Episode 382
Art in the Bathroom, Raised Bed Gardening, and Masking Tape Tips
In the latest episode of the RepcoLite Home Improvement Show, sponsored by Benjamin Moore, Dan talks about bringing real art into the bathroom, covering considerations for materials, placement, and subject matter. The episode also delves into the practical aspects of raised bed gardening, sharing personal experiences and tips for preparing a garden bed in the fall.
Additionally, Dan provides valuable insights on the effective use of masking tape in painting projects, illustrating when it’s beneficial and when it can be skipped to save time and maintain quality. Throughout the episode, listeners can enjoy a mix of personal anecdotes and expert advice designed to inspire and educate on various home improvement topics.
RESOURCES MENTIONED
Raise Bed Garden Videos
- Building a Raised Bed Garden Video
- Raised Bed Gardening Mistakes to Avoid Video
- Raised Bed Garden Soil Tips Video
Raised Bed Links
Tape Video
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction and Show Overview
01:10 A Funny Family Story
03:54 The Importance of Tackling Small Home Projects
06:39 Masking Tape: When to Use and When to Skip
19:02 Raised Bed Gardening: A Family Adventure
20:54 Tomato Overload: The Joys and Challenges
21:44 Why Raised Bed Gardening is a Game Changer
23:36 Building Your Own Raised Bed Garden
27:14 Cost-Effective Soil Solutions
31:03 Art in the Bathroom: A Controversial Topic
32:50 Choosing the Right Art for Your Bathroom
38:40 Final Thoughts on Bathroom Art
39:15 Conclusion and Farewell
TRANSCRIPT
Good morning everybody and happy November weekend, man, November, you're listening to the RepcoLite home improvement show sponsored by Benjamin Moore and this November weekend, I'm not terribly thrilled that it's November, but I'm thrilled about what I've got on the show on this weekend, I've got a really a weird mix of different topics.
We're going to be talking about art. Turns out that's a controversial topic. Who knew? We'll talk about what you need to know so you can bring art. Real art into your bathroom. Not just plaques with witty bathroom sayings on them, but real art. We're going to get to that. I'm also going to be talking about raised bed gardening, falls the perfect time to start getting things ready with an eye on next spring.
So I've got info, I've got money saving wisdom. Wisdom, let's just say tips. I've got money saving tips. Wisdom might be trying too hard. So we've got that coming. And I'm also going to be talking about masking tape and when you can use masking tape or should use it. And then to sweeten the deal, when maybe you can skip it.
On a project. So all of that's coming up, but right now, let's talk about something that happened a long time ago when my kids were little we were all talking about it the other day and reminiscing and I remembered this experience that I had with Andrew at the time he was about five. So keep that in mind.
Anyway, I was in the living room as best I can remember, I'm filling in some gaps along the way, but I was in the living room watching something on TV. And the kids were just going nuts, it was nearing bedtime. And that's usually when their second wind always kicked in. You can only tolerate the jumping and the thumping and the hollering and the shouting just so long.
And I hit my breaking point. So I stood up, put my hands on my hips and I said, okay, bedtime, time to brush your teeth. Now, I remember Caleb laughed at that. It's been an ongoing thing. He pointed out, pointed at me and pointed out to everybody that I was doing my Superman pose again. Alright, standing there with my hands on my hips.
Everybody laughed, it took away from my authority, but he was right, there I am, standing there just like Superman. I got him to go, to the bathroom. So they hopped and jumped all the way there, and, all five of them. Shaking the whole stinking house like a herd of small, domestic beasts moving through.
They made their way to the bathroom. I listened. to make sure that my bidding was being done. And when I heard the sound of the running water, I started to go back to the living room. And then I heard something that I couldn't believe. I heard Andrew in confidential and extremely boastful tones say the following, Hey, everybody don't do it.
I haven't brushed my teeth in four days. So I heard him say that. Then I heard Caleb respond with wow, how do you get away with it? And then I heard Andrew say I fake it. At that point I'd heard enough You know last thing I need with five kids is for Andrew to start promulgating some gospel of dental neglect last thing I need is that.
I stomped into the room, you know stood with my feet shoulder length apart I straightened my back puffed up my chest put my hands on my hips and Said Andrew, You're going to brush your teeth at least twice every single day, or you're going to pay your own dental bills. Andrew looked crestfallen for a minute.
But then Caleb, of course, starts laughing again, points out that I'm standing there Superman! Superman spoken! Do as he says! That was actually pretty funny. We let the thing diffuse a little bit. But seriously, I remember wondering about Andrew. Why in the world would you fake brushing your teeth for four days?
He said it was to save time, but wow, who would ignore such a simple thing, especially when ignoring that project, that simple little project, if you want to call it, that is going to lead to expensive and painful work down the road, who would do that? And that brings me to the paint point, or the home improvement point, or whatever you want to call it.
