To Paint or Not to Paint

Oh how I wish I could post a picture of our newly-painted cedar shakes, shutters, and front door... but I can't... because despite the fact that our painter guy has been stopping by the house almost every day for the last five days, nothing is actually painted yet. Let's call this painter "Jose". (Okay, his name is actually Jose).

Anyway we gave Jose the colors names/numbers we wanted to use and he volunteered to take one of our cedar shakes to the paint store so we could see how it would look and make sure we liked it. So we gave him an extra one we had in the garage. He came back two days later finally, with the cedar shake painted to show us. But, he said, since we were using a solid stain and not a latex paint, he didn't know if the stain would cover the existing stain on our cedar shakes (the one he took from the garage was unstained).

So I suggested why not bring a small amount of the stain back here and paint a couple of our shakes to see how it looked? He agreed, and off he went. A day and a half later he came back with a gallon of paint and painted half a dozen of the shakes on the side of the house. But, he said, the guys at the paint store told him the solid stain wouldn't cover our existing stain so he bought a gallon of latex paint instead which was supposedly the same color (but actually doesn't look like the same color).

When I pointed out that it wasn't the same color, he said "Well it has the same name and number as the solid stain." And I said, "Well, it's not the same color and we didn't want to use a latex paint." The discussion eventually ended with him prying a piece of cedar off the side of our house and disappearing with it -- supposedly back to the paint store to see if the solid stain will actually cover it or not.

You might wonder why I am putting up with a guy who would pry a jagged piece of cedar off the side of my house and then disappear for the day, and it is because HE IS DIRT CHEAP.