What not to do when painting...

First off, let me pass on some advise that I wish someone would have given to us.

When buying ceiling paint, DO NOT BUY THE CANS WITH PLASTIC LIDS - THEY ARE IMPOSSIBLE TO OPEN!! AND MORE IMPOSSIBLE TO CLOSE AFTER DISMANTELING THE LID. As Ben has just informed me, the second can was SUPER easy to get open and we were mearly doing it wrong for the first can...of which I didn't know until now. Anyway, I'm still a fan of metal lids. :)

Ok, so as mentioned in the previous post, we're doing some home projects. Our first is painting. The previous owners did a quick paint job over the entire home - of which we are grateful, don't get us wrong, but in their hurry to cover the minty green walls with white/cream paint, they did the sloppiest job ever! There is paint on the doors, cupboards, baseboards, lighting fixtures, everywhere!

So Ben and I have SLOWLY been fixing their panting sloppiness. One room at a time. So we decided to start painting ceilings of which we'd been avoiding. Thus far, we've painted the front room & ceiling, the living room & (just recently) ceiling, the dining room & (just recently) ceiling, & our bedroom & ceiling. Now all we have left is the hallway & ceiling, bathroom & ceiling, spare room & ceiling, game room & ceiling and kitchen (of which we are dreading) & ceiling.

You get the point, EVERY ROOM in the house needs to be painted but most importantly the patchy ceilings need to be painted desperately!!

So a few weekends ago, Ben and I decided that we would tackle the living room/dining room ceilings. Ben of course, being much stronger than and & better coordinated with a paint brush, did most of the work - which really wasn't that bad. The worst part was getting the paint can open!! It is virtually impossible to get a plastic lid off of a sealed paint can. Between a screwdriver & pliers, we finally were able to get the lid off - which is pretty dismantled at this point & virtually unusable again. That was the first can. The next day, when he continued to paint the ceilings, he figured out the "trick" and easily opened the lid of the second can.

So we - or I mean he - painted the ceilings and then gently put the lid on top and set it aside. I of course thought, hum that could be dangerous if one of us tripped on it - but then followed that thought up with - That would never happen. We're both fairly coordinated people, we'd NEVER trip on a FULL can of paint (as we had to open the second can to finish up a few edges - so it was still VERY FULL. (now that I know the second can was easy to open, I asked him why he didn't put the lid on all the way - of which he said, I expected to paint another room soon..and thought it would be easier to just gently place the lid on top.... HUM......)

So that brings us to last night, when I'm feeling 100% at my worst. I have a head cold AND my tummy was feeling off (like I could toss my cookies at any moment) stupid dinner didn't set well with me, and so I wanted nothing more than to chill on the couch and watch a movie.

At that point, I hear some commotion in the living room...and then the infamous - Uh oh...oh no....no...no.......Janelle - HELP! HURRY!!!!!!!!

So I being the good wife, jump up and rush to the living room to see this.... And grab the camera to take a picture of (which baffled Ben a bit - it's moments like this that we need to document!)


Yep..he tripped over the paint can with the gently placed lid on top. And about 1/2 to 3/4 of the gallon dumped all over our wood floors. Now in his defense, he was carrying an empty laundry basket to the laundry room to collect laundry (isn't he the best!) and didn't see it there. Whoops!

So what would your first reaction be when you see an entire can of paint spilled on your floors? Well, shock, unbelief and a stop dead in your tracks reaction because you mother never prepared you for how to clean up a gallon of paint on the floors. Followed by a relief that you don't have carpeting and a dread of - well I guess we WILL be refinishing the floors before we move - of which has been in debate for years now.

So how do you actually get paint off the floors? I have no idea....we just scrambled. We sat there debating over what to do...I then ran to the kitchen thinking there HAD to be some nifty tool that could help and to strip down to my skivvies...there was NO way I was getting paint all over my NEW Pants!!

So we finally decided on the cardboard method. Take a flat piece of cardboard (ours was from a carnation instant breakfast box) and start scooping. The "Pour" that paint from your scraper into a painter roller thinging (you know those things you pour paint into to make it easy to get on your roller) After getting 90% up, then attack with a wet towel. Rinse the wet towel out in the shower & continue until all paint is up...and then after 20 minutes, you'll hopefully get something that looks like this.....


An almost over flowing paint roller thingie, and wood floors that just have a twinge of white in the cracks. WHEW...Now the paint is out side on the front porch with a LOT of other cardboard blocking our entire front door area.

So what's the lesson to be learned? NEVER NEVER NEVER GENTLY PUT THE LID ON TOP OF YOUR PAINT CAN AND LEAVE IN ON THE LIVING ROOM FLOOR. AT LEAST PUT IT ON A TABLE, OR OUTSIDE OR PUT THE LID ON ALL THE WAY!!

The best part of the whole ordeal, other than us getting the paint out, is that ZERO got on the chair which was 1/2 and inch from the paint spill! How amazing is that!?