While we're talking about painting, it seems like the right time to mention the taping-off lessons we've learned over the past few years. Every indoor painting job begins with taping off the room -- masking the ceiling, floor, and trim -- and I'm pretty convinced that putting a little more time and energy into doing the job right means that you actually save time painting and cleaning up afterwards. That being said, it can get a bit tiresome and annoying, so anything that makes the taping-off process easier is welcome in my book.

Shannon and I painted every room in our place in Brookline three years ago, and came to love Scotch Ready Mask painting tape. It's actually an impermeable paper tape that has adhesive on only part of its width, meaning that only one edge sticks to the wall (rather than the entire tape). All I can say is that it worked well -- it created nice edges, and it was trivially easy to get off the wall when we were done. Needless to say, when we started planning our trip down to DC to paint the new house, I grabbed a bunch of rolls and put them into the supply crate.

Imagine my confusion, then, when the tape gave me problem after problem as soon as I started using it in DC! I began taping off our guest bedroom, and within minutes of its application, all the Ready Mask tape came peeling down from the walls. I'm not sure if it was the humidity (DC certainly was more humid last weekend than Brookline was three years ago during our month or two of painting) or if the walls were a bit dusty, but in any event, within an hour we had made a trip to our local Capitol Hill hardware store and come back with good ol' Scotch Blue painter's tape. And while it went on without a hitch, we found that it took the occasional bit of ceiling paint with it when we took the blue tape down -- not ideal, but certainly better than a tape that didn't stick in the first place.

The one bit of painting that we have left (other than touching up the ceiling edges!) is the seven new wood windows that are being put in next week, and I'm not sure which painter's tape I'll use for those. I assume that the Ready Mask tape will stick to the glass better than it did to the walls, but window painting is tedious enough without having to deal with masking problems, so I have a feeling that the blue tape will get the call again... we'll see.