Kimler Adventure Pages (http://randsco.com)

House Colors: When you live in the "North-wet", the painting season is very short and if you want to protect your house from rotting, you need to plan ahead.

Hutton House: Last summer, I took a picture of Rachel sweeping off the roof (right when the broom handle broke and the head came flying off). The cat, watching from a reclined position on the patio, wasn't too impressed. The photo also shows the paint colors and trim, less than a year after we moved into our home in the woods.

Painting. Not the most fun of projects, but it sure can make a difference to the appearance (and help protect) a home.

Trouble is, one is always left with half-used cans of paint and (one of my pet peeves) - forgetting the name or formula for the paint that was last applied. Yeah, the hardware store can do a color "match", but often it's off by a shade or two (or maybe three).

This exciting post is my effort to eliminate the paint color issue by keeping tabs on the paints we use around and inside our house. No more worrying about losing the formula because the top of the paint lid has paint on it, the sticker has come off or the print is so faded that it can no longer be read. No having to remember smooth-sounding emotive paint names.

Once I've actually painted some bit of the house in these colors (the "Japanese Maple" is slightly different from what's on there now and the "Whispering Pine" is a new accent color), I'll put up a photo. Maybe it'll spark a whole new trend in house colors? - or NOT!

House (Exterior)

A Rose is a Rose, Unless it's a Paint Color

Before & After: The upper picture is a zoom-in of the photo on the front page, a year after we moved in. The lower picture, taken this July, shows the dormers with all three colors applied (plus new shutters, which are made to match the others on the house). Looks nicer, but a tad 'ginger-bread-y'. Hey, you work with what you have, eh?

Several things have changed, since this article was written. Concerns about cracking and peeling paint fueled our decision to switch from high-gloss paint to solid-color stain for the house trim. The trim color names changed from "Japanese Maple" and "Whispering Pine" to "Bordeaux" and "Mountain Spruce", as a result. (Who comes up with these names?) We've also begun painting portions of the main house, using these new stains (remind me to take pictures). Home Depot has also changed their paint labeling system. But the most expensive lesson we've learned, is that paint formulas for specific paint names, can change.

Behr on Sale: A copy of our local Home Depot flyer, showing mail-in rebates for Behr (CIL & Ralph Lauren) paint, stain or primer. When paint is over $40 a gallon, these sales help!

Twice annually, Home Depot offers rebates for Behr paint and stain (typically on the May Long Weekend and sometime in the early Fall - right when painting season is about to end). In fact, Home Depot is running a 5-day sale right now (Oct 8-12) on Behr, CIL or Ralph Lauren paint. One can get $14 off for two gallons or $25 off for 5-gallons. We try to purchase our paints during these sales.

Last year, armed with the paint name & type ("Cedar Natural Tone", Behr Premium Semi-Transparent Wood Stain), we bought a 5-gallon pail, on rebate offer. When we got home, we discovered - much to our shock - that it didn't match the color we already had! What the heck? When we took it back for a return, we were refused! (Apparently, the paint formula had been changed for "Cedar Natural Tone" and we were expected to pay for this new color, even though we had nothing to do with the formula change ... apparently, consumers must either memorize the formula or bring in their old labels - knowing the paint color isn't enough!).

We're talking over $200-worth of stain here! What paint company, in their right mind, would change the formula for a paint name? (It would make heaps more sense to 'discontinue' the color and come up with a new color name, eh?)

Behr Colors: Here are the new formulas and stain colors we are currently using on our home. Behr changed the formula for our field color "Cedar Natural Tone" and now, the formula is based on manual input, rather than a paint name. The fact they changed for the formula for our paint nearly cost us $200. Shame on Behr!

Fortunately, when Rachel returned to Home Depot later, to make her case to a store manager, someone else happened to be at the paint counter with the exact same problem (and color - and had been compensated). We were relieved to return the paint and get the proper color, but the unsettling transaction taught us a very valuable lesson: always take the paint label.

Speaking of paint labels, we got a small shock yesterday, when buying more of the same kind of stains - Home Depot has changed their paint labeling system! "The new method is much more accurate," said the paint guy, "down to 1/384th of an ounce."

"Eye Veh," we thought, "doesn't anything stay the same? Paint formulas, paint labels ... what's next ... will Behr will go out of business or discontinue that line of stain?"

Anyway ... Here's a snapshot of our colors and new formulas (we got smart and ask that they give us extra paint labels).