Often as children get older, or you get new furniture, or you’ve been looking at the same wall color for years, you get the urge to paint a room.  You can always hire a professional, and if you do be sure to get a referral.  However, this is the type of project that can be fun to tackle yourself.  The personal feeling of accomplishment when you improve a space in your own home can be immeasurable.

To begin, you will need to prepare the walls and ceiling, which may or may not entail the following (you decide what makes sense for your room):

1. Remove as much furniture as you can.  Move whatever you are unable to remove to the center of the room and cover with old sheets or drop cloths.  Protect any exposed floor in the same manner and use removable masking tape (3M Blue) around moldings, doors and windows.
2. Cover the smoke detector with a plastic bag and turn off air conditioning or heating while doing any sanding or painting.
3. Sand or scrape loose and flaking paint with sandpaper and paint scrapers.
4. Fill all nail and screw holes with spackling compound and a putty knife; fill cracks with caulk.
5. If you have more serious damage to walls, use drywall tape and mud.  On woodwork, use epoxy filler.  Regardless of what you use, you will need to sand it down until it matches the area around the repaired area.
6. Wash all surfaces with TSP (trisodium phosphate).  This will remove grease and dirt allowing paint to adhere to the wall surface.  Also use a deglossser on any glossy surfaces such as trim.
7. Rinse walls and ceiling well with water to remove the TSP. Allow surfaces to dry thoroughly, and then dust and vacuum as needed. You don’t want sanding dust to get on freshly cleaned or painted walls.
8. Before removing cover plates from all electrical fixtures, outlets and switches, TURN THE POWER OFF.  Use small pieces of masking tape to cover switch handles and outlets, so that you don’t accidentally brush them with paint.  Remove heating and air-conditioning vent covers.
9. If you don’t need to turn the power back on to paint, leave it off, it is safer.  If you do turn the power back on, be very careful when painting around electrical areas.

Once the room is prepared to paint, it is time to begin the preliminary painting.

1. Use a stain-blocking primer to cover any dark mark you can’t remove (stains, knots, ink, dark paint); otherwise, that area will bleed through. Never paint over wallpaper.
2. Make sure there is adequate ventilation in the room.
3. Plan on three coats: one coat of primer and two coats of finish. Always use primer on patched and unpainted surfaces; raw surfaces will suck up paint like a sponge – or reject it.  If your primer is being rejected, you may need to better prepare the surface by sanding, rinsing better, or reapplying and rinsing TSP.
4. Using a 2-inch or 3-inch paintbrush outline the room (i.e. where the ceiling meets the walls (and where the walls meet the ceiling), around doors and windows and above the baseboard and any other trim in the room.  Also paint corners.  What you are trying to do is paint everywhere that you will not be able to paint with a paint roller or where you need more control than a paint roller allows.

When the room has been outlined with paint, then it is time to use the paint roller.  This is when you really start to see your room transform.

1. Pour some paint into the roller pan and roll the ceiling and then the walls with your prime paint.  Pour only a small amount of paint in your roller pan.  Doing this will keep the paint from drying out before you can use it.
2. It is best to start rolling before the brushed-on paint has had time to dry, so that the rolled-on paint will blend in rather than become a second coat. Roll the letter “W” about 3 feet wide and then fill-in until you have a 3’ x 3’ area fully covered.  Then move on to the next area, repeating the process as many times as is required to cover all the walls floor to ceiling.  This will assure an even application of paint.
3. Rolling out a W, about 3 feet wide, and then filling it in, assures an even application of paint. Get as close into the corners as you can without making a messy paint line.  Painting from dry areas into wet areas will reduce paint ridges, and you can feather (thin out) all edges as you go with a brush or a roller.

Be sure to cover paint cans when you are not using them.  Keep a rag and brush available to deal with drips and spills.

Repeat the outline and painting process for each coat.

If you do have a drip that is too dry to feather, let it dry.  You can come back later and sand it down, then touch-up.

Finally when paint has dried, remove tape and drop clothes, replace furniture and enjoy your fresh newly painted room.

I remember when regular gas was what you used in all your lawn mowers, boats, snow throwers, snowmobiles, ATV’s and other toys. These days unleaded gas is the new regular. From your engine’s perspective it isn’t as pure and has its own additives that can gum-up your carburetor.