I've been doing almost exactly that same thing as Andrew for years, with almost exactly the same consequences. See there are all sorts of little projects around my home. A ceiling that needs painting bathroom cupboards that need to be touched up, a ding in the back entry wall that should be spackled and painted.
I've got all kinds of little projects. Some are bigger than others, but most are really just 10 and 15 minute jobs. It's in the grand scheme of things, there's They're going to take no time at all. They cost almost nothing to fix. They don't require lots of expertise or special equipment, anything like that, and yet I routinely ignore them.
I do. I don't know why. I wish I knew why. I wish I could understand myself. Physician, heal thyself. Yeah, I have no idea. In fact, the thing is, I don't just ignore them. I actively avoid them. I look away from them. I avert my eyes when I'm in those rooms. I don't want to take the time to do these little fixes, and I keep telling myself it's not a big deal.
I'll get to it later, right? I've got other things to do, bigger fish to fry. But the problem with many of these little things is that failure to act now only causes bigger problems later, just like Andrew and his teeth. I'm saving some time now, but I'm going to pay the piper later. The best example that I've got of this, the most heartbreaking one, was a peeling edge on wallpaper in the dining room of my old house.
The spot I needed to fix, three inches long, and it was along a seam. It was nothing. A little bit of paper had peeled back. It literally wouldn't have taken any time or money at all. Just a little dab of paste or some glue, some safe release tape to hold it down, and the whole thing would have looked new.
I left it. I ignored it. I didn't do it. I was always going to do it a little bit later. Tessa beat me to it. When she was learning to walk, the little bugger went and found that section at her eye level. And one thing leads to another and before long she's peeled it all back. And she's created this problem that was huge.
It took so much longer to fix. And on top of it all, Tessa the fix that I could come up with at that point wasn't nearly as good as it would have been earlier, had I taken care of it. If I'd have glued it down, she never would have peeled it up in the first place. So anyway, that's me. What's your situation?
Do you have little projects at home like I do? Easy, quick projects that you keep ignoring or avoiding? Maybe it's time for all of us to tackle them. Maybe it's time to cross them off your list. Maybe it's time for me to cross them off my list and deal with them on a more regular basis, before they become bigger, more expensive problems down the road.
Now is better than later. It's a lot less painful. All right. That's the pain point for the week. Let's take a break. And when we come back, we're talking about masking tape. Please don't go anywhere. I'll make it interesting, I promise. Stick around.
Masking tape. Masking tape. Those words. Boy, they just sound musical in your ears, don't they? You know this is going to be a great, exciting, fun topic when you hear masking tape, be the first thing that comes from my mouth as we come back from the break. You're listening to the RepcoLite Home Improvement Show, sponsored by Benjamin Moore, and sometimes some segments, some days, I feel like I should lead the show or lead each segment with an apology.
I know it's early in the morning and it's the weekend, and I wish I could think of a more exciting name for the segment than masking tape. I'm so bad at that. Man, I've lost half the audience already, but don't leave yet. It's going to be good. I've got basically what I'm going to do.
I'm trying to think what I've got here. I've got a segment that's going to talk about when you should consider using masking tape on your projects. And which projects you could, you really could consider skipping the masking tape. So it's not just masking tape that we're talking about. We're talking about saving time, saving money, perhaps, and getting great results.
All of those things rolled into one and we're just keeping the focus on masking tape. So let's start right off the bat with when are some places where you could consider skipping masking tape on your project? First off, if you or the crew doing the work are good with a paintbrush, you can cut in neatly, cleanly, and with skill if that's the case, you might be able to pass on the tape entirely.
Some painters do. In fact, a lot of established painters scoff, literally scoff. It's old school. They're scoffing pretty hard at the idea of using tape at all. If you listen right now, you probably can hear them scoffing out there, in the wild at the idea of using masking tape. A lot of established painters just don't use tons of it, and that's great.
For you, you know your skill level. If it's just you doing the work in your home, or if you've got a skilled team on board, or the people that are doing the work with you, they really know what they're doing. It's possible to go without it and still have great results. So first off, and most obviously using it or not using it.
It really depends on your skill level. So that's the first thing. If you guys are good, you can skip it. Another place where you might be able to skip masking tape is when we're talking about that line where the wall meets the ceiling. Skip the tape there. It's honestly an area where taping can sometimes do more harm than good.
Ceilings, especially textured ones, they can be really tricky if not impossible to tape cleanly. It's basically bumpy for heaven's sake. So yeah, it's not going to be a clean paint job up there. But even though that's the case, having the tape up there, because there are people who will go and you just take insane amounts of time to apply tape to that area over all the bumps.
I've seen it. And when they do that, It gives them this false sense of security, you think you're safe. So you slather on the paint up there, like you're, putting jelly on a bagel. And then you peel the tape back and you discover this obscene amounts of paint that's bled through onto the ceiling.
So that's just not the place to tape. So skip the taping there, practice good cutting in techniques, which we'll talk about in future episodes in the month. And if you do that, you're going to be able to get really good results. On that edge, where the wall meets the ceiling, you're gonna get good results just doing it by hand.
