The Good Stuff

So about that paint I've been going on about. The brand is Sikkens. It is NOT cheap, but it is easily the nicest oil based paint I've ever worked with. It covers in one coat with a brush or two with a roller. After a bit of experimentation, I think two coats with a roller is far quicker than one coat by brush.

In our case, I chose the Sikkens Rebold solid exterior stain. The only problem I've had is drying. It's been too humid for it to dry quickly but drying it is. Some of it where the brush put it on thick is taking a week plus owing to the humidity I would guess. We went with their 'cedar' tone, which is probably my only complaint. To my eye it's more taupe than cedar colored.

Here in Ohio, I went to a professional paint store (Creative Paints in Plain City, OH) and paid $43 a gallon. I'm happy enough with their service and the results thus far on the kids playhouse to go back for another gallon I'm likely going to need to complete the work on the deck.

On the creative DIY / Hacking front, I found a great use for an old pesticide disposable pump sprayer. It's the kind that has the attached holster on the side for the spray wand ( the sort you pull rather than squeeze to charge the pump). I cut the top off, washed it out and used it to caddy my brush and some Turpentine (white spirit). That way whenever I took a break or the paint got a bit too gunky on my brush I could give it a dip and a rattling inside the container and then slip it into the holster till needed again. This also kept the brush fresh enough that end of day cleanup was a snap with soap and water. And, since the container is recyclable plastic, when I'm done with reusing it, I can still take it in for recycling.

Next time I'll show you what I did with a discarded baby crib under-spring.