Latest / Repcolite Home Improvement Show / Conquering Digital Photo Clutter & Understanding Polyurethane

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Conquering Digital Photo Clutter & Understanding Polyurethane · Repcolite Home Improvement Show

0:03
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, thanks for tuning in. You're listening to Home
0:05
Speaker 1: in Progress, sponsored by Recolite Paints and Benjamin Moore. And
0:09
Speaker 1: before I get to the show, I want to know,
0:11
Speaker 1: how are you loving the snow? Huh? How are you
0:14
Speaker 1: loving the snow? I hope you've all been safe, and
0:16
Speaker 1: I really do hope you've been having some fun with it.
0:19
Speaker 1: For myself, I'm out there enjoying it. You know. I
0:21
Speaker 1: got snowshoes for Christmas, and I've been walking all over
0:25
Speaker 1: the yard demonstrating my incredibly raw and rustic manliness, let
0:29
Speaker 1: me tell you. And you know, the other day, I
0:31
Speaker 1: was looking so cool, wandering around like a modern Charles Ingles,
0:35
Speaker 1: you know, I'm walking around and then one of the
0:37
Speaker 1: dogs runs at me, and I tried the dodge, you know,
0:41
Speaker 1: quickly from side to side, and my huge snow shoes
0:44
Speaker 1: stuck in the snow, and I fell flat out of
0:46
Speaker 1: my face, you know, flat onto my face. My hands
0:50
Speaker 1: were in my pocket, so I couldn't even brace myself,
0:52
Speaker 1: just straight over, face first into the snow. The kids
0:55
Speaker 1: who were outside, they didn't even laugh at me. They
0:57
Speaker 1: rushed over to find out if I was okay. I
1:00
Speaker 1: was still going to be alive after this. So yeah,
1:03
Speaker 1: I'm loving the snow, and I mean it, it's winter,
1:06
Speaker 1: let's have the snow might as well. Anyway, let's get
1:08
Speaker 1: to the show, and over the next few weeks, I
1:11
Speaker 1: want to dig into something that a lot of us
1:13
Speaker 1: probably wrestle with, organization, specifically the organization of memories and
1:18
Speaker 1: all the stuff that comes with them. You know, I've
1:20
Speaker 1: got coming up at the end of the show another
1:22
Speaker 1: winter wood shop segment, and I want to talk about that.
1:25
Speaker 1: I keep talking about that because for me, winter's always
1:27
Speaker 1: been a great time to putter around, you know, a
1:30
Speaker 1: wood shop. I have a ton of fun when the
1:33
Speaker 1: weather's like this, just just doing these things inside. But
1:37
Speaker 1: it hit me the other day that winter is also
1:39
Speaker 1: a really great time to tackle something else, especially since
1:43
Speaker 1: a lot of us are spending a lot of time inside,
1:45
Speaker 1: and that's getting our memories organized. Because when I stop
1:48
Speaker 1: to think about all the stuff that I've accumulated from
1:51
Speaker 1: the kids early years till now, it's kind of nuts.
1:55
Speaker 1: You know. I've got rubber made tubs full of school projects, crafts,
2:00
Speaker 1: not even good stuff. I'm sorry, children, cover your ears.
2:05
Speaker 1: It's all good and dear to me. I'm sorry. I shouldn't.
2:08
Speaker 1: I shouldn't rate the quality of their work, but you know,
2:12
Speaker 1: this was kind of subpar stuff, you know. I can
2:15
Speaker 1: see what they've produced now and looking back at those
2:17
Speaker 1: weird little things they drew then, not quite as good.
2:22
Speaker 1: But they are funny and they are memories. And I've
2:24
Speaker 1: saved all of them. I've got boxes and boxes of them.
2:27
Speaker 1: I've got boxes and boxes of photos, right, I mean,
2:31
Speaker 1: just a gazillion photos. I don't even I don't even
2:36
Speaker 1: know what's in those boxes, and that's part of the problem.
2:39
Speaker 1: I've got old videos on tapes, right, eight eight millimeter tapes,
2:45
Speaker 1: VHS tapes, and you gotta have that too, and that
2:49
Speaker 1: alone is mind boggling. It's depressing, it's stressful because I
2:54
Speaker 1: don't even know what's on these tapes. And when I
2:57
Speaker 1: bought them, I was really happy because, oh, this is
3:00
Speaker 1: a ninety minute one. This will hold ninety minutes of stuff.
3:03
Speaker 1: Well now I'm sad because I've got ninety minutes to
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Speaker 1: scroll through, you know, just to figure out if anything
3:11
Speaker 1: on there is worth saving. It's depressing, it's overwhelming, and
3:15
Speaker 1: for me, there's a real level of stress that comes
3:17
Speaker 1: with all of it. You know, every time I see
3:19
Speaker 1: those boxes in the basement, I want to organize them,
3:22
Speaker 1: partly to reduce the clutter, of course, because I don't
3:25
Speaker 1: like the clutter, but mostly because I want to actually
3:29
Speaker 1: see and enjoy the memories that made me save this
3:32
Speaker 1: stuff in the first place. And I'm not doing any
3:34
Speaker 1: of that because I don't even know what's in those boxes.
3:36
Speaker 1: Blah blah blah. I don't know where to start to
3:39
Speaker 1: get this thing under control. Part of my problem is
3:42
Speaker 1: I'm sentimental. I've got a lot of parts of my problem.
3:45
Speaker 1: You know, some of those parts of my problem are
3:47
Speaker 1: pretty big, and they bleed over into other areas of life.
3:50
Speaker 1: But part of my problem with this is that I'm sentimental.
3:54
Speaker 1: I worry that I'm gonna regret tossing some of these
3:57
Speaker 1: things later. And the same questions come up with the photos,
4:00
Speaker 1: you know, the printed ones, the old videos, especially the
4:02
Speaker 1: digital photos that are scattered across my phones, my computers,
4:07
Speaker 1: the cloud. Who knows where else they are. So how
4:10
Speaker 1: do we get on top of all of this? How
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Speaker 1: do we organize our memories in a way that lets
4:15
Speaker 1: us actually know what we have and enjoy it? And
4:17
Speaker 1: that's what we're going to spend the next few weeks
4:19
Speaker 1: talking about we'll take it one piece at a time,
4:21
Speaker 1: looking at the best advice out there, the best advice available.
4:25
Speaker 1: It's not just coming from me. It's the best advice.
