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7 Smart Tips To Painting Your Own Home This Summer Winter may have taken a toll on your home’s exterior this year. You’ve been noticing the cracking paint for months, but you don’t want to shell out the big bucks to hire a professional painter.

Don’t fret! With the weather warming and the nice summer weekends, it’s the perfect time to tackle that project of painting your home.

While this might seem like an insurmountable task, especially if you have a multi-story home, it’s not. It just takes the right tools and a bit of hard work. Below are step-by-step instructions to having the outside of your house looking shiny and new.

Test For Lead

Homes built before 1978 could have used lead paint, so be careful if you have an older home. They make kits that test for lead paint. If your home tests positive, then ensure you take the necessary precautions to keep yourself and your neighbors safe.

Scrub It Up

You need to wash the exterior of your home before painting. Mildew thrives under new paint, so kill it with a solution of water and phosphate-free cleaner.

Scrape And Sand

Take a scraper to your home’s exterior to remove any peeling paint. Spraying water under the paint as you scrape helps speed up the process. Then sand down any rough spots, so that you have a smooth canvas.

Apply The Primer

Paint on the primer immediately after you’ve prepped the wood. This will provide and even base for your topcoat of paint.

Buy Some Caulk

You’ll need to caulk all the joints to prevent water penetration and air leakage. Plus, caulk does a great job of filling in blemishes in your siding.

Pick Out Your Paint

Choose a water-based latex paint. It’s easier than applying oil-based paints. However, if your home already has an oil-based paint, you’ll have to stay with it. Once you’ve selected your favorite paint color, just grab a brush or rent a sprayer to start painting your home.

Maintain your exterior.

Be sure to check your home annually for any potential problems. Replace cracked caulk, remove mildew and patch any peeling paint before it spreads.

Utilize the beautiful summer weekends to get started on painting your home. Understand that this process normally takes two weekends, so be patient. Plus, by not hiring a professional, you’ll save a significant sum of money and have bragging rights when you receive compliments on the condition of your home.

Whenever a scene in a film or television show takes place in a private home, have you ever thought about who owns that property? Well, it could be you!

The fact is that film and television production companies are always on the lookout for new locations where they can shoot their footage. If you advertise your property in the right way, your home could have its 15 minutes of fame as the set for a film or a television show episode.

Many production companies have been gradually switching over the last few years into filming at ‘authentic’ private properties rather than in film sets and studios.

You don’t have to own a stunning mansion or a historic property to rent out your home as a film location. Film and TV location scouts are looking for a wide range of different homes, from small condos to townhouses to log cabins and any other style of dwelling.

Turning Your Home Into Hollywood

Of course, the obvious advantage of renting out your property as a film location is that you can get paid hundreds and sometimes even thousands of dollars per day just for letting a film crew take over your kitchen or dining room. Also, you will have the prestige and excitement of being able to meet celebrities and see your home featured on the big screen.

However, the process may disrupt your routine for a day or two or possibly longer. The film crew might want to move furniture around and you might even find yourself having to move out for a while. If you need to stay in a hotel during filming, make sure that the amount you are getting paid is enough to compensate for the costs of accommodation.

If you think that renting out your home as a film set sounds like a good idea for you, there are a number of different websites where you can list the property and post photos. Sometimes your real estate professional can help refer you to a specialist in the local area who consistently works with location scouts and producers.

When you are making the arrangements, make sure that you draft up a contract that states your fee, how long the filming will take, the type of production and an agreement to return your house to the original state that it was found in.

If you are interested in purchasing a Fremont home that could be film-worthy, please give us a call!