Curtis Painting & Remodeling

In mid-summer of 1982 at the age of 12, I had my first hands on experience with painting while helping my grandfather; Phillip Stanley Kahn (aka; Papa) paint the rickety old shed behind our home in Chester Va. Papa was nearing the end of the 40th year of his professional painting career so needless to say; he showed me the correct way of doing things right from the beginning! First we cleaned the shed to rid it of all dirt, dust, spider & cob Webbs etc.... Next, we removed & replaced a couple pieces of trim that were showing signs of rot.... Then we scraped away all the lose paint & debris. After that we sanded every rough area on the surface to be painted. Once that was done we cleaned the shed again to get rid of the dust & chips we just created from scraping & sanding. The next step was caulking.... Papa showed me how to cut the tip of the caulking tube at the right angle... He demonstrated how to run a bead of caulk... He said... "Hold it with both hands , line the tip up flush with the surface where the crack is... & drag the gun down in a smooth, fluent motion while squeezing the trigger EASY but firm & steady" .... Then, all though he had laid fantastic looking bead, he showed me how to finger it down smooth. He handed me the caulking gun. It took me a few tries to get it right. You might think caulking is a simple thing to do but I assure you... there is an art to laying a nice bead of caulking! The last step for the day was to put primer on all the raw, stained, & repaired areas. I remember wanting to jump right into painting but I had to wait. The next morning we went out to the building & checked it over. Papa explained the importance of everything we had done the day before as he carefully inspected our work. It was finally time to paint! First we painted the trim brown (to match the trim on our home); he showed me how to hold my brush, how to dip it, & how to knock the access paint off without wiping all the paint off the brush. He taught me how to make all the lines in my paint, made by the brush, appear to all go in the same direction having no start or stop points in the middle of a particular piece or section....(painters call this, "LAYING OFF"). Last but not least, we switched out our brushes & buckets & geared up to paint the body or, the siding... of the shed. This is where I learned how to paint straight lines for the first time or "cut in" in painters terms...... by cutting in the yellow of the siding color right up to the brown trim! The point if this story is to let you know that I... WE... at CURTIS PAINTING & POWER WASHING understand that no matter if you are painting a rickety old shed for your grandpa or the Taj Mahal for Donald Trump.... Preparation, Patience, & Precision are the keys to EVERY great paint job! I learned SO much from that man over the next several years.... & so much more after he passed from other great painters.... If I add all that knowledge together, I have WELL over 100 years of experience locked inside my head & THAT, along with respect & professionalism is what CURTIS PAINTING & POWER WASHING brings to the table when we are serving you. My deepest gratitude for taking the time to learn about us & we look forward to serving you in the near future & beyond. Sincerely, Curtis L. Moore CURTIS PAINTING & POWERWASHING ESTABLISHED IN 1989 (804) 221 - 2032