Backyard pirate ship playhouse - the paint job

Hi there.

well, it's been a couple of pretty good days.  I got some more boards to finish up the bow as well as start the trim work on the railings etc...

So Saturday I started by completing the boards on the port (left) side of the bow.  I also put in a porthole on that side as well in the bow as when you look at the ship from the front you see two identical sides.

Then I was planning on staining the bulk of the ship but the threat of rain was omni-present so I decided to keep working on some structural stuff, framing in railings and such. 

Now as for the choice of colours... as previewed, the wife and I had a lengthy discussion about choices, what each colour made us feel about ourselves and about each other, what our choice of colours symbolized.

I'm just kidding, we actually agreed pretty quickly.  And I have just spent all day outside staining this behemoth.  Have a look.

Now you can't see it from this vantage point but the main deck and bridge have also been stained, but in a dark slate colour.  Doors and portholes will eventually be stained yellow.

Now I want to write a bit about stain vs paint,  we went with a semi-transparent stain to give it some colour while still seeing some of the wood grain come through.  It's all about personal tastes but on a project like this I prefer stain.

Today was a good day to do this as it was about 16 degrees celcius outside, not dry but not overly humid and thos conditions were forecasted for the whole day.  The somewhat cool temperature ensured that my coats didn`t dry too quickly, a good thing especially for the novice painter.  If you've ever painted on a scorching July day, you know that your technique has to be pretty good to avoid brush or roller marks, picture framing, etc...  Now I did only finish staining the deck around 5 PM and dew point was around 8 PM so I was cutting it a bit close.  Also they were calling for rain after midnight so I'm a little worried.  The stain would certainly be dry but if you start drenching the whole thing too soon you may end up with some issues.  Tonight will be the test.

Now, to roll and brush or spray.  A colleague did lend me his Wagner sprayer but when I started today it was way too windy for a sprayer.  So, I got a nice roller with 19mm thick material, does a great job with stain.  You need a thicker rooler than you would with pain as stain isn't as thick and you want to make sure your roller soaks up enough stain.  Also, the thicker roller is great for rolling some stain into cracks and grooves.  I used the brush to cut out everything and I'm pretty pleased with the end result.

Now doors and portholes will be painted yellow as well as the ladder going to the bridge.  And although it`s not visible from the outside, to protect the wood from the inside we are still going to stain those inside walls in the cannon room as well as the hold.  We're going to go with a stain that let's the natural colour of pine show through, mayeb even just a clear coat, not sure yet.

Rain tomorrow morning and I have some work to do for the office so I'll be busy but later on in the day it's supposed to clear up so we may end up doing a bit more work on the railings.  If I do you can rest assured I'll do another update tomorrow.

Until then, thanks for dropping in...

A.