Primer recommendation
 

I bought this book to help with the color selection. It has thousands of colors that you can put side by side to see how well they go together.

There are a good 15 paint chips in the room that I'm planning on painting, and phase two of color decision may be going out and buying a quart of the top