Supply line blues

Our grocery store continues to have a slightly iffy inventory, but not too bad. What was surprising today was to find that Sherwin Williams may need a month or even two to supply us with the paint we want for a long-delayed project. The oil-based products, in particular, are arriving at stores in the Texas Coastal Bend only every few or weeks or even months. I briefly considered trying out one of the new latex trim paints, but can't quite make myself do it. Latex trim paint was a horrible product in my youth, but my youth is now several decades away. Supposedly the new ones dry to a very hard, durable finish, have better adherence to an undercoat of oil-based trim paint, and have much better flow. Nevertheless, if I'm going to give the newfangled latex product a try, it won't be in the most public room of my house.

So the painting project, which took me over six months to find a painter ready to work on it, will now be delayed for another month or two. On the plus side, we survived hosting our first political shindig last night and don't have to dive directly into boxing up hundreds of books today so as to get the bookcases ready to paint.

We conducted an indoor clean sweep fore and aft in preparation for the party, in case the weather chased us and our guests inside (which it didn't), so I've put away my craft oil-painting station at last. Because I'm starting an oil-painting class that will meet for 3 hours every Thursday morning for the next seven weeks, it's probably best to assume that will satisfy my painting urges for now. That left no choice, naturally, but to take up another crochet project. Whether or not my idle hands are the Devil's workshop, the fact remains that I pretty need to be doing something with my hands at all times.

8 comments:

  1. Whether or not my idle hands are the Devil's workshop....

    What you do with your hands is far too creative--and skilled--to have anything to do with the Devil.

    Eric Hines

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  2. For interior painting, the top of the line Sherwin Williams latex paint is a very good product. For several years I did interior remodeling for a major corporation and that's what we used.

    For metel doors and such, we'd use their acrylic pre-cat epoxy paint. It's important to put an additive in it so prolong dry time and help take out the brush strokes. Otherwise it dries a little too fast.

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  3. I tend to use whatever Sherwin Williams's top-of-the-line product is in any year when I'm painting. This year, the wall paint is Emerald, which is going over Duration, the top of the line back when I last painted. Ditto for the trim paint, though I forget what it's called. There's nothing like first-rate paint to adhere to the last coat, to cover, and to hold up to cleaning. Paint technology improvements have been a bright spot in recent decades, when so many other products have gone from bad to worse. If they really work the bugs out of latex trim paint, I'll be truly impressed.

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  4. When i looked it up last spring to make paint decisions, the professional painters were nearly unanimous that latex had improved so significantly over the last two decades as to make oil-based - which carries its own problems - unnecessary. I couldn't tell you good from bad myself, but that's what I kept finding.

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  5. One of these days I'll try the new latex, but in a back room somewhere. It would be lovely to clean up with soap and water, if it flows properly and adheres well.

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  6. AVI, I'm betting rules about disposal of oil paints and thinners and such has become enough of an issue for them that something in latex that's almost as good as oil based is good enough, especially after some of the bad early renditions of exterior latex. Compliance affects everything these days.
    Latex will never wear as well as oil based though- but commercial painters might not see that as a net negative.

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  7. My wife, who is a fine art painter who has also sold household paints at a hardware store during lean years, says the latex stuff is better these days for interior applications. Bookshelves might be good for oil because the oil will hold up better to the usage, but the latex she says is quite good and much less toxic.

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  8. The Sherwin Williams salesman said the new latex trim paints were even performing well in terms of drying very hard and holding up to wear and tear. It's good news.

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