Silly Repaint

 It is finally 2022, and fortunately COVID-19 has finally died down (or at least fewer people care about it).  The good news is that more people are better protected against them, so who has time to be doing anything around the house?  And let's be honest, if you did not improve your house in the last 3 years, there is probably not much chance for it.

Old paint on the trim

Anyways, back in February when we got our Omicron strain, I went back into painter mode.  So, in March I got around to repainted door trim since it has been neglected for 10... or 20 years.  The old paint started to peel off from simple touch and several areas have ripple out, so time to get cracking again.

Because the paint is quite old, it was not too hard to remove the old ones.  I was able to use mostly 5-in-1 painter tool to scrape out old paint on the entire door trim.  No need to use Orange chemical -- Citristrip paint remover.  It was nice, since there is no additional clean up.  However, it did still take few hours to remove the entire thing.

After stripping out the old paint

After scraping, everything was easy enough -- applied couple layers of Zinsser Bulls eye 123, then paint it BM Advance.  The result was quite reasonable, since I did not attempt to sand down anything to make it flush.  I did think about doing so, but time outside the house after staying indoor all time is also very exciting!  Maybe in the future I will do so.  Hopefully before another 10 years.  :)

Final result

Inca Transformer

Last month, while a company was working on replacing my home's attic insulation, they accidentally blew out the doorbell transformer.  We only realized this much later and after the replacement, I kept the old transformer.  And item turned out to be an ancient piece of equipment built in Los Angeles, California.  Who knew that Los Angeles used to manufacture a legitimate electronic device that really last this long.  How long did it last?  The company, Inca (transformer), was established back in 1920s and sold to Phelps Dodge Corp in 1930s.  So, it might be possible that this transformer lasted almost 100 years! 😲

If you do know when it could have been developed, let me know in the comment.  So far, all I have seen from Inca is radio transformer.  =)

• https://antiqueradios.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=220795
• https://dbase1.lapl.org/webpics/calindex/documents/15/522985.pdf
• https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/inca-transformers.627069/
• https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Site-Early-Radio/Archive-Radio-IDX/IDX/30s/Radio-1936-11-OCR-Page-0080.pdf

Photos

 

 

The Behr and Rust-oleum Exterior Paint

For the last couple months, I have been painting my front porch's ceiling.  And let's just say, I have been neglecting this part for way toooo long.  After much success with Benjamin Moore's Advance (High Gloss WHITE) on windows trim, I decided to give it a go on the porch's ceiling as well.  Many people say you should use Satin or Flat, but I think BM Advance's High Gloss is an excellent choice in term of color, texture, and durability. 😀  

You can see in this picture between the old white paint, and BM Advance.  The old paint have not been touch for 10 years, and multiple flaking spots are in deep-need for re-paint. 😅

Boy, oh boy...

So after finishing up the front porch, next up on the list is my exterior door sills (the wooden part right below the door).  One of them has water rot in the front that has been repaired using wood filler, but that is a story for another day.  

After some research, I decided to go back to Rust-oleum again.  The oil paint did really good job, so I am incline to think this one should be decent at minimum.  BM Advance will work, but it is a different color and its cure time is 30 days.  Don't think I can wait that long without accidentally stepping on it!

Anyways, for this project, I went to Home Depot and got myself a quart of Rust-oleum Painter's Touch - Ultra Cover Premium Latex Paint - Satin Espresso, and a bag of their anti-skid additive, because the sill can be slippery during the rain. 

While in the paint area, I spotted Behr e600 exterior paint.  Ah, yes.  Behr paint.  If you ever do an online search for Behr paint, you will see plenty of trash talks on so various forums for their texture and durability.  Behr got no-respect.  But I decided to give a chance.  Or at least a sample size chance.

I asked a HD paint guy if they have a sample for their e600 exterior paint.  The guy hesitates a bit and hand me an 8oz plastic tub.  Behr Color Sample - Interior / Exterior - Paint & Primer - SATIN * DEEP BASE * B3703.  Not the same because they do not have e600 sample size.

Frustratingly, there is no detail on the tub about which Behr's product this sample tub matches to.  But after numerous searches on Home Depot website, it seems they only provide a sample paint for Behr Premium Plus line.  Thus, I will assume this sample tub matches that.

In case you never look up Behr's product lines, they have three main lines for paint -- 

Behr's Product Lines

• Marquee -- The high end paint.
• Ultra -- The medium grade paint.  Seems like a popular choice of the three.
  
• Premium Plus -- Behr's lower end paint.
  

And that bring us to this week's test trial between two latex paint -- Behr PP vs Rust-oleum Ultra Cover.  I decided to do two simple tests on an old scrape wood.

1. Primed and paint.
2. Paint directly on the wood.
   

The primer used here is Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 (water-based primer).  The pictures really speak for itself...

The Two Contestants

1. Primed and paint

2. Paint directly on wood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a day-and-night differences on #2 test.  During the painting process, Behr feels watery and this shows up when there is no prime underneath; despite the fact that PAINT & PRIMER is written in front of the tub.  Rust-oleum, on the other hand feels more substantial with some thickness to it.  Personally, I like the feel of Rust.

The result here should hopefully convinces you to pay a bit more for the better paint.  Would Ultra or Marquee do better?  No idea, since there is no sample paints.  Honestly, if HD wants to sell more paints, they should have sample paint for their high-end ones.  Because, let's be honest, nobody want to repaint same thing every year!

Home Repair - The Initial Frontier

Good gracious!!  It has already been 5 years since my last post?!  I guess it is true that time flies a lot faster as you get older.  Anyways, with works and life and pandemic, this site really got neglected, but I am not here today to talk about this.  Today, it is about all the home repair projects in the last couple years and what I have learned so far.

One of the first task I took on was re-painting fully rusted round metal handrail back in 2019.  This is the type that common seen by a front door.  You can see similar picture on the right side here.  The project took four weekends to complete.  It started with sanding down existing rusted paint.  And don't let anyone (or any article) fools you into hand sanding paint off metal handrail.  I made the mistake of doing so using sandpapers and wire brushes. 

It took a day to get few feet of paint and rust off.  Needless to say, I could not imagine finishing the job in few weeks.  Fortunately, my brother with more home repair experience loan me a hand sanding machine, which turned out a life saver.  The constant vibration for hours from holding the sander was hard on the arms, but at least it got the job done much faster.

Anyways, after the scrub and clean, I went ahead and paint with Rust-Oleum Protective Enamel Brush-On Paint.  And I have to say, this paint is really excellent.  The paint stay together to form a nice and smooth texture, but does not clump.  Given this is my first true paint job, I am very satisfy with out it turned out even to this day. 

Lesson here?  Persistent and hard work does not pay off without the right tools/situations.  Sure I could have spent couple months sanding the whole rail off using sandpaper and wire brush.  But if your time is valuable, buy or borrow a machine to do efficiently if you can.  After all, there are still lots of chores to do around the house every weekend. 😅