4:27
Speaker 1: So clearly it's not just coming from me. I got
4:30
Speaker 1: it from all over the place. I did a ton
4:32
Speaker 1: of research, and yeah, think about that, whatever I get
4:35
Speaker 1: done saying today, that was the best things I found
4:39
Speaker 1: all around the world with our topic. Anyway, let's tackle
4:44
Speaker 1: today what I think is probably the most stressful part
4:48
Speaker 1: of it all the digital photos, because technology is involved
4:52
Speaker 1: with this part of things, and that gets confusing for
4:54
Speaker 1: a lot of us. To get me going, let me
4:58
Speaker 1: paint you a picture of how wild this has gotten. Okay,
5:02
Speaker 1: back in the year two thousand, which really doesn't feel
5:05
Speaker 1: like that long ago, right, I mean, to my kids,
5:09
Speaker 1: it seems like ages ago. Oh way back in two thousand.
5:12
Speaker 1: Did you guys even have microwaves back then? Or how
5:15
Speaker 1: did you cook your food over hot rocks or something?
5:18
Speaker 1: You know? But for us two thousand, man, that feels
5:23
Speaker 1: like yesterday. I'm always surprised when I think two was
5:27
Speaker 1: twenty six years ago. How's that possible? Anyway? Back in
5:31
Speaker 1: the year two thousand, humanity took eighty five billion photographs.
5:37
Speaker 1: All right, this was the peak of the film era.
5:39
Speaker 1: So I'm talking about literal, literal pictures, literal photographs. The
5:45
Speaker 1: highest number of photos ever taken in a single year
5:48
Speaker 1: up to that point, eighty five billion literal photographs. And
5:52
Speaker 1: that sounds like a ton and it was. It was
5:54
Speaker 1: about twenty five hundred photos being taken every second around
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Speaker 1: the entire world photos. Right, Well, fast forward to today.
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Speaker 1: Last year, we took two point one trillion photos. That's
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Speaker 1: sixty one thousand photos being taken every second around the world.
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Speaker 1: Five billion photos taken every single day. And we do
6:15
Speaker 1: it just because we can. You know, think of all
6:18
Speaker 1: the photos that you take every single day. You know,
6:21
Speaker 1: photos of meals, you know, photos of your kids doing
6:24
Speaker 1: everything under the sun, photos of photos. How many photos
6:29
Speaker 1: do you have of your dog or your cat? You know,
6:32
Speaker 1: I've got a ton of photos of my dog looking
6:34
Speaker 1: like she's smiling. You know, maybe Maggie's smiling. Let's get
6:38
Speaker 1: a picture of that. We would never have done that
6:41
Speaker 1: with film. I never would have done that with film
6:42
Speaker 1: because film was expensive. You know, the average family would
6:46
Speaker 1: buy me a roll of twenty four exposures. That's twenty
6:49
Speaker 1: four pictures, and you'd be careful with every single one
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Speaker 1: of those shots. You had twenty four on that role.
6:54
Speaker 1: That was it. When you went on vacation, you know, generally,
6:57
Speaker 1: because of the expense of it, you'd buy maybe four
7:00
Speaker 1: or five six rolls. You know, you might have ninety
7:02
Speaker 1: six photos for an entire trip. You know, we would
7:05
Speaker 1: take ninety six photos of our breakfast. Nowadays, it's that nuts,
7:10
Speaker 1: and we do that right now, you know, take all
7:13
Speaker 1: those photos of our dogs and our food because we
7:14
Speaker 1: think we're saving memories, right we think it's nice to
7:17
Speaker 1: have those photos. They're going to be great memories later,
7:20
Speaker 1: But really, are they going to be great memories? Have
7:22
Speaker 1: you ever heard of the paradox of plenty? Paradox of plenty?
7:26
Speaker 1: I had not heard of it. But it's the idea
7:29
Speaker 1: that having more of something doesn't actually make us happier
7:32
Speaker 1: or better off. In fact, the paradox of plenty would
7:35
Speaker 1: tell us that once we pass a certain point, abundance
7:39
Speaker 1: can actually make things worse. You've got too many choices,
7:42
Speaker 1: too many options, are too much information, and it can
7:44
Speaker 1: overwhelm us. It can make decisions harder, and it can
7:47
Speaker 1: reduce our satisfaction with what we have. And that's where
7:51
Speaker 1: I think we're at right now, That's where I'm at.
7:53
Speaker 1: You know, my phone is full. Cloud drives that I've
7:56
Speaker 1: got are full cloud drives, not clown drives. I know
8:00
Speaker 1: they probably sounded the same, you know. I know most
8:03
Speaker 1: of you probably aren't even thinking that, but that's what
8:05
Speaker 1: my brain said to say, so I said it. I've
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Speaker 1: got so many pictures that I can't even enjoy them.
8:11
Speaker 1: I don't even know they're there. Really, I forget about
8:14
Speaker 1: them the minute I take them. And then I'm sure
8:16
Speaker 1: you've been here as well, or at least you know,
8:19
Speaker 1: people who have the phone starts nagging you. You know,
8:22
Speaker 1: you need to free up some storage or I can't work.
8:25
Speaker 1: You know, that's what our phone is telling us. I've
8:26
Speaker 1: got a friend who's texting apps quit working for about
8:29
Speaker 1: a week because she had seven years worth of photos
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Speaker 1: filling up her phone, and until she fixed that, she
8:35
Speaker 1: couldn't even use her phone for its intended purposes. All right,
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Speaker 1: that's the problem, or at least my problem, when it
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Speaker 1: comes to digital stuff. So how do we fix it?
8:43
Speaker 1: How do we get on top of all of this well,
8:46
Speaker 1: Fortunately it's way easier than it seems, and it's not
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Speaker 1: as imposing as you may fear. All you need to
8:52
Speaker 1: do is take it a step at a time and
8:54
Speaker 1: a little bit at a time, and we're gonna get
8:56
Speaker 1: started with those steps right after This homeen Progress is
9:00
Speaker 1: brought to you by repco Like Paints and Benjamin More.
9:02
Speaker 1: You know, people often think of paint as just another
9:05
Speaker 1: line item on the project's supply list. But here's the thing.
9:09
Speaker 1: Everything you do, every hour of prep, every stroke of
9:11
Speaker 1: the brush, all comes down to the quality of the paint.
9:14
Speaker 1: The paint is the project. Make sure it's the best.
9:17
Speaker 1: Right now, we're talking about how to get on top
9:20
Speaker 1: of just the piles and piles of digital photos that
9:22
Speaker 1: a lot of us have. You know, if you've got
9:24
Speaker 1: thousands of pictures just on your phone and you're not
9:28
Speaker 1: totally sure how safe they are, how to manage them,
9:30
Speaker 1: or how to free up phone space, if you've struggled
9:33
Speaker 1: with any of those things or all of them, this
9:36
Speaker 1: is really going to help. And the place I want
9:38
Speaker 1: to start is right here, and it's going to sound simple,
9:40
Speaker 1: but it's critical. You've got to understand what your phone
9:43
Speaker 1: is actually doing with your photos. Now, I've got an
9:46
Speaker 1: iPhone and for years I had it set to sync
9:50
Speaker 1: my photos to iCloud and just quickly the cloud. You know,
9:54
Speaker 1: there's all these different companies have their version of the cloud,
9:59
Speaker 1: and sometimes, you know, sometimes we know what that means.
