I was browsing through some old pics of work I've done, and this photo made me shudder so I thought I'd post it for all to see. This was a job that I have bitter sweet memories of. It was for a wonderful family that practically adopted me by the time I was finished. It was a simple custom "walls-only" repaint job. The owner was going to do all the prep work. He did a fantastic job. He was also a perfectionist. Meaning he would clear a room "ready" for me, the after I was done, he would get out the halogen lights and inspect it. As anyone in the industry knows, halogen lights are evil devices for customers to have in their hands. He would then proceed to re-patch any miniscule dings in the walls for me to touch up. Again, finished work, now I have to spot prime to avoid flashing, then recoat. Of course, most of the colours were accent or deep base, meaning multiple coats. Especially for touchups. This photo is of the pile of post-it note "tags" for touchups. Not for the whole house. For ONE, I repeat, ONE closet. It wasn't even a walk-in closet. I can't even walk into an Office Depot or Staples store with out breaking into cold sweats and a panic attack........

Well, the interior season has kicked into full gear, and this year it only took 4 jobs to come across the first "nut". While the customer was actually quite pleasant, and the job went rather smoothly (ie. profitable!), she did have what we might want to call.......odd taste in colour. Here are some "after pictures....... (never mind the touchup tags on the walls though...quality first!)






The woman had a number of children, one of which was shall we say "rather high-strung"..this is her bedroom.....she picked the colours........the child will never sleep.......ever again!






I shouldn't be complaining though. Job after job, we paint "normal" colours like taupes, and tans, and beiges etc. And while they all look very nice and contemporary and modern. It is kinda cool to do some fun stuff like hot pink and lime, and as you can see in the next pic, blood red dining rooms and powder rooms.....(ps - Carina, my powder rooms only take me 40 mins to do!! :-) )

Every once in awhile I come across a difficult area to paint or get access too. Generally, it is a small area of a couple of feet of soffit, or the very top of an overhang above an impossibly sloped roof. Or in this case..... 4 feet of fascia 36 feet above a garage roof. Not that difficult really, but we just couldn't get at it without doing something REALLY stupid with the ladders. So, we called 5 or 6 scaffolding companys and got the run around from all of them because the job was too small or they were too busy etc. I couldn't even get someone to come out a simply give me some advice about how to get at it......Frustrated, I ended up calling one more out of the way company with not much hope. The guy said that they don't really deal with residential stuff, and that he handles more of the large scale condo sites, etc. Ready to hang up and go home to ponder such a stupidly simple problem, he saved the day. He had his flatbed loaded up and was passing through the area in about an hour. An hour later, a large burly Harley Davidson tattooed Gorilla of a man unloaded three levels of industrial scaffolding and set it up BY HIMSELF in less than 20 minutes. For $Free$. He then informed me that he'd be back in 3 hours to pick it up, apparently he needed lunch.........I realize it may be overkill....but ya should have seen the customers face when he came home and saw this setup, all to paint 4 feet of fascia.....brilliant. Oh, and I tracked down the scaffolding guys office, and dropped off 2 bottles of wine for the help......

Insta-spray booth...........had to spray a ton of doors, shelves, and crown on a house, so I converted their basement into my own personal spray booth.............




Sadly, after sanding, spraying, sanding, spraying, more sanding and spraying and making the shelves & MDF practically look like a glass finish, the finish carpenter (who never actually "finish" anything!) mangled it all on installation, and I had to end up brush & rolling another finish coat to half of it and it ended up looking like CRAP!!! Ah well, just blame the drywaller, it's always their fault anyhow!!!

Not much to report as of lately in my world. I've been spending the last week or so just taking it easy and collecting equipment around town and getting it back into winter storage, as well as final touchups and loose-ends for the exterior season. All in all not a bad way to recharge to batteries. On the other hand, I'd like to get as much interior work done before the 2nd week of November because I'm going to Mexico (with my wife, of course) for a week or two. Who knows how motivated I'll be when I get back. The other reason I want to get as much work in is that I've finally got 2 good helpers whom I'd like to hold onto for as long as possible. You know, the rare type who are stable, reliable, & possess the least common of the senses....common sense. Not only that but they don't cost me a fortune. It seems that I can't even get entry level, non-skilled labourers for less than $12 per hour. College kids during the summer even. Two years ago we could get them by the dozen doing masking, scraping, cleanup type work for $8 to $10 per hour. Not that I don't mind paying for good help, but it just seems harder to find good people who want to start at the bottom and work their way up. I'm happy to teach and train anyone if they are interested in the trade,even as a fall-back, but if some of these kids start out making a decent wage (for non-skilled work), what's their motivation, and what's my leverage??? Anyways, they're good, we get along and they work hard.........

Well, just to be a smart-ass, here's MY last exterior paint job for the year. I wish I had taken before pictures. It was completely white, siding, trim, doors....everything. The front doors took 5 coats to get the finish looking good. Bright fire-engine red. We ended up having to go back and re-paint all the white trim because the local Benjamin Moore store mistinted (yes, mistinted) Cloud White. For those not familar with paint tinting....there are 4 drops of colourant in Cloud White. (2 yellow, 2 brown, not so difficult!). Not only that, but every paint company on the planet makes Cloud White. It's got to be the most common colour in the entire world. How do they mess it up???? Of course....I was the one who painted all the trim without checking! :-) But there isn't much difference between the two whites.












Wanna know a secret? I only painted half the front in the "new" white trim paint, the customer came home and LOVED how much nicer the new colour looked and commented on how much "cleaner" the new white was. After drying up my tears of laughter once she went inside, I told the crew that it was time to go home! I still can't believe it.

My little brother, the "cleanup artist". He likes to spend the end of the day (or project) organizing the garbage and equipment. I guess I can't complain, it's the last thing I would want to do!!!!

Here is a shot of the Morgan Place project "nearly" complete. I hate it when these projects drag on and on and on and on and on and....you get the picture. We completed three of the four sides in 2 weeks, then the WCB incident, and rain, and shortage of labour, three weeks later I am still trying to finish the inner courtyard..........End result is that it looks great, and we've gotten about 7 or 8 leads from it......

My latest project.....Morgan Place Retirement Home. We are currently about a week away from finishing. Job has been going well, sufficiently under budget (Mexico here I come!!!), except for a recent surprise visit from WCB (Worksafe BC). I officially hate them right now. Did you know that ANY work being performed on a ladder above 1o feet, you are required to have fall protection apparatus? Neither did I. Apparently neither does the ENTIRE PAINTING TRADE! To add acceptable fall protection (scaffolding, boom lifts, safety lines/harness's), you would have to add $1500-$2000 to every standard home we paint. I spent 4 days with the entire crew doing nothing but ground work. Anyone who does high volume/commercial work will understand how important correct sequencing & system painting is and how it effects efficency (ie. profitability.....MY MONEY!) Venting done......I feel better now. here's some before shots.....

Just to start off, I thought I'd simply post a bunch of pictures of stuff I've done. I'll add stories and stuff later.......here goes.......

Langley Concrete & Tile Factory (55,000 sqft tilt up w/stripes)



Langley Concrete & Tile (big-ass wall - before)



Langley Concrete & Tile (big-ass wall - after)



Korean Church (including 80 ft high cross)



KFC/Taco Bell restaurant (inside & outside, one of 4 I've done)



Military Battery Factory (12 hours in a boom lift in 33 degree sun......)



$1.3 Million dollar home in White Rock (they sold it 8 days after we finished)