Building with dad...Day four...

By day four, my hopes of getting this thing done before my dad left was pretty dismal. It seemed as though every step was painfully longer than the last. But I had three built units staring back at me and that alone was an accomplishment. Day four was a Saturday so we had all sorts of kids running around wanting to help. Steve was working on his final for school and had locked himself away in the office. He had reached his max of my "Project mode" and his frustration was visible. Something about the house being a disaster, laundry not done and a kitchen that remained in a constant mess. He is not a project person and doesn't care for the "process". However, he's always very complimentary of the finished product. But this particular day he was done.

Here's how day four went down:
Because we attached the face frame using pocket screws, we used a 1/4 inch sheet of MDF to "skin" the side. When we installed the face frame, we offset it a 1/4 in as well so it would sit flush with the side skin. After the skins were attached we were ready to prep for painting. We utilized the help of our minions to putty all the holes. This was the perfect age appropriate task for two kids that had been begging to help. I like to use DAP Dry Dex because it's easy to use and even easier to sand. After the putty was dry, we took the sander to all the units and made them nice and smooth. And then we sat and waited for Steve to finish his final so we could use his strength to help move the units for painting. And we waited a little bit more. And I would be lying if I didn't say that panic started to boil within me as I saw the time pass without any progress.

Once we moved them to the backyard it was painting time. I used the lawn blower to get all the dust and particles off in order to paint. These are three very large units and painting by hand would've taken me forever. I looked into having it painted and it was $1500. No thank you. A happy medium was me buying a small paint sprayer so I could paint it myself. Quicker than rolling it but way cheaper than our $1500 option.

After some research I landed on the Graco TrueCoat Plus II . There was definitely a learning curve - probably should've worked with it a bit before I started painting a project I had spent hours and hours on. But it all worked out (with minimal sanding in some areas)! I primed and painted in just a couple hours and I was on cloud 9 thinking of all the time I had made up in the process. Like most sprayers, clean-up is annoying but even that I'm feeling more comfortable with. I'm excited for the project possibilities!

DIY Entertainment Center - Day 1
DIY Entertainment Center - Day 2
DIY Entertainment Center - Day 3
DIY Entertainment Center - Day 4
DIY Entertainment Center - Day 5
DIY Entertainment Center - Day 6