10:02
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's just a nebulous term, and we really don't
10:05
Speaker 1: know what that means. I don't know where you're at
10:07
Speaker 1: on the grand scheme of understanding all of these technological terms.
10:11
Speaker 1: But the cloud is really just think of it as
10:15
Speaker 1: somebody else's great big computer, all right. It's not some
10:19
Speaker 1: kind of perfectly guaranteed, you know, utterly impregnable place where
10:26
Speaker 1: things are stored and they're always going to be safe guaranteed.
10:29
Speaker 1: It's really just another great big computer or series of
10:33
Speaker 1: computers somewhere. You know, there's a lot of redundancies built
10:37
Speaker 1: into them so that your pictures or whatever you put
10:39
Speaker 1: there are are most likely going to be safe. But
10:42
Speaker 1: it's not like sometimes we think that it's just you know,
10:47
Speaker 1: it's flawless that once you put things in the cloud,
10:51
Speaker 1: there are no more worries to be had, you know,
10:53
Speaker 1: just understand that's, you know, in a very simplistic manner,
10:57
Speaker 1: that's what the cloud is, all right. So I've got
10:59
Speaker 1: an iPhone and for years I've been setting it to
11:02
Speaker 1: sync my photos to iCloud. Now, I assumed that that
11:05
Speaker 1: meant that my photos were backed up and they were safe.
11:08
Speaker 1: And in a sense that's true. You know, if the
11:10
Speaker 1: phone dies, I can go back and get those photos
11:12
Speaker 1: and I'm good to go. But a couple of years ago,
11:15
Speaker 1: I needed space on the phone, so I deleted a
11:18
Speaker 1: bunch of photos from my phone, assuming that they were
11:21
Speaker 1: going to be safe in the cloud. Well a month later,
11:23
Speaker 1: I go back looking for some of them and they're
11:26
Speaker 1: gone everywhere, you know, everywhere I had those They've been
11:30
Speaker 1: deleted completely permanently. And that's when I realized that I
11:33
Speaker 1: didn't actually understand what was happening and how my phone
11:36
Speaker 1: was storing my photos. So here's what I think is
11:39
Speaker 1: the most important takeaway from this entire segment. And if
11:43
Speaker 1: this is the only thing you remember from everything I
11:45
Speaker 1: talk about, You're still going to be way ahead. Here's
11:48
Speaker 1: what you need to remember. Sinking is not the same
11:51
Speaker 1: thing as backing up. All right, Sinking is not the
11:54
Speaker 1: same thing as backing up. Most modern phones, you know, iPhones, androids,
11:58
Speaker 1: all of them are set to say up photos to
12:00
Speaker 1: the cloud, sink photos to the cloud. That means that
12:03
Speaker 1: your phone in the cloud mirror each other. If you
12:05
Speaker 1: edit a photo, it changes everywhere. If you delete it
12:09
Speaker 1: on your phone, that deletion usually happens everywhere too. That's
12:13
Speaker 1: not a glitch, that's not a bug. That's sinking, and
12:16
Speaker 1: that's how sinking works. So if your phone is sinking
12:19
Speaker 1: photos and you delete them like I did to free
12:22
Speaker 1: up space, you're most likely deleting them everywhere. You may
12:25
Speaker 1: not see that instantaneously because their phones are not constantly,
12:30
Speaker 1: you know, in sync. You know, every second of the day.
12:33
Speaker 1: They have moments or times when they go and they
12:35
Speaker 1: sink up and sync to the cloud. So you may
12:38
Speaker 1: check the cloud immediately after deleting and think you're fine,
12:42
Speaker 1: only to find out twenty minutes later, ten minutes later,
12:44
Speaker 1: an hour later, whatever it is, that your phone has
12:47
Speaker 1: now SYNCD to the cloud and it's deleted the photos
12:49
Speaker 1: that you remove from your phone. So just remember that.
12:52
Speaker 1: Once you understand that's how it works, everything else gets easier. Okay, Now,
12:57
Speaker 1: before you do anything else, there is one setting that
13:00
Speaker 1: you should check today. You know, and check it because
13:03
Speaker 1: it can free up a lot of space. If you're
13:05
Speaker 1: dealing with a phone that's telling you it doesn't have
13:07
Speaker 1: enough space and you've got to do something about it.
13:10
Speaker 1: Here's something that's probably set on your phone. You've probably
13:13
Speaker 1: already set it or it came set, but it is
13:15
Speaker 1: something to be aware of. If you have an iPhone,
13:18
Speaker 1: go into the photos setting and look for optimized iPhone storage,
13:22
Speaker 1: and when that's on your phone is going to keep
13:24
Speaker 1: smaller versions of photos on the device on your phone
13:27
Speaker 1: while the full quality originals go to the cloud. You
13:30
Speaker 1: can still see and share everything, it just takes up
13:33
Speaker 1: way less space. Now on Android, it's the same idea
13:36
Speaker 1: in Google Photos. Look for settings that mention storage saver,
13:40
Speaker 1: save space or optimized photos or something like that. Smaller
13:44
Speaker 1: versions of the photos will stay on your phone, big
13:46
Speaker 1: files will live online. Now this is important that setting
13:50
Speaker 1: helps with space, not safety. You know your photos are
13:53
Speaker 1: still sinking, they're not truly backed up, but if your
13:56
Speaker 1: phone is full, it's going to give you some breathing room.
13:58
Speaker 1: I'll put notes for all of that in the show
14:00
Speaker 1: notes if you want to revisit it. All right, once
14:03
Speaker 1: you understand sinking and you've checked that setting. The next
14:06
Speaker 1: step is simple but powerful. Create one truly safe place
14:10
Speaker 1: for all of your photos. Now, at least once a year,
14:13
Speaker 1: copy your photos somewhere that you don't mess with. You know,
14:16
Speaker 1: a hard drive, a computer, somewhere that doesn't auto delete
14:19
Speaker 1: when you clean up your phone. You know, something that's
14:21
Speaker 1: not connected to your phone in that kind of a manner.
14:24
Speaker 1: That device, whatever it is, hard drive, computer, whatever, it's
14:28
Speaker 1: your vault. You don't organize it constantly, You don't delete
14:31
Speaker 1: from it. You just add to it once or twice
14:34
Speaker 1: a year, and you leave it largely alone. Now, for me,
14:36
Speaker 1: I put everything on a hard drive, and that first
14:39
Speaker 1: big backup took about five hours or so because I
14:42
Speaker 1: had to get everything from two thousand all the way
14:45
Speaker 1: up to twenty twenty five onto that device. Took me
14:48
Speaker 1: about five hours or so. After that, exporting a single
14:51
Speaker 1: year is probably going to take about ten minutes. And
14:54
Speaker 1: once I did that, I can't tell you how much
14:57
Speaker 1: stress disappeared just from knowing that I had everything in
15:02
Speaker 1: one place. You know, it felt great to at least
15:05
Speaker 1: know I'd found everything. You don't need anything fancy for this.
