You're doing WHAT?!?!...

Yes, that is the question Pam and I always get when we announce that we have started painting houses as a side business/hobby! Here's how it all went down...

Pam painted half of the exterior of our house with a paint roller about 4 months ago. She had been asking me to help her with the rest of the painting. I finally relented by saying, "If I'm going to paint the outside of the house, I'm going to do it with an airless sprayer and a lift, not a roller and a ladder!" So we rented the sprayer and a friend loaned us the lift, and I was hooked! I have fallen in love with being on a lift 30-feet in the air with paint sprayer in hand, and Pam loves painting the trim and adding the "beautifying" final touches. It is something that we have found that we really love doing together.

When we finished the other half of our house, we went to our neighbors, the Hannums, across the street and asked if they wanted us to paint their house, and they said "Yes!". We painted it in one day in 105 degree heat! Then our neighbors next door asked us to paint their house. It was our first paying job! After we finished it, our neighbor across the street asked us to paint his house too! So we will have another job at the end of this month! I think we're on a roll with this thing! We are loving the extra income and the time we spend together doing something that is both hard-work and rewarding.

I won't lie, we have had moments of heated discussion, like when the lift got stuck and Pam wanted me to use the Camry jack to try to get the lift high enough to get rocks under it. I argued that I needed to go buy a heavy-duty farm jack like the one we used to dig out the farm truck when we would bury it in the mud up to its axles. She didn't quite understand my point until I went and bought the jack and had the lift unstuck within a few minutes. Anyway, I got the lift stuck 3 times and was really happy that I had that heavy-duty farm jack! ;)

Our good friends, the Lindquists, came and stayed with us a few days. Craig is a finish carpenter and has a TON of experience with painting. It was a true blessing for him to be here to give us some pointers that will make our jobs easier (like..."You are using that lift for things it is not designed to do! Get scaffolding and you will get the job done faster and be much happier!")

Anyway, we'll see where this adventure takes us! We would like to turn it into a "half-way house" for return missionaries where they can come work for us right after they get home off their missions and are transitioning either to another job or to school. We believe it will be rewarding for both them and us!

Here are pics of our first paying job...

House Painting