More Than I Bargained For

 

I took on a job when my partner was not available, thinking I could well handle it myself. The work seemed straightforward enough and I gave my price. After accepting the price, the customer then sent me the colour selections. It was only painting and I thought I would whip through it in no time at all. However, the colours were inherently difficult to work with. There were four of them, mixed and matched throughout the 4 bedrooms. The navy blue feature wall colour was almost black and left zero room for error on all edges. This takes extreme care and more than few tricks of the trade and some very expensive 'paint blocking tape'.

 

The result was very dramatic and 'cut-ins' were flawless.

 

But, the other three colours were extremely transparent. Light yellows, light pinks, and light mauves are the worst and it is these three that I struggled with. Since switching to Benjamin Moore Aura paints a few years back, I have only one time had a pink that required multiple coats. 99% of the time, trimming once and rolling twice is the order of the day. Here, I was trimming three times and rolling as many as four times. Needless to say, more time and more paint equals a higher price.  I have tried, over the years, to never go over a quote.

 

I put in some very long days, and was able to because the whole family was out of town on a vacation. It was during the hottest days which did not help. When all was said and done, I stuck to the original price and swallowed the extra costs.

I guess that I am nearing the end of my career and I would like to go out on a good note.