Product Review: FreshAire Interior Paint

I painted my living room this weekend. The room was yellow, which I hated. I have nothing against yellow personally, but I don't like living in a yellow room. It is the most difficult color for your eye to see, did you know that? So you should put it in a room where you want to be awakened and energized. I want to relax in my living room.

I remember reading about VOCs some time ago, and although I'm sure what I read was sensationalized to a certain degree, there can't be any harm in applying paint to my walls that has less airborne contaminants, so I checked it out. Home Depot carries Freshaire Paint, a No-VOC option. Its display was separate from all the other paints at my local store, so if you don't see it at first, look around, it's there somewhere.

After much consideration and many paint chips stuck to the wall, I decided to go ahead with the Freshaire Paint (over the paints I've used previously, from Glidden and Behr). Here are my thoughts:

Pros:
--There was definitely a lack of paint odor when painting. The only time I could smell paint was when I was brushing on paint or holding the can right in front of me while painting. With eyes closed, I don't think the average person would know that I was painting in my house, or even the room itself.
--Purported health benefits. VOCs are not just emitted into the air while paint is wet; the paint continues to emit VOCs for some time (likely many years.) If you are concerned about the indoor air quality of your home, then you will see the logic of reducing VOCs in any way you can. Here is an interesting wikipedia article about the importance of indoor air quality.
--"Green" factor. Most of the packaging (including paint chips) is made from recycled materials and can be recycled. There are no VOCs in the paint OR the dye (some no- or low-VOC options do not use VOC-free tints.)

Cons:
--Lack of color options. There are currently only 65 colors available, compared with 6 million colors plus color matching available with other products. In the end, I felt like I "settled" for the color I chose. It is also only available in flat, eggshell, and semi-gloss finishes.
--Cost. A gallon of Freshaire was almost $40, compared with about $20-30 for standard options.
--Lack of measurable benefits. If you are an "instant results" sort of person, you might not feel positive about using No-VOC paint. You have to believe that you are improving your air quality.

Sames:
Coverage and cleanup seemed the same as other paints I have used.

Don't-know-yets:
It says on the container to let the paint dry several days before attempting to clean it (so don't let your three year old draw on the wall before then!) I will wait a while and splash something in the corner and let it dry, just so I can see how it cleans up.

Final Thoughts:
I am glad I chose the FreshAire paint, but if I ever want to be more picky about a color I might be convinced to choose a more standard option. It seems silly to choose style over health, but I believe strongly in mental health and its relationship to physical health. If the color of the room I am makes me unhappy, I am doing as much damage to myself as the paint would. Maybe.

Play by Play of Home Improvement-Day 4

Still haven't heard from the contractor. Loving the new deck, and the new door is great---but it really is too high. J-sun decided he'd like it redone, and placed lower. This means basically re-installing the door. So when they come in November (although I haven't actually found out any more information from the contractor regarding that...) they'll basically be putting in two doors, and we'll have to pay them for a day's labor most likely. J-sun said this was fine with him; he wanted it done right.
To make myself feel better about all of it, I went shopping to look for fabric for new drapes and chose a new paint color for the room. It is yellow, and although it makes the room sunny and warm, I don't like yellow. It is the hardest color for your eyes to see, did you know that? Which is why you put it in a room where you want to be stimulated. This is our lounge-y room, kick-back-watch-TV-play-games room. We want to relax here, but I don't want the room to become cold (it is already -literally- a cold room, I don't want the colors to make it feel colder). So I selected a warm-hued light brown color, and am working on the accents now. The color card had a sage green with the brown, which would look great but I couldn't find a reasonably priced fabric anywhere. So I'll have to continue thinking about it.

Play by Play of Home Improvement-12:00 pm the next day

Didn't hear from the contractor, but heard from my mother-in-law. She was at her father's (more or less an invalid) to mow the lawn--with the contractor, who apparently had some time on his hands. She called and asked "one of the doors was wrong?" and I said yes, that it wasn't what we wanted. She then talked, blah blah blah, then quoted the contractor as saying "well they don't have to worry about it, they're not gonna have to eat the door."

I wish the contractor had called to tell me this. When I talked to my MIL later in the day she asked if I was unhappy with the contractor, and I said I was reserving judgment. Since I hadn't been told yet what the deal was with the doors, nor had I been told how much he was charging me, I couldn't say yet whether I was satisfied. Which is true. She changed the subject rather than arguing, and I appreciated that.

New Deck

Here it is:


At least it's something that is done. I am trying to be positive. The decking material is a wonderful gift from J-sun's parents, worth hundreds of dollars. So generous.

Still gathering my thoughts about how to deal with the contractor. First thought on the top of my mind: Is anyone out there honest anymore? Do I have to push and prod to get fairness---why can't it be the standard? Is it because I'm a girl? I vented with a female friend and she said that really it doesn't matter how knowledgeable we make ourselves, if we continue to keep our vaginas they'll never listen to us. I'm not much of a feminist but on days like this I do wonder. Well...I am the one who is at home right now; my housewifery duties include dealing with the contractors. I think that is reasonable, so I will figure out how to deal with this, as well as how to keep from having to deal with it again.

Play by Play of Home Improvement-1:45 pm

1:45 pm: Peeked on the way to the kitchen--yay! Last boards going on the deck and they're starting on the stairs.

Play by Play of Home Improvement-1 pm

1:00 pm: After last post, things more or less settled, I retreated to my sewing room to relax. After finishing a shirt, I went to check on the work. I was suitably impressed by how far along they'd gotten. Now I think there is a chance they might finish the deck today. Here is a sneaky picture taken without a flash, on the fly by the room so they wouldn't notice. You can see they're at least halfway across the deck. Also note the new door with an actual handle, an actual lock, and a fantastic footbolt with dual locking positions (so you can lock it slightly open to let air through).

Play by Play of Home Improvement-11:15 am

11:15 am: Um, yeah. So the correct door will take 4-5 weeks. Also, by the way, these aren't the doors we ordered. They are more expensive. Thank you for telling me this out AFTER IT WAS INSTALLED! Instead of $1100, these doors are more like $1500. Blah blah, better door, but still, not really fair.
So we had decisions to make. Do we want to keep the left-to-right opening door and get it done now? Do we want to re-order (it sounded like the sales guy seemed willing to "eat the door"), but it will take 4-5 weeks, which puts us into mid-November? Do we want to just suck it up and wait until next year? Talked to hubby on the phone and we decided to order the door and have them come back in November to install it.
Meanwhile. I asked him about the labor cost and he said the $5-600 he quoted was for the doors and the microwave. The deck will be more. But more or less it's $600 a day. So since they only did one door today they might finish in one day. I said we'd rather they finish the door and the deck, and if that did the day we'd leave off the microwave for now. If they come back tomorrow I'm putting them to WORK.
Also, how long is a day? If they do 8 hours, three guys, divided into $600 is $25/hour. I can't imagine the contractor pays these two guys quite that much, does he? In any case, if they put in an 8 hour day, they've only got 3 hours left, and they're barely 1/4 way done the deck. My guess is they'll be coming back tomorrow.

Play by Play of Home Improvement-10:35 am

10:35 am: I look out to see that they've started on the deck. We got barely enough decking to cover the deck and stairs, provided it was used properly. There were short pieces leftover that needed to be used as fillers at the end, rather than cutting down long pieces; several longer pieces needed to be used to make the stairs. Otherwise, there won't be enough continual linear footage for the stairs. I mention this to the two guys working. They nod their heads. Five minutes later I hear the contractor telling them exactly what I just told them, but in a slightly more urgent voice. I peek, and luckily they hadn't cut into one of the long boards. The contractor gives a little more advice and moves a few things around and I feel a little better about him.

Play by Play of Home Improvement-10:20 am

10:20 am: The door is more or less in. One of the guys has been installing the hardware. He closes the door and can't get it to lock. He and the contractor start working on it. At some point they get it closed and locked---with TWO of them holding the door and the handle. One of them takes out a square and starts working at it. I won't be satisfied with a tricky door. This older guy seems a bit pickier about his work than the contractor does. Work up some more guts.

Play by Play of Home Improvement-5 weeks ago thru 10 am Tuesday

Weeks ago: We met with a contractor (a friend on my husband's family who has done much work for my mother-in-law and she says what a great job he does.) We are anticipating two days of labor to replace two sliding glass doors, remove old decking and replace with new decking, and install an over-the-range microwave and a vent to the outside. We bought a microwave locally for $300. The decking was given to us by my mother-in-law, who had enough left over from her own deck project (which this contractor did.) We sat down with the contractor and chose a new sliding glass door from a catalog. They are Therma-Tru vinyl doors. The current doors both opened from right to left. We discussed that we might like to have one of the doors open from left to right. He told us (I am unabashedly going to share numbers here) the doors were $1100 each; the labor to put in two doors would be $500-600 (so I assume $600.) The deck is small so we expect it should be done in a second day. So we are expecting to pay the contractor a total of about $3400, probably a little more if we need new trim around the doors, etc.

6:45 am: Contractor and his two guys arrive. The sliding glass doors were delivered yesterday but it was raining so the guys didn't want to work (don't blame them.) They begin by standing around and looking. Then they measure a few things. They are removing siding by about 7:30. I notice that the contractor is smoking a cigarette with the door open and his head halfway in the room. I hate cigarettes. I don't care that most of him is outside. I make a mental note that I am the homeowner and I will take no poop from this man.

8:45 am: Contractor starts to put the first door in and discovers that it opens left to right. He asks me which side I want it on, and I say that if we have two opposite doors, we want this one on the right. The left hand door definitely needs to open up right to left, and the other door could go either way. He checks the other door, and finds that it opens left to right also. I tell him that I'm not sure we would like that. He says he will call the manufacturer to see if the door can be reversed. I call my husband and we agree that we will not be satisfied with a l-r door on that side, and it needs to be re-ordered. I tell the contractor this; he says he thinks maybe at one point we discussed both doors opening that way, and I said no, we definitely would not have asked for the door to open that way.

9:30 am: Hubby has returned home from a doctor's appointment. Takes a look, chats a bit, kisshug, head off to work. Five minutes later the contractor finds me and tells me the door can't be reversed. He's been on the phone to the place he bought it from. They think they can get a door within a week, but it took 5 weeks to get these. He thinks he ordered two opposite doors, in which case it's the other guy's fault and they will have to replace it. As he puts it, "Someone's got to eat this door." Is the implication that I will eat this door? I feel 100% confident that we did not ask for both doors to open l-r; we asked for either opposite doors, or both to open r-l. I don't say this; I just nod my head. He says we will wait and see what the sales guy says when he calls back. I make a mental note that I will not pay him to install, nor will I pay for, a door that we did not ask for. Start working up my guts.

10:00 am: While I'm discussing with the contractor whether I am satisfied with the height of the lip to get in and out of the door (it seems high to me, but they've already got the siding back on and trim replaced inside, so I decide we'll live with it), he looks out and tells one of his guys to go get a different tool to bang nails into the decking so he won't ruin the one he's using. The guy gives him some pretty major stink-eye but gets up and goes. When he returns, the contractor has stepped outside and tells him if he wants to ruin his own tools that's fine. More stink-eye. The contractor tells him he can go if he doesn't like it, and walks away. The guy says, "Pay me and I'll go." But the contractor doesn't take out his wallet, nor does the guy go. They each appear to go back to work.