Coat three is when I knew.
I was painting the old oak trim around the closets white, and by then it should have had a solid base under it. It did not. Every time the brush went back over a section, the paint I had already put down moved. I did a fourth coat anyway, because apparently I needed to be certain. Then I admitted the obvious. This was not a paint job anymore.
There is a bedroom upstairs that has been sitting empty since Adam moved out and Kennedy took over the downstairs. Tracy has wanted a space of her own for years, going back to before COVID, and we had talked about building a shed in the yard the way everybody talks about yard projects. Never built it. So when she suggested I add a she shed to my project list, it did not take me long to figure out what number one was.
The plan was paint the walls, vacuum it out, get her a chair, put a table in there for puzzles. One weekend, maybe a couple of evenings.
Here is the part that caught me off guard. We were partway into the second coat when Tracy went quiet and said she felt nervous and did not know how to feel. I asked if she needed a hug. She said yeah. What she told me was that she could not believe it was actually happening.
Before this, the house was just a house. She had pockets of space here and there, and everybody knew those as where mom would be. None of them were hers. I do not think she was used to something being only for her.
The oak was the fight. I had not sanded nearly enough, and oak is sealed and slick to start with, so the white was just sitting on top holding on with good intentions. Four coats to figure that out. Then I did what I should have done on day one and asked at the paint counter, and came home with BEHR Bonding Primer No. 432. I could feel it grabbing as I brushed it on. That stuff changed the whole job, and I can paint every piece of oak in this house white now without thinking about it.
It also cost me the closet doors. Rather than keep wrestling the old ones I put in new sliding doors and new casings, and I like them better anyway.
Two weeks total. That is what a one weekend project costs around here, which surprised nobody.
She is using it. She goes up, gets comfortable, watches her shows, and Arlo jumps in the chair with her. She bought him a raised water bowl so he does not have to walk downstairs for a drink, which tells you how much time the two of them are spending up there.
That was the whole point.
If you have got an empty room doing nothing, go do something with it. And if there is oak trim in it, buy the bonding primer before you buy the paint. Ask me how I know.
The Gear Locker
Heads up: some of the links below may be affiliate links, which means I could earn a small commission if you buy through them. It costs you nothing extra, and it never changes what I tell you about a product.
From this post
- BEHR Interior/Exterior Bonding Primer No. 432. The primer that finally solved my finished oak painting problem.
- The area rug in Tracy’s she shed. Prices move around, so check the current deal at the link.
- The chair she picked. Prices move around, so check the current deal at the link.
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