One Tough Project

When we made our list of projects to get done before we put our house up for sale next summer, one of them stood out from the others.  Doug and I both agreed that the stairwell, hallway and landing all needed painted desperately.  The handprints up and down the stairs, the stains from spilled drinks on the walls and the soot on the ceiling from my twenty-five years of burning candles in the Heinisch home had taken a toll on that area.  We just couldn't ignore it.

After deciding that the project was a priority, Doug said that he absolutely did not want to paint that area.  He didn't like the idea of getting on a ladder and felt that it would be too much for us.  I agreed with him whole heartedly and started calling around to get quotes from painters.  I was surprised at first with how hard it was to get anyone to call me back.  Doug tried a few people as well and didn't hear back from any of them.  We finally got two to come give us a quote.  We were shocked when we were told by the first one that it would be roughly $2500.  That was at least double what I expected.  The next painter was way more reasonable at $1200, but he wasn't insured.  Farm Bureau told us that they wouldn't cover him if he fell while painting, so Doug decided to call the first painter and see if that was the best price he could do.  

Once the original painter said that his price was fixed, I started looking at YouTube videos on how to paint a tall stairwell ourselves.  Thankfully, there were a lot of videos to chose from and I was able to take ideas from several.  We first bought an eighteen foot pole that we could attach tools to, and then we bought an edger and corner painter to use.  Today, Doug and I took our new purchases and started the painting project.  I used the edger to paint the first coat on the entire landing.  It took some time to get around the five doors in that area, but after three and a half hours I finished the landing and the edges around the front door as well.  While I was doing that, Doug used the pole to paint the rest of the stairwell.  It was hard work and we will still have quite a bit of work to do this week, but we made a lot of progress.  The best part was that the cost for the project should come in around $200.  That was definitely good news.