The Sectional Method of Housepainting

Our neighbor Dave crossed the street for a visit while I was priming the north (bedroom) side of the house earlier this afternoon.

“Painting the house a different color?” he asked.

“No, I just putting on a coat of primer right now,” I replied.

“Why are you doing that?” he returned.

Painting is Dave’s second job. From the sound of it, though, he hires himself out for mostly interior jobs. Nevertheless, his follow-up question made me feel as though I was going about things all wrong.

“That’s how I learned to do it from JoAnna’s dad,” I explained.

Until he was hired by the City of Two Rivers Public Works Department in the mid-1970s, Larry worked as a painter’s assistant on a regular basis. In fact, the same summer that he retired (1992), he and Alice spent a week in Middleton while JoAnna and the boys and I were on vacation so he could paint the house. I recall his insistence that a coat of primer was one of the key steps of the process. And I’ve followed suit every since.

I use a different method for scheduling this chore, however. I don’t have the time or inclination to give it my full attention, so I take a piecemeal approach – one small section at a time. I figure that the last time I painted the side of the house I worked on today was at least ten years ago. We had cable installed in Andy’s bedroom around the time he turned 13. If I had tackled this section of the house after the installation, the coaxial wire would have been painted to match the house color. Boy, it doesn’t seem that long, though. And since this area receives no direct sunlight, it’s held up quite well. (It is, unfortunately, very prone to mildew blooms.)