Another Finish

Last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and This Tuesday and Wednesday found me in my painting clothes--real old rags, for sure.  I was working in the garage, doing the interior painting.

We had this garage added to our house about 12 years ago.  In the photo you see the stucco wall that was the exterior of the house and one of the three walls that were added.  It's a good sized room--about 22' x 24', if I remember right.

About four years ago I put a primer on the ceiling and the three added walls.  Now it was time to finish the job.  I had bought 2 gallons of paint when it was on sale, a colour called "Steamed Milk," and picked up another gallon of mistint for about $10, I think.  It was an off white, and I figured I could use it for something.  I also had about 3 cups of an orangey tan semigloss latex.  

I found a large plastic bucket, scrubbed it up very well and started mixing those paints.  I could do a half batch, limited by the size of the mixing bucket.  Whatever colour came was fine to me.  Imagine my surprise when the mixed paint exactly matched the colour of the stuccoed wall!  The second time this summer that the odds 'n ends of paint provided the perfect match!  That really tickled me.

First I put the second coat on the ceiling, using Kilz2, a stain blocking paint.  Sometime in the future I'll have to put on a third coat, as the coverage is not complete.

Then I painted the three walls with my lovely mixed paint.  The walls are made of particle board, not drywall, so they absorb quite a bit of paint.  I was very pleased with the results.

Then I tackled the window.  What a mess of fly spots, with the window track grossly full of dead flies and moths.  But determination wins: the window and surroundings were spotless.  The wooden frame around the window needed to be painted, and I thought to use the brown that is the trim on the house.  Somehow that just didn't look right at all, so the window frame is a lovely, semigloss white.  Just makes everything looks so nice and bright.

The rough shelf you see holds our recycling bins, and that got a coat of the semigloss white also.

Last up was the door and its frame.  That took a couple days, as it had been roughly put together.  Nail holes had to be filled and rough lumber sanded.  Yesterday it got a primer coat of Kilz2 and today I finished the job with a final coat of white semigloss.  The sill is painted with a solid colour stain, to prevent peeling due to weather damage.

A final touch: a tennis ball to keep the car from crowding the recycle shelf.