. The entire event took only a few hours, but two lessons stick out and warrant a write-up:

Primer Preps the Surface for Paint

OK, you probably know that already, but we encountered a small twist. We have cedar shingle siding, and we took it down to bare wood. There is a dark layer of tannin on the surface of many of the shingles. Our primer, Zinsser Cover-Stain, is meant to block the tannin from interacting with the paint and provide a solid surface for paint adhesion. The fact that it is white will help our paint's color look even across the entire house. Except that it isn't all white anymore. Apparently there was enough tannin on the surface of the back of the house that the Cover-Stain interacted with it and turned bright Orange. I thought the sun was playing tricks on me, and I called Kate around back to confirm the change. Prime well. It will allow paint to stick, and it will keep your paint from discoloring.

Read the Clean Up Instructions First

Seriously, before you crack open the first can, read the clean up instructions. We were priming with Cover-Stain, but we also had two cans of Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 in the house. The Bulls Eye was purchased first, and we knew it was water based. With that in mind, we primed with the Cover Stain, and we expected another hassle free water based clean up. Wrong, way wrong. I remember smelling the primer and thinking "this is oil based", but it didn't quite click with me until I was "cleaning" my brush under the faucet and only making a sticky mess. I really wanted to take a picture of this lesson, but I couldn't bear the thought of getting primer on my camera in the process.

Corollary: Appreciate Your Neighborhood Hardware Store

The neighborhood hardware store is a dying breed, but we are fortunate enough to have one right down the road. It only took Kate a few minutes to return home with a gallon of paint thinner so I could clean the brushes, the sink, and my hands. Sure, they don't have the vast selection of Home Depot or Lowes, but they do have a location that can't be beat when in the middle of a project we find that we are lacking supplies.