Painting tight spaces

I have had some experience with painting in the past. 

The first job I ever got paid to do, way back when as a 14 year old, was as a painting assistant. That did not start a lifelong career but it was the first of many hours spent painting. 

When my wife and I left our first apartment I painted the whole thing in 48 hours. So with all that experience and the best paint money can buy I thought for sure I would be done painting the Defiant in no time.  

Boy was I wrong. Getting the camper ready for painting did not take long. All we had to do was take down the cabinet doors and replace some old wood. There is not a lot of work that could be done in this little space. We decided to start the painting with the ceiling.

Our little brother wanted to help on the first day so Kayla put him to work helping her with the spray painting.

This was easy enough. It went on quick, covered well, and looked good. I thought it was a good sign, and was eager to get started on the next part: the cabinets. 

Camper cabinets are small, up high, and coated in a laminate/ veneer skin. The paint we used was top of the line and we have used it before so I thought it was a one coat wonder. I was wrong again. This thick white almost paste like liquid streaked across the cabinet skin like water on rainX. 

I felt that it looked more like dandelion sap than paint. It was thin and kind of runny as soon as I smeared it on I had to go back over it and clean up the drips. With the small brush I had to use to get in those tight gaps it took a really long time.... A long time in an odd position. 

The cabinets are too short to reach under standing up, but too tall to reach from sitting on the floor. So most of the time I was in kind-of an in-between position. That kind-of led to a lot of breaks to stretch out the creeks in my joints. It wound up taking me all day to crab walk my way around the Defiant to finish the first coat. 

At the end of the first day I was ready to be done, but it was just the beginning. Not only did I have runny paint and cramped spaces to deal with but there was still all the other things that needed to be done that made this chore go on day after day. 

If I was not spreading paint on the walls I was spreading tar on the roof. Not only was I trying to get the place painted but we were fighting leaks the whole way. Still it was not all bad. All that time alone in the camper gave me time to catch up on some pod casts.

I listened to a few hours of the History of Rome before I started listing to a History of Britain that turned out to be more entertaining than I thought. 

We did learn a few things along the way like a good primer goes a long way. That as seen on TV stuff called mighty putty works as good as they say it does, so far at least. It is also a good idea to have your tarp on hand if you have a leaky roof and are in the middle of North Carolina's rainy season.

You should also make sure that all the plumbing systems are in order before you start painting. I also know every square inch of the defiant at-least on the inside of the living space. I have crawled on my hands and knees across every inch of the floor and brushed every exposed surface; over and over. 

I have even scrambled over the roof more times than I would like. It is all worth it though. It looks a lot better than when we started, more like us. I knew anything we bought Kayla would want to make-over in her own style; Which is good because I love her style. 

I would like to think that it will not be long before we are done remodeling and ready to move in but, as I said.. I did not think painting would take that long either. I just wanted to stop and write this to give you guys an update as to what is going on and complain a little about painting. 

So I am about to get started on the next step of our project and I hope it will go easier than the last. Still... it could be worse, we did more hard work than this in our last place when WinterStead started. 

All that work was taken away by a faceless bank. The Defiant though is all ours, so any work I put in to her will always be ours. We are excited to get this adventure started and we are glad that you all let us share our story with you.

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By the way:
We painted the ceiling with one coat of Valspar: Cover-n-go in flat white.
We painted the cabinets with four coats of Valspar: Reserve in Eggshell white
We painted the walls with one coat of Bullseye 123Primer (no sanding, works well on veneer)
                                    & two coats of Valspar: 4000 eggshell (the color was a really light gray).