If you do some practice ahead of time, people don't usually scrutinize that cut in line. Anyway, it's way up at the top of the room. And even if you get a little bit of a tiny wave in that line, it's barely gonna be noticeable. from below. And if anybody does notice it, it just gives it that hand painted look, right?
That's what you tell them. All right. So skip taping up there. A third place that you can consider skipping the taping is perhaps around windows and doors. The casing around windows and doors. If you've got some painting experience, I think that's a great spot to practice those freehand skills.
And I think that's largely the case because of the angle in which you're working. For the side casing on the windows, let's say you can stand up and work top to bottom. And for me, moving my arm in that top to bottom, up and down fashion is just much more fluid Then a side to side motion on a baseboard and I'm able to get a nice, smoother line, a longer cut line doing that.
So that area is a great place to start. And another thing, another reason I think that's a great place to practice those skills is that standing up to paint the side casing around a window or a door, it's just a way more comfortable position than working on the floor, hunched over trying to cut in around the base.
Last of all, cutting in the casing beneath the window and above the window or door is just another great place to develop your freehand skills because in most situations, those lines above the door, above the casing above the door, and below the window casing, most of those lines aren't even going to be really visible.
They're too low or too high for most people to really even see them or pay attention to them. If you've got people who are scoping those lines out, those people Don't need to be in your home, right? They can be shown the door and you can feel just fine about that. You weren't rude. They started looking at stuff they didn't need to be putting their nose into.
So nobody's going to notice those lines. Maybe save yourself some time doing the taping around all those areas and just freehand those. Get your practice in that way. All right, those are some areas you might want to consider skipping the tape. Now let's look at the other side of things. When is it worth using tape?
If you're working with people, remember the first reason that we gave or the first place that we gave where you could skip the taping. We talked about, oh, if everybody on the job site is skilled, You could probably skip it. This is the reverse of that. If you're working with people who don't have a ton of experience, DIYers, family members lending a hand, maybe new crew members on a job site.
If you're a contractor in all of those situations, taping really can be a lifesaver. It takes a bit of time upfront. But it's going to save a ton of time save you a ton of time from touchups and a lot of headaches down the road. Taping can help with quality control. If you're running a crew and for DIYers, taping can make your work look professionally done and it can help you get there much more quickly.
Now, I'm going to post a link to a video that I ran into, I'll put it in the show notes, but it was a demonstration that was really helpful. The guy making it is a handyman. He paints more than DIYers do, but way less than contractors, so keep that in mind. He was working in a room with two identical walls opposite each other.
He decided to cut in the baseboard freehand on one wall and then tape and brush the cut in on the other wall. He wanted to see, which one took longer, which one was faster. He had practiced his freehand work beforehand and was comfortable doing it. And yet in the end, cutting in the wall freehand took more than twice the time it took him to paint and tape the wall.
And he had better results with the tape section. Now, that's anecdotal. That's his experience. It won't be the same for everybody, but it is interesting. If you're not a professional painter, it's pretty likely that the tape is going to help you get better results more quickly. Alright, moving on. Also, consider taping if there's a massive amount of cut in work.
I recently heard from a contractor who had to cut around a three tiered tray ceiling, crown molding on each level, if you can imagine that. First off, he was going to just freehand the job like he typically would have done, but when he was looking at it and he considered all the different trips he was going to be making around the room, trying to get straight lines on All of them, he decided he's just going to tape everything.
So it took him about two and a half hours to get all the tape up, but it paid off because he could blaze around the room and he ended up with perfect lines in the end, he estimated that he saved time and painted with less stress because he was using the tape. So if you've got a lot of cut in work to do, might want to go to tape, might just save you some time, even if you're a professional contractor, maybe.
Who knows? Another scenario where taping would probably help is when you're painting your walls and the baseboards are already done. You're not doing the baseboards. Maybe the color was good. You're not changing that, just changing the wall color. If that's the case, taping the top edge of those baseboards is going to help you get that sharp, crisp line that you want.
And when you do that taping, use a wider tape, maybe an inch and a half. That's probably ideal. And only press down that edge that sits on top of the base. That way the tape is going to help keep roller spatter off of the baseboard as well. So a bonus there: It'll get you that straight line and keep that spatter off the base.
Similarly, maybe you're only painting the baseboards, but you're leaving the wall alone, just changing that baseboard color. You love the wall color, need a new color on the base. If that's the case, I'd probably still consider taping along the wall where it meets the baseboard. Again, it's just going to help you get that clean edge easier and quicker.
Alright, that's about it. I could keep going, but that's enough. That's plenty. Here are our last few things, to think about before we move on to other fields, other topics. Painting without tape is a skill. There's a lot of pride in it. And a lot of pros work hard to develop it, and even if you're a DIYer, it's worth practicing in areas, around the house where, when you're working on your projects, on parts of those projects where it makes sense and where you're comfortable, practice getting these skills and developing...
