Do it yourself tips and techniques This is just a hobby page for me. If you would like more
specific DIY tips then please refer to the links below. If you’re looking for more in depth DIY
tips, then below are some links to sites I highly recommend. House
Painting Guide House painting tips and advice for the DIY
homeowner. Learn about every aspect of house painting with this online
house painting guide, including how to choose paint colors, surface
preparation and application techniques for your project Painterforum.com
Real advice from real professional
painters Easy2DIY.com
Home improvement & home repair help Or
you can go to our “Contact us” page and email me directly with any
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When caulking seams
around windows and doors, between trim and walls or anywhere else in a
room, try using a wet t-shirt type cloth wrapped tightly around your
finger. This will help give you a smooth bead of caulk and will also help
prevent your fingers from getting all sticky with the caulking. 
When filling nail holes in
trim that’s going to be painted, try using vinyl spackle instead of a soft
putty. Fill the hole slightly above level to allow for any shrinkage. When
it’s dry, you can sand the spackle smooth with fine grit sandpaper. With a
little practice, you should have a hard time even telling where the nail
holes were once it’s been painted. I use the spackle instead of a hardening
type wood putty because it’s very effective and so much easier to sand.
If you’re painting the
ceiling and walls in a room, always paint the ceiling first. If you
paint the walls first, then you might lean against them while painting the
ceiling. In over a decade, I’ve never once leaned against the ceiling while
painting the walls.
If you have any heavy-duty
screw anchors in your walls from a large hanging picture and you want to
fill the holes, it’s often better to push them into the wall and fill a
small hole, rather than trying to pull them out and possibly patching a
much larger hole if they tear the wall on the way out. 
If you’re painting your walls
with oil-based paint, don’t waste your time trying to clean the roller nap
when you’re finished. It makes little to no sense spending ½ hour of your
time and $3.00 worth of mineral spirits just to clean a $3.50 roller nap. A quality
brush is worth cleaning, but just thank the roller nap for its service and
give it a proper send off. 
Don’t store left over paint in an unheated garage or shed for the
winter. Most paint in a sealed container can handle one or two freeze/thaw
cycles, but if you leave it out all winter, you’ll have little more than a
one-gallon paperweight by the time spring rolls around.
(More to come)