You may know that you should winterize (or summerize) your gas engines with an additive like Sea Foam, but did you know that you should really be using these additives on a regular basis to help keep your carburetor clean and you engine running smoothly?

As you run any carbureted or fuel injected gas engine they build up carbon deposits. Adding a little Sea Foam to your gas will keep your engines running smoothly year around, even if they don’t run for months at a time.

If your lawn is like mine, and it has gone dormant, your lawn mower may be sitting for weeks before you use it again. If it doesn’t want to start, or is running roughly Sea Foam can help. You’ll need to clean out the gas line and possibly clean out the carburetor. If you can put new gas in that is best, and then treat that gas with Sea Foam.  Otherwise add it to the gas in the tank and cross your fingers!

Better yet, check out this Sea Foam How To You Tube.
Sea Foam is a brand name, and one that I am most familiar with, but there are other’s out there that can provide the same benefit. I do know that Sea Foam is EPA-registered and will not harm engine components, gaskets, seals, oxygen sensors or catalytic converters. It is a pure petroleum product that liquefies gum and varnish deposits, removing carbon deposits and freeing sticky valves.

Most boating stores, ATV dealers and hardware stores will sell Sea Foam and other gasoline additives.

If you use E10 Ethanol, check out the cautions at the Fuel Testers website.

Summer is a great time to clean out your garage, get rid of things you really don’t need or don’t use, and re-organize so you can find the things you do need and want to use.

The Do It Yourself Network (DYI) has a great video series on how to declutter and organize your garage.  You’ll have to bear with the Craftsman commercials at the beginning of each clip, but there are some logical and sensible tips.

One good tip that you might miss, is that donating things to charities is usually tax deductible, and much easier than saving them for a garage sale where they may or may not sell.  Put forth the effort on getting your garage organized and get the financial benefit as a write-off on your taxes while providing those less fortunate with useable items.

Get busy, this weekend is a perfect time to start!

With your help, Eureka Recycling can be awarded $20,000 from the SunChips/National Geographic Green Effect contest to grow their Composting at Home programs!

Vote up to once a day. Voting ends July 20.

For over 20 years, Eureka Recycling has been Saint Paul’s nonprofit recycler. Under a long-term contract with the city, Eureka Recycling provides recycling services to Saint Paul’s homes and apartments. In addition, Eureka Recycling is a leader in waste reduction education and advocacy.

“We entered this contest to help fund our work to strengthen the grassroots movement of composters in the Twin Cities and to spread the word about the environmental benefits of making dirt, not waste.”

Vote for Eureka at : http://greeneffect.nationalgeographic.com/  Their video is the one pictured with the woman next to the black compost bin.

Eureka Recycling  is one of the largest nonprofit recyclers in the United States and a leader in demonstrating the best waste reduction and recycling practices not only for the Twin Cities metro area, but for the nation.

Your grass is green. Your lawn care techniques should be too!
Here are a few suggestions to keep your lawn nice and green.

• Use a push mower or electric mower! They are quiet and don’t pollute. Keep blades sharp and oiled.

• Set your mower to mow high. Long blades of grass develop deep roots.

• Regardless of your mower type, dry tips on grass blades indicated that your mower blade is dull.

• Leave clippings on your lawn to provide nitrogen and moisture. Mow often.

• Use a hand weeder not herbicides. Develop a tolerance for a few weeds and weed when your tolerance is reached.

• Focus on the grass, not the weeds. Healthy grass makes it tough for weeds to thrive.

• Research has shown that corn gluten  meal (available at most feed stores like Fleet Farm) effectively prevent seeds from sprouting, including seeds from many weeds such as crabgrass, chickweed, and even dandelions. It is effective only against seeds, not existing plants. Annual weeds that are already up and growing will not be killed by products made of corn gluten meal.  To learn more check out this link.

• If you have compost available, spread a ½ inch on your lawn as a fertilizer.

Let your grass go dormant during the hot dry months (like now).  The Lawn Institute has some great tips including:

‘Summer dormancy is a perfectly normal response to the stress of heat and drought.  It is important to make sure grass is as healthy as possible before dormancy begins and not to stress the grass any more once conditions become unfavorable for growth.  Grass should be maintained slightly higher before and during drought.  Grass should only be mowed as needed and mowing should be preformed early in the morning or late in the evening with a sharp blade to minimize stress on the turf. ‘