Rehab for Rental - more tips and tricks

Hi All, 

     I recently renovated a 3 bed / 1 bath in central PA for rental purposes.  As usual, I wished I took more photo's of the process to illustrate to all you good folk.  This time I snapped a few quick ones that may help you avoid those tempting impulse buys from Home Depot, and tighten up your interior painting skills, enjoy!

Picture 1: The Bare Essentials 

 Above, you will see the tools I deem essential for every rehab.  Notice, everything is very standard, and there are no fancy gadgets.  

Tools:

3.5" quality tapered brush.  I use this for ALL my cutting, and it works GREAT!

Painters Rag, essential for cleaning up your small little mistakes

Broom, duh!

Floor Scraper for prepping floors for new vinyl

Paint Scraper with Wire Brush, for those stubborn spots

Mud Knife

Window Scraper

Glass Wipes

2" Blue Tape

2" Masking Tape  

Stapler, for putting up plastic drop clothes

Utility knife with pocket knife 

NOT SHOWN (roll of brown masking paper, plastic drop clothes, halogen work lights, construction screwdrivers, hammer, needle nose vice grips) 

Picture 2, really prepping those sills 

Have you ever noticed that the bottom sill around the pane of glass is always in much worse shape than the other 3?  This is most likely due to condensation build up.  I've painted a few of these and always been slightly dissatisfied with how they come out, until NOW!  

What I did here was sacrifice a little of the nice blue painters tape (could have probably used masking) and applied it very tightly to the troubled areas.  Wait a few minutes and remove, reuse the tape on each sides and one or two times in the middle.  See below to see how much loose paint came off that would have otherwise caused a good renovation to look unsightly sooner.

Picture 3: All that loose flakey paint, that didn't even look that loose! 

Seriously, there is TONS of loose paint on the bottom sill.  Use this technique to get rid of it before painting!

Picture 4: Doors hanging in Basement after an airless beat down.  Don't forget the painters caulk, it makes a job look professional!  FILL ALL THE CRACKS!

As you probably already know, I don't leave home with out my airless paint sprayer, I've blown through hundreds of gallons since purchasing it, and it has saved me COPIUS amounts of time.  The prep work often feels like it takes longer than just getting started by hand, but trust me, it IS NOT quicker to paint by hand!  Doors are hung from the joists for full front, back and side coverage in one application.