lost time is never found, but is it really that expensive
november 28, 2006 @
23:58
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The holiday season is officially underway and that can only mean one thing: that I'd be too busy studying the details of the various Black Friday ads to notice that when I unplugged the server and moved it to a different room, I didn't plug it back in correctly. Kudos to all you readers who wrote to bitch that the site was down, it's heartwarming to hear that you still find it worthwhile to come back and make sure I'm not dead or something.
Anywho, I've been doing some painting around the new house. (Figure juniorette is 2 months old, it's probably time to get her nursery in order.) I've got one more coat to go on the walls, which means it's time to tackle the 1000 linear feet of putzy trim work that's left. Unfortunately that involves painting a light color over a dark color, which means it's going to be a ton of coats and is going to take me forever and even when I'm done it probably won't look very good because I'm a clown of a painter. It's bad enough that I've already made a few calls and I'm starting to get bids on having someone come in and do it for me. Of course the first bid came in and it's super effing expensive, which makes sense in a way, because - as the dude explained - it's a light color over a dark color and it'll take him a ton of coats. Doy.
So now I'm trying to have the Hoffmonian conversation with myself whereby I determine what my own time is worth and factor that into deciding if I should hire it out. In other words, if I determine my time is worth $20/hour, and it'll take me 30 hours to do the painting, any bid under $600 should be deemed acceptable to me. Seems reasonable, right? That's because it is, right up until the point where I start thinking "$600 dollars?! I could buy all new high buck brushes and tons of that criminally expensive blue tape and paint it myself for way less than that!" You'll note that that dismissal did not include a value for the aforementioned "cost of personal time" variable. It never does for me. I'm thinking that means I value my own time at $1/hr. I was going to say $0, but that sounds so pathetic, I had to go with $1.
Long story short, I'm thinking it's back to a Dave special. But at least I'll get some new brushes out of the deal. And a pink room.
Chris thought:
There's always plan C. Tear out all the woodwork and put in new stuff. It'll be easier to paint that light color you're stuck on and it'll probably look better with the 2 coats of paint it'll take than the 30-40 that are probably on the wood from repeated paintings...
Ok I don't think I'd get away with it at home either.
Chris
dave thought:
yeah, that'd be even more work. it's 3 doors (one of which is an exterior door), and it's original woodwork from the 20's. i thought about stripping it before painting, but that seems like a lot of work, too. no easy answers.
dad thought:
You might look into a tinted primer to make it easier to get by with (only) two coats. And you only have to tape once.
Mr. B. thought:
Dad's a smart guy. You will only need two coats his way.
Dave, this job sounds like a project for one of juniorette's grandpa's. I would give one or both of them a shout. They work cheap and usually give in to guilt trips pretty easily. It works especially well if you get grandma involved because it gives her a reason to go see her grandchildren and grandpa has no choice but to come along for the ride.
The downside is you usually end up helping, but the bright sides are the job is done, you didn't have to do it by yourself, your wife is off your back, and you probably came in around $1/hr like you had hoped. That's hard to beat!
dave thought:
interesting idea, mr. b, but i think your math is wrong. also, my dad paints worse than i do.
i'm thinking of kills for the basecoat. but i'm also thinking a single coat over that may not work, leaving me with needing 3 coats anyway. it's all rolling the dice. and i've got nothing but time, as i'm the only one on my back.
Hoffmonian thought:
$1 an hour. That is so sad.
This means you would rather drive around for a parking spot in circles for an entire hour than roll up to a $2 valet plus tip. I hope there is something good on your 1986 terristrial radio.