15:08
Speaker 1: A decent hard drive is probably going to run you
15:10
Speaker 1: about one hundred bucks, probably less, probably way less. And
15:14
Speaker 1: the transfer process is way simpler than most people think.
15:16
Speaker 1: It's going to be. Sounds complicated if you're not techie,
15:20
Speaker 1: but it's not. Watch a how to online, get help
15:23
Speaker 1: if you need it, and get the whole thing taken
15:26
Speaker 1: care of. Once those photos are there, remember you don't
15:29
Speaker 1: touch them. That's your safety net. That's the vault. You
15:32
Speaker 1: don't go into the vault. You just put things in
15:34
Speaker 1: the vault, you don't take things out of it. Now,
15:36
Speaker 1: one other thing that I could say here is that
15:39
Speaker 1: a second vault that duplicates that first vault not a
15:42
Speaker 1: bad idea. You know, if you've got a lot of
15:44
Speaker 1: photos that are absolutely priceless to you, don't rely on
15:47
Speaker 1: one single hard drive to be that source. You know,
15:50
Speaker 1: it adds layers of complexity to duplicate one hard drive
15:54
Speaker 1: to another and to make sure you maintain them. That
15:57
Speaker 1: in that regard, but it can be done. People do
16:00
Speaker 1: it all the time. And just to really feel like
16:03
Speaker 1: I've handled this topic well, I want to make sure
16:05
Speaker 1: I say that just because you put it on a
16:07
Speaker 1: hard drive doesn't mean it's perfectly permanently protected. It's always
16:11
Speaker 1: good to have a backup to your backup. All right.
16:15
Speaker 1: The third step is where things really change. You edit
16:18
Speaker 1: your phone and you make it a habit. Now, back
16:20
Speaker 1: in the film days, we talked about that there were limits.
16:22
Speaker 1: You didn't take five pictures of the bowl of chili
16:25
Speaker 1: that you're going to eat. Ever, well, if we're in
16:28
Speaker 1: our modern time going to continue to take thousands and
16:30
Speaker 1: thousands of digital photos, and we are, we're not going
16:33
Speaker 1: to change that. If we're going to do that, then
16:35
Speaker 1: we've got to impose some kind of constraint on ourself.
16:39
Speaker 1: And what I think that means is five minutes a week,
16:41
Speaker 1: you know, maybe on a Sunday, maybe on a Saturday night.
16:44
Speaker 1: At first, it's going to take a little bit longer, right,
16:46
Speaker 1: So you've got to go through everything that's there that's
16:49
Speaker 1: really to be expected. So start by going through your
16:52
Speaker 1: phone and deleting all of the obvious stuff that's junk,
16:55
Speaker 1: you know, blurry shots, screen shots, duplicates, dumb videos, you
16:59
Speaker 1: make whatever, photos that really don't carry a whole lot
17:02
Speaker 1: of emotional weight. And if you're stuck deciding, just ask
17:06
Speaker 1: two questions, does this photo trigger a real memory or
17:09
Speaker 1: a feeling? And would I be disappointed if I couldn't
17:11
Speaker 1: find it again. The answer is no, to both delete
17:14
Speaker 1: it and move on now. Once you're caught up that
17:16
Speaker 1: five minute habit really keeps things under control. Keep the gold,
17:20
Speaker 1: silver and bronze photos, ditch the rest. And here's that paradox,
17:24
Speaker 1: that paradox of plenty that I talked about. The fewer
17:26
Speaker 1: photos that you keep on your phone, the ones that
17:28
Speaker 1: are intentionally capped, the more meaningful they're going to become. Now,
17:33
Speaker 1: one last idea that I love before we wrap this
17:35
Speaker 1: one up. Instead of letting photos sit unseen in the
17:38
Speaker 1: cloud or on your phone or whatever, turn them into something.
17:41
Speaker 1: A lot of you already do this. This isn't news
17:43
Speaker 1: to anybody. But make a yearly photo book, you know,
17:46
Speaker 1: just the highlights. Services like snapfish, shut or fly, and
17:50
Speaker 1: there's a whole bunch of others. They make it really easy.
17:53
Speaker 1: I did that this Christmas with our summer vacation photos.
17:56
Speaker 1: The kids love those books. They're great. Here's the bottom line.
18:00
Speaker 1: You can get ahead of this. You can understand where
18:03
Speaker 1: your photos live, you can free up space on your phone,
18:06
Speaker 1: and you can know, really, really no comfortably that the
18:09
Speaker 1: memories that matter are safe. Now I stressed about this
18:12
Speaker 1: for a ton of time. In in about five hours
18:14
Speaker 1: of focused work, I finally felt that I was on
18:16
Speaker 1: top of it. You can get there too, You just
18:19
Speaker 1: have to start, all right. Next week we're gonna move
18:21
Speaker 1: out of the phone and into the basement, and we're
18:24
Speaker 1: gonna look at those boxes and boxes of physical photos
18:27
Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about how to sort through
18:28
Speaker 1: them and sort them out without feeling like you're tossing
18:31
Speaker 1: away the past. But for now, I think we're gonna
18:33
Speaker 1: call it good there again, check the show notes if
18:35
Speaker 1: you need more info on anything that I covered, and
18:38
Speaker 1: I've got tons of links to great articles if you
18:41
Speaker 1: want to dig deeper. All right, let's head back into
18:43
Speaker 1: the woodshop and talk about Polly. You're Athane. It sometimes
18:46
Speaker 1: gets labeled as plastic y, but that's not fair. Polly
18:49
Speaker 1: is incredibly versatile and in a lot of real world projects,
18:52
Speaker 1: it's not just an option, it's the best one. We'll
18:55
Speaker 1: get to that right after this Homing Progress is brought
18:58
Speaker 1: to you by Repcolite Paints and Benjamin and More. Think
19:00
Speaker 1: about it. You spend hours prepping, sandy, taping, and then
19:04
Speaker 1: finally painting. Don't throw all that work away with an
19:06
Speaker 1: inferior product. The paint isn't just another supply. The paint
19:10
Speaker 1: is the project. Make sure it's the best. Right now,
19:14
Speaker 1: I want to continue our Winter wood Shop series, and
19:16
Speaker 1: I want to talk about two different wood finishes that
19:19
Speaker 1: completely changed modern woodworking, completely changed it. Lacquer and poly.
19:24
Speaker 1: Youre a thing now if you've been listening, you know,
19:27
Speaker 1: for the past few weeks, I think three weeks now,
19:30
Speaker 1: you know that we started this Winter wood Shop series,
19:33
Speaker 1: you know, talking about different wood finishes that you might
19:36
Speaker 1: encounter if you've got a little hobby workshop at home.
19:40
Speaker 1: And I've actually done this presentation. I put this all
19:44
Speaker 1: together all of these weeks, actually cram that all together
19:47
Speaker 1: a few years back and presented it to a great
19:51
Speaker 1: big collection of woodworkers, because even they professional woodworkers as
19:57
Speaker 1: they were, were a little bit confused about all the
19:59
Speaker 1: different play ps that each different finish, you know, where
20:03
Speaker 1: it excels, where it's not best to use that finish,
20:06
Speaker 1: and on and on and on. So I figured I'd
20:08
Speaker 1: take that info that I presented years back and break
20:11
Speaker 1: it into little pieces and present it over the course
20:14
Speaker 1: of several weeks. And we've been doing that. These are
20:16
Speaker 1: finishes that you'll encounter in the wood shop. If you
20:19
Speaker 1: do any hobbywood working, maybe even some professional or you know,
20:23
Speaker 1: close to professional wood finishing and all of that, you'll
20:26
Speaker 1: run into these finishes. And it's nice to know the
20:30
Speaker 1: history behind them. You know the history behind them, where
20:32
Speaker 1: they excel, where they're weak, all of that. It helps
20:35
Speaker 1: you make better decisions. We've been doing that. Blah blah blah.
20:38
Speaker 1: Shut up, Dan and get to the point. I started
20:41
Speaker 1: with tongue oil, and I moved on to sillac, some
20:43
Speaker 1: of the oldest finishes that are still in use today.
20:47
Speaker 1: Talked about those. Now we're moving into the twentieth century
20:50
Speaker 1: when new chemistry and industrial manufacturing completely changed how wood
20:55
Speaker 1: could be protected, finished, and used in everyday life. Now
20:59
Speaker 1: let's start with lacquer. But we're not going to linger
21:02
Speaker 1: here for long because this is this is kind of
21:05
Speaker 1: professional grade stuff. You need certain equipment to make this work.
21:09
Speaker 1: But lacquer. Back in the early nineteen hundreds, furniture makers
21:12
Speaker 1: love shellac. We talked about that last week. But they
21:15
Speaker 1: had a big problem. You know, schlack dried fast, but
21:18
Speaker 1: it wasn't always very durable, you know, not durable enough
21:21
Speaker 1: for production furniture, and that led to the development of
21:24
Speaker 1: nitrocellulo slacker in the nineteen twenties, which dried extremely fast
21:28
Speaker 1: and could be sprayed in thin even coats and provided
21:32
Speaker 1: more durability than the shellac did. Now, over time, a
21:35
Speaker 1: few variations of lacquer emerged. You know, basic nitrocellulo slacker
21:39
Speaker 1: is the simplest form, you know, for lack of a
21:42
Speaker 1: better way to say it, the simplest form, and you know,
21:46
Speaker 1: it creates a beautiful finish, but it does tend to
21:48
Speaker 1: yellow over time, and it offers really good durability. But
21:52
Speaker 1: you know, in the grand scheme of things, I guess
21:54
Speaker 1: we would call it moderate durability when we're looking at
21:57
Speaker 1: you know, professional modern co means it's going to give
22:00
Speaker 1: you moderate durability. Pre Catalyzed lacquer the next step up
22:04
Speaker 1: that came along to improve the durability and to reduce
22:08
Speaker 1: the yellowing, though it comes with a limited shelf life.
22:11
Speaker 1: Then there's conversion varnish, which is incredibly tough and chemical resistant,
22:15
Speaker 1: but it requires precise mixing and professional level application. Now,
22:20
Speaker 1: lacquer is widely used in professional shops because it sprays beautifully,
22:23
Speaker 1: allows for multiple coats in a single day, and it
22:26
Speaker 1: produces that smooth, furniture grade finish we all admire. But
22:29
Speaker 1: here's the reality. Lacquer isn't practical for most homewood workers.
22:34
Speaker 1: You know, like I mentioned earlier, I alluded to the
22:37
Speaker 1: fact that you need special equipment. It requires spray equipment,
22:41
Speaker 1: excellent ventilation, and proper respiratory protection to use. The safety
22:45
Speaker 1: concerns with lacquer are real, and for most people working
22:48
Speaker 1: in a garage or a basement shop or something like that,
22:51
Speaker 1: it's just not the right not the right product for
22:53
Speaker 1: the job. And that's okay because that brings us to
22:56
Speaker 1: the finish most of you will actually use, and probably
23:00
Speaker 1: use quite a bit polyethane. It's one of those finishes
23:04
Speaker 1: that doesn't really get the romance attached to it that
23:08
Speaker 1: it probably deserves. You know, she llac it's made from
23:11
Speaker 1: lack bugs. You know, secretions of the lack bug. There's
23:14
Speaker 1: some romance to that, right, you know. It's been used
23:17
Speaker 1: through the centuries. Tongue oil, same thing used for ages.
23:21
Speaker 1: You know, since the year four hundred, people are using
23:24
Speaker 1: these types of coatings. Poly Airthane doesn't have quite that
23:28
Speaker 1: storied history, but it's still got a fascinating history. And
23:32
Speaker 1: a well earned reputation for incredible durability. So polyirthane it
23:36
Speaker 1: was invented in nineteen thirty seven by a German chemist
23:39
Speaker 1: named doctor Otto Behar, like the aspirin, not the animal.
23:44
Speaker 1: Mister Behar wasn't trying doctor Bear. You know, when they
23:47
Speaker 1: work for that degree, they don't want to be called mister.
23:50
Speaker 1: They want to be called doctor. So doctor Behar wasn't
23:53
Speaker 1: trying to create a wood finish at the time. He
23:56
Speaker 1: was working on synthetic materials during a period when natural
23:59
Speaker 1: rubber was scared expensive. And in the midst of all
24:02
Speaker 1: of that, doctor Bear he discovered I love that name,
24:06
Speaker 1: Doctor Bear. I whish my last name was Bear. I'd
24:09
Speaker 1: even take the animal, you know, I'd even be doctor
24:13
Speaker 1: Bear that way. I just don't want to be doctor
24:15
Speaker 1: Bear as inn bare anyway, With all of his experimentation,
24:22
Speaker 1: doctor Bear discovered this polymer that could be adapted to
24:25
Speaker 1: all kinds of different uses, including use as a protective coating. Now,
24:30
Speaker 1: as it turns out, polyirthane was almost perfectly suited to
24:34
Speaker 1: protecting wood. When it cures, its molecules crosslink into a tough,
24:38
Speaker 1: resilient film that resists where it resists moisture. It resists
24:43
Speaker 1: everyday use now because of that, you know, because of
24:46
Speaker 1: all those benefits. By the middle of the twentieth century,
24:49
Speaker 1: polyarthane finishes began showing up in woodworking applications all over
24:53
Speaker 1: the place, and by the nineteen seventies they were readily
24:55
Speaker 1: available to consumers, and that availability changed diy woodworking for ever.
25:00
Speaker 1: And that's why polyrthinge is trusted for everything from you know,
25:04
Speaker 1: furniture to gym floors. It's not delicate, it's designed to last.
25:09
Speaker 1: It looks beautiful and it just holds up. So that's polyrthinge. Now,
25:14
Speaker 1: polyurthane generally comes in a couple different forms. Choosing between
25:19
Speaker 1: which one you get it's really going to depend on
25:21
Speaker 1: what you're trying to accomplish. So what are these different forms? Well,
25:25
Speaker 1: most simply speaking, or most simplistically speaking, I should say
25:30
Speaker 1: every time I speak, it turns out I'm simplistically speaking anyway,
25:34
Speaker 1: polyrthing can be broken into two basic forms, traditional oil
25:38
Speaker 1: based poly ethans and water borns now. The traditional oil
25:42
Speaker 1: based polls sometimes called solvent based polyirthings. These are known
25:47
Speaker 1: for the warm amber tone that it gives to wood.
25:49
Speaker 1: You know, it's got that richer, almost a yellowy kind
25:53
Speaker 1: of a tone that the wood picks up. If you've
25:55
Speaker 1: ever seen an oak or a walnut table that just
25:57
Speaker 1: seems to, you know, just glow with rich chances are
26:02
Speaker 1: oil based polyplayed a role in that it builds protection quickly.
26:06
Speaker 1: Oil based poly does. You don't need as many coats
26:08
Speaker 1: to achieve a durable surface as you would with a
26:10
Speaker 1: water based product. And this traditional oil based polly offers
26:14
Speaker 1: excellent resistance to water and wear, and that's why it's
26:17
Speaker 1: long been a favorite for hardwood floors and heavily used furniture.
26:21
Speaker 1: Now the trade offs are fairly well known. Oil based
26:24
Speaker 1: poll usually takes longer to dry, and it's got a
26:26
Speaker 1: noticeable solvent odor, and I mentioned already it's going to
26:30
Speaker 1: continue to amber over time, something that can be really
26:33
Speaker 1: beautiful on darker woods, but sometimes less desirable on lighter ones. Now,
26:38
Speaker 1: water based polyurethane, that's the other form that polyurethane usually
26:43
Speaker 1: comes in. Water based polyurethane dries clear and it stays clear,
26:48
Speaker 1: which makes it a great choice when you want to
26:50
Speaker 1: preserve the natural color of the wood and avoid any
26:52
Speaker 1: yellowing at all. I guess I can't say no yellowing,
26:56
Speaker 1: but it will be so minimal that you probably aren't
26:58
Speaker 1: going to notice it. Water Born polly also has far
27:01
Speaker 1: less odor, lower voc content, and it cleans up with
27:04
Speaker 1: soap and water. It also dries faster, which is great
27:08
Speaker 1: if you're trying to move a project along really quickly.
27:10
Speaker 1: Now that faster dry time, you know, there's there's always
27:13
Speaker 1: trade offs, right That faster dry time means you need
27:16
Speaker 1: to work a little more carefully. It always sounds great
27:19
Speaker 1: when we can say that something's going to have a
27:21
Speaker 1: really quick dry time or it dries really fast. Everybody
27:24
Speaker 1: thinks that's really great, But there are trade offs with
27:26
Speaker 1: that really fast dry time, and one of them, the
27:29
Speaker 1: big one is this brush marks, roller marks, All of
27:32
Speaker 1: those things don't have as much time to level out
27:34
Speaker 1: when the product dries quickly, and then that's what you're
27:37
Speaker 1: going to run into with water born polyurethanes. The brushstrokes
27:40
Speaker 1: aren't going to have as much time to level out,
27:42
Speaker 1: so you'll have to be careful when you apply it
27:44
Speaker 1: a little more so than you would with the oil
27:46
Speaker 1: based poly earthanes. The water born poly eurthanes also need
27:50
Speaker 1: an extra code or two to build to that same
27:52
Speaker 1: thickness that you'd get from oil based products. You know,
27:54
Speaker 1: generally speaking, if it takes three coats with an oil
27:57
Speaker 1: based poly earthing, it's going to take four or so
27:59
Speaker 1: to get that same kind of look or feel or
28:02
Speaker 1: build with a water based polyarthane. Now, with all of
28:05
Speaker 1: that said, modern water based poly earthanes are plenty durable
28:08
Speaker 1: for most furniture, and they'll even work for floors. Now,
28:11
Speaker 1: we've had some changes to Michigan voc regulations and that
28:15
Speaker 1: affects what poly earthanes are available on the market in
28:19
Speaker 1: a lot of places, not in all places. We're going
28:22
Speaker 1: to talk about that. We're also going to talk about
28:25
Speaker 1: where poly ethane is best used and where you want
28:27
Speaker 1: to avoid it. And I've got a couple of mistakes
28:29
Speaker 1: that I see people make all the time when it
28:31
Speaker 1: comes to poly earthanes, But I don't have time to
28:34
Speaker 1: do all of that right now, So we're going to
28:35
Speaker 1: dig into everything I just talked about in a little more.
28:38
Speaker 1: Right after this, you're listening to Home in Progress, where
28:42
Speaker 1: the projects are real, the mistakes they're educational, sometimes painful,
28:47
Speaker 1: mostly educational. And the only thing more stubborn than that
28:52
Speaker 1: old wallpaper on your bathroom wall is your determination to
28:55
Speaker 1: get it fixed, probably sponsored by Repcolite Paints and Benjamin
28:59
Speaker 1: Moore Paint with purpose, people who care and everything you
29:02
Speaker 1: need to get the job done right. The last segment,
29:05
Speaker 1: we were talking about polyurethane, and I mentioned how new
29:08
Speaker 1: VOC regulations I just started to talk about this, how
29:11
Speaker 1: new VOC regulations have affected it. You know, in April
29:15
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty three, Michigan adopted new VOC regulations that
29:19
Speaker 1: limit how much solvent can be present in wood coatings,
29:22
Speaker 1: including poly ethane. And under these new rules, this really
29:26
Speaker 1: doesn't matter, it's just numbers, But just to throw a
29:29
Speaker 1: number out there, under these new rules, most wood codings
29:33
Speaker 1: can't exceed about two hundred and seventy five grams of
29:35
Speaker 1: VOCs per liter. And all that means for our conversation
29:39
Speaker 1: here is that traditional oil based poly ethanes, the ones
29:42
Speaker 1: that many of us grew up using, no longer meet
29:45
Speaker 1: the standard without being reformulated. Now here's the important part
29:49
Speaker 1: to take away, or to understand. When we're talking about VOCs.
29:52
Speaker 1: VOCs weren't added to products just for fun, right. It
29:57
Speaker 1: wasn't just a hey, let's throw this in. It's stink
30:00
Speaker 1: a lot. Historically, many of these were solvents, and these
30:04
Speaker 1: solvents helped finishes flow smoothly, stay open longer, and level
30:08
Speaker 1: out as they dried. And that's really why those older
30:11
Speaker 1: products often felt so forgiving to work with. As regulations changed,
30:16
Speaker 1: manufacturers had to rethink how those products were built. And
30:20
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean modern low VOC finishes are inferior. It
30:23
Speaker 1: means that chemistry is really really different, and when the
30:26
Speaker 1: chemistry changes, the way a product applies can change too.
30:30
Speaker 1: But here's something really interesting. According to the twenty twenty
30:34
Speaker 1: three regulations in Michigan, manufacturers who produce less than a
30:38
Speaker 1: million gallons per year are granted additional time to comply.
30:42
Speaker 1: You know, they don't have to comply with VOC compliant
30:45
Speaker 1: formulations until twenty twenty seven, and that includes Repcholite. And
30:49
Speaker 1: what that means is that we're one of the few
30:51
Speaker 1: places around in Michigan who can continue to offer traditional
30:55
Speaker 1: formulas for polyurythane as we're working on our compliant replacements.
31:00
Speaker 1: So at all of our Michigan Repcollite locations, you can
31:03
Speaker 1: pick up finishers touch poly ethane in its traditional oil
31:07
Speaker 1: based form. I know that's not something that you're going
31:10
Speaker 1: to need every single day, but tuck it away in
31:12
Speaker 1: your mind, you know, when you do need it. It's
31:15
Speaker 1: good to know that you can still get that traditional
31:16
Speaker 1: poly here at Repcolite for a year or so. Yet.
31:19
Speaker 1: Now we've also got a water borne if that's what
31:21
Speaker 1: you're after, and that particular product is our finishers Touch
31:24
Speaker 1: waterborne poly ethane, and both of those products are available
31:27
Speaker 1: in courts and gallons. All right, that's all the voc stuff.
31:31
Speaker 1: Now let's talk about where poly ethane is best used.
31:34
Speaker 1: And the best way to think about it is this
31:37
Speaker 1: use poly ethane wherever durability really matters. You know, so
31:42
Speaker 1: kitchen tables perfect example. They see spills and heat, you know,
31:46
Speaker 1: constant use and plenty of abuse. Oil based poly ethane
31:50
Speaker 1: excels there because of its water resistance and its toughness.
31:54
Speaker 1: Super product for kitchen tables. Cabinets another great candidate. You know,
31:59
Speaker 1: whether you're finishing ones or you've got new ones and
32:02
Speaker 1: you want that wood you know that stained would look.
32:05
Speaker 1: Poly ethane is a great way to go. That's very
32:08
Speaker 1: DIY friendly. Oil based polly is going to be great
32:11
Speaker 1: if you don't mind the wood yellowing a little bit
32:13
Speaker 1: and getting that richness over time. Water based polly is
32:17
Speaker 1: a great choice if you're trying to keep the wood's
32:18
Speaker 1: light or avoid any of that color shift. Hardwood floors
32:22
Speaker 1: another place where poly ethane is just brilliant, and in fact,
32:26
Speaker 1: this is a place where it's earned its reputation. Really.
32:28
Speaker 1: You know, both oil based and water based versions are
32:31
Speaker 1: rated for floor use, but oil based is still going
32:33
Speaker 1: to offer a little more forgiveness in high traffic areas.
32:37
Speaker 1: Trim base boards, windowsills, doors all benefit from poly earthane's
32:41
Speaker 1: ability to stand up to cleaning and wear, and again,
32:44
Speaker 1: like windowsills, things like that, anything that's going to see
32:47
Speaker 1: a lot of moisture, I'd really recommend that you go
32:50
Speaker 1: towards the oil based POLLY just for that extra water resistance.
32:54
Speaker 1: Another place that we use polly a lot is in
32:56
Speaker 1: furniture refinishing. Dressers, desks, bookcase night stands all benefit from
33:02
Speaker 1: the long term protection that poly provides, and polyurthanes can
33:05
Speaker 1: still provide you with a beautiful finished look. You know,
33:08
Speaker 1: sometimes people get it in their heads that the finish
33:10
Speaker 1: is going to look plasticky, you know, or fake if
33:13
Speaker 1: it's done with a poly, But most of the time
33:16
Speaker 1: that's not going to be the case. In fact, most
33:17
Speaker 1: di wires would probably be hard pressed at the end
33:21
Speaker 1: of the day to point out you know something that
33:23
Speaker 1: was finished with polyurethane, or something that was shellacked, or
33:26
Speaker 1: something using a more traditional coating for an antique or
33:30
Speaker 1: something like that. So polyrthenes they're a workhorse would finish
33:34
Speaker 1: and they cover a ton of ground. However, there's one
33:37
Speaker 1: quick caveat polyirthene is not appropriate for cutting boards or
33:41
Speaker 1: food contact surfaces, so keep that in mind for those
33:44
Speaker 1: you want to stick with food safe oils or finishes
33:46
Speaker 1: designed for those purposes. All Right, When it comes to application,
33:51
Speaker 1: oil based polyrthane typically needs several hours between coats, and
33:55
Speaker 1: it's best left overnight before light. Use water based polyurthane,
33:59
Speaker 1: it's going to move way faster, drive faster, often allowing
34:03
Speaker 1: you to recoat in just a few hours. But that
34:05
Speaker 1: speed we talked about it earlier. The fact that it's
34:08
Speaker 1: drying so much faster means you need to stay focused
34:10
Speaker 1: while you're applying it. A good brush is going to
34:12
Speaker 1: make a big difference no matter which product you're applying,
34:15
Speaker 1: oil based or water based. If you're working with oil based,
34:18
Speaker 1: a natural bristle brush is going to be the best
34:21
Speaker 1: way to go synthetic brushes. They're going to be better
34:24
Speaker 1: for water based finishes either way. You're trying to shoot
34:27
Speaker 1: for thin coats here. Heavy coats are more likely to sag,
34:31
Speaker 1: to trap solvents, to cure improperly. You know, don't try
34:34
Speaker 1: to make something cover in two coats when you need three,
34:38
Speaker 1: or you know, you just run into trouble that way.
34:41
Speaker 1: That's the same with paint. Just let it be what
34:43
Speaker 1: it's got to be and you're gonna be happier down
34:45
Speaker 1: the road. All right. As we get to the end
34:46
Speaker 1: of this, there are a couple of mistakes that I
34:49
Speaker 1: see people make over and over when it comes to polyurthane,
34:52
Speaker 1: and I want to point those out. Kind of doesn't
34:54
Speaker 1: fit with the whole topic, but they're important enough that
34:57
Speaker 1: I want to point them out. The first mistake is
35:00
Speaker 1: using the combination stain and poly earthane products. They're all
35:03
Speaker 1: over the place, you know, you see them everywhere, and
35:06
Speaker 1: they seem crazy convenient, but they're absolutely things to avoid
35:11
Speaker 1: at all costs. And here's why. When the finish scratches
35:15
Speaker 1: and you used a stain and poly ethane all in one,
35:18
Speaker 1: When that scratches, and it's going to scratch with regular use,
35:21
Speaker 1: that just will happen. When it does happen with that product,
35:25
Speaker 1: you're removing color as well as protection, and that makes
35:28
Speaker 1: repairs far more noticeable and much harder to fix. You know,
35:31
Speaker 1: when you stain your wood with a wood stain and
35:34
Speaker 1: get your color that way, and then top coat with
35:36
Speaker 1: three coats of a clear or two coats of a
35:38
Speaker 1: clear poly earthing, whatever you need, the scratches only affect
35:41
Speaker 1: the clear finish. The color isn't affected at all, and
35:44
Speaker 1: you're probably not even going to see the scratches. You know,
35:47
Speaker 1: when you do it with a standard clear coat poly
35:50
Speaker 1: ethane with a stain underneath, that's the way to go.
35:53
Speaker 1: Don't do those quick fix stain and poly all in one.
35:56
Speaker 1: Just not right for most projects. A second mistake I
36:00
Speaker 1: see all the time is people want to apply a
36:02
Speaker 1: poly erathane over freshly painted surfaces, you know, cabinets, furniture,
36:06
Speaker 1: things like that. It's a common myth, you know, we
36:08
Speaker 1: run into it all the time. The idea is that
36:11
Speaker 1: polly over the paint is going to provide near magic durability.
36:16
Speaker 1: But the thing is, modern high quality paints that are
36:19
Speaker 1: already engineered for durability. Adding a clearcoat doesn't help much,
36:23
Speaker 1: and it can actually create problems with yellowing and touch
36:26
Speaker 1: ups later on down the road, so avoid that. Just
36:29
Speaker 1: let your paint me paint, don't put polly over top
36:32
Speaker 1: of it. You're not gaining really anything at that point,
36:35
Speaker 1: so keep those things in mind. You know, polyraythane, it's
36:38
Speaker 1: probably going to cover most of the projects that DIY woodworkers,
36:42
Speaker 1: DIY homeowners, you know, anybody who's DIY savvy. Poly airthane
36:46
Speaker 1: is going to be a product that you go to
36:48
Speaker 1: time and time again for all kinds of projects around
36:51
Speaker 1: the house. It's plenty durable for almost everything you'll do
36:55
Speaker 1: indoor furniture. It's great for trim windowsills, kitchen tables, even
37:00
Speaker 1: your floors, even your hardwood floors. And remember, thanks to
37:03
Speaker 1: the current regulations and the way the rule is written,
37:06
Speaker 1: Repcolite can still offer all of you traditional oil based
37:10
Speaker 1: polyurthane if that's what you're looking for. We've also got
37:13
Speaker 1: water born But if you are looking for that old
37:15
Speaker 1: school traditional you know you can still get it at Repcolite. Now,
37:20
Speaker 1: all right, as we're getting to the end of the show,
37:21
Speaker 1: I've got a quick tangent that I want to chase down,
37:24
Speaker 1: especially since we were just talking about polyurythane and staining
37:28
Speaker 1: wood and all of that. Anyway, a few weeks ago,
37:31
Speaker 1: when I talked about tongue oil, I told you about
37:33
Speaker 1: a desk that I refinished, and you know, the whole
37:36
Speaker 1: story was, I put a ton of work into stripping
37:37
Speaker 1: the old finish off, sanding it down, cleaning it up,
37:40
Speaker 1: all of that. Then I put tongue oil on it
37:42
Speaker 1: won't won't wall, and I was bummed about the durability.
37:45
Speaker 1: You know, that was all years before I worked at
37:47
Speaker 1: Repcolite and knew better. All Right, I told you that part.
37:50
Speaker 1: But one part of that experience that I had to
37:53
Speaker 1: leave out because there just wasn't time was that I
37:56
Speaker 1: was not only bummed about the finish, but I bombed
37:58
Speaker 1: out on the color as well. See, when I was
38:01
Speaker 1: doing all of that work, I had this vision in
38:03
Speaker 1: my mind about the color I was going to get,
38:05
Speaker 1: you know, the color I was shooting for, and not
38:07
Speaker 1: knowing any better, I just marched right off to a
38:09
Speaker 1: big box store and I picked the closest thing to
38:12
Speaker 1: what I wanted from off of their shelves. You know,
38:15
Speaker 1: it was a ways off from my goal, but I
38:17
Speaker 1: thought maybe it'd be close enough. Well after staining the desk,
38:20
Speaker 1: I realized no, it really wasn't close enough at all.
38:23
Speaker 1: It took way lighter on the wood than it had
38:25
Speaker 1: looked in the store, and the whole thing just did
38:28
Speaker 1: not turn out the way I wanted. I wasn't going
38:30
Speaker 1: to start over, so I decided to just live with it.
38:32
Speaker 1: Then a few years later, I start working at Repcolite
38:36
Speaker 1: and I realize that we can custom match just stain
38:38
Speaker 1: in pretty much any color. When I learned that, I
38:40
Speaker 1: was really really tempted to strip the dusk down at
38:43
Speaker 1: that point and start over so I could get it
38:45
Speaker 1: finally looking the way I wanted in the first place.
38:48
Speaker 1: But you know, at the end of the day, I
38:50
Speaker 1: had little kids. At that point, it was just too
38:52
Speaker 1: much work, so I left it. But I bring that
38:55
Speaker 1: up to let you know that if you're tackling a
38:57
Speaker 1: project like that and you want a certain look or
38:59
Speaker 1: a color, don't just leave it to chance or leave
39:02
Speaker 1: it to the colors available on the shelf wherever you're going.
39:06
Speaker 1: At Repcolite, we match stains all day long and we
39:08
Speaker 1: can get you exactly what you want, or as close
39:11
Speaker 1: is as humanly possible, so stop out and see us.
39:13
Speaker 1: All right, that's all the time we've got. We're gonna
39:15
Speaker 1: wrap this one up. If you want to catch it again,
39:17
Speaker 1: you can find it online at repcolite dot com. Whatever
39:20
Speaker 1: you do today, make sure paints a part of it.
39:22
Speaker 1: Have a great weekend everybody, and I'll see you next
39:24
Speaker 1: week for Home in Progress. I'm Dan Hansen. Thanks for listening.