Doggie Prison

When we first got our dog, RJ, we would leave him on the screen porch if we had to go out.  The weather was nice then and we didn't quite trust him alone in the house.  Outside would have been OK, but we are not completely fenced and he might follow us out to the road.  So the screen porch was "Doggie Prison".

  

Then Lee discovered that doggie prison was being slowly eaten by said doggie.  Sure, he had chew toys and a wonderful hammock to jump up into and sleep.  He had fresh air and 180 degree views.  We started noticing that the edges of the support posts were developing gnawed sections.  So doggie prison moved to the basement. 

   

Now we trust RJ for long periods in the house.  But we still have the chewed parts.  I ignored them for some time, but yesterday I decided to fix them.

   

I wanted to just sand them mostly smooth and then paint.  This is a "outdoors" room, after all.  Some of the gouges were just too deep.  So then I had to get out the spackle.  Spackle is basically plaster to fill in holes and then get painted over.  It has to dry and then you sand it smooth.  Don't make the mistake of putting on too much and then figure you can sand it off later.  This will be way more work in the long run.

I use a small putty knife to get it out of the container and a large taping knife to smooth it if you have to cover a large area.  I have a hint to pass along.  Instead of sanding, you can usually get a smoother surface and better result if you use a damp sponge.  Plus, you don't end up with a lot of dust everywhere.

 

The hard part is matching paint.  There are fifty bazillion shades of white.  I counted. We have some white paint that is close to the trim color for this house and that is what I used.  I decided to remember this is an outside room and not to stress about it.  Easier said than done.

  

Here is a painting hint.  Don't just cover the spackled part.  Feather it in.  Brush over the repaired section and then go over it lightly and lift the brush quickly at the end of the stroke.  You don't want a line where the new paint starts and ends.  It should be unnoticeable.

   

I like a sponge brush for this kind of job.  They are great for feathering in and when you are done there is no clean up.  For less than a dollar you can just toss it!

You may notice that the animals like to "help" us when we are working in the house.  I expected RJ to feel VERY bad that he had caused me so much extra work.  So I asked him if he felt bad.  This is his feel bad face...or maybe just his bored one.