Bit the Bullet

So we gave a green light to a painting contractor yesterday. We bit the bullet (whatever that means).

Over the weekend, the third painting contractor gave us a price of $4,300. (Close to the first contractor's estimate of $4,600.) We weren't as interested in his estimate, because he said he had never seen the small vents that are installed in our wood siding. He said he had only been painting for two years. We know those vents tend to be indicative of moisture issues, and we want to make sure our contractor is knowledgeable about the associated risks: bubbling and poor adherence. We want this paint-job to last at least as long as Sue's grant, so we'd have the option to put the house on the market without having to repaint it. (Probably after all is said and done, it'll be a good rental property, but who knows.)

We decided to go with the more expensive estimate for one key reason: a full coat of primer. The lower estimates both offered only spot priming, which means they only prime bare wood. Our contractor said his estimate is essentially for two paint jobs - a full coat of oil-based primer and then the top-coat. He will remove about all the paint on the house, prime it all, then paint.

It didn't hurt that we drove down Hope Street to see a house that he had previously painted. He said, this very old lady had been cited by the city for the peeling paint on her house (way worse than our paint), because it was so terrible and on a key corner in town. Our contractor won the bid and painted it, and three years later, the house still looks amazing.

They should start when the weather gets nice. He said they'd do our job start to finish in about two weeks, concentrating entirely on our job. That's another thing the other estimates did not include. The $4,600 guy said he'd have shown up this week to powerwash all the loose/peeling paint off the house (which would leave the front of our house looking even worse than it looks now), then do other jobs for six weeks before returning to paint our house. The $4,300 guy said he could do ours, but we'd be scheduled for July.

PS
Check this kid out! Ridiculous and family-friendly. Thanks, Jonjon.

And also, remember this cool artwork by Shepard Fairey, the dude who created the famous/infamous red/white/blue Obama portrait?


Now look at this... ouch!