I was the one who designed and did the measurements of our gate at the (mini) farm. The height was twelve inches short because of the limitation in the length of available lumber. I spent a great deal of money sourcing for old wood yakal but my supplier along the Sta. Rosa -Tagaytay road was not reliable. It took them a few months before completing the delivery and the lumbers were irregular in shape and quality and not all were antigong yakal. Some were new and some were not yakal. I thought the wood would last for at least twenty years but it’s only been two years and yet there are already a lot of big cracks and mukhang malapit ng mabulok.
So to protect them from the harsh elements like rain and water, I’ve decided to paint them. I am clear about what I want and how I want my gate to look like but the problem is always in the execution and interpretation. I have no one to execute my idea and since I am always away, I will just paint it plain in the meantime.
I went to Home Depot to buy two kinds of paint, a white one for the basic coat or primer. The top paint will be a different color, not white.
Nippon paint has good quality but it’s more expensive than the other brands. This is P1,400+. I chose a cheaper brand for P540 anyway it’s just for the gate.
I wanted color sage but I couldn’t find the right shade that I pictured in my mind so I bought a grayish blue instead. This would look lighter under the sun.
The paint sales agents needed more product knowledge. They didn’t know how many square meters could be painted with a gallon of paint. They should be able to tell the customers the estimated size of area that could be covered with a gallon of paint to guide newbies.
The area of course would vary depending on the number of coats and the consistency of the paint if you mix it with paint thinner. Using a roller brush consumes less paint than using an ordinary brush. A spray paint also uses more paint but the effect is nicer and the color is consistent. I bet they didn’t know that.
Female paint agent—–“Ang kapal depende sa thickness”.
Of course dear.
I bought two gallons of primer and 5 gallons of top coat. I hope that would be enough to cover three wooden gates and two pedestrian gates.
I started painting the small pedestrian gate. I could do this all day.
My two assistants willingly helped me paint the bigger gate. They took off their uniforms and started painting till they covered both sides of the wooden gate in two hours. We have three more gates to finish. Next time naman. Nakakapagod din.
I stopped painting when I saw the chickens lying on the road. I thought they dropped dead too because we lost one teenage chicken the day before. I thought they also had died. Yun pala they were just sunbathing. Ninerbyos talaga ako baka meron ng bird flu. I have about 30 native chickens and hindi na nga dumami-dami kahit it’s been more than a year. Lagi na lang meron namamatay. Baka nagiging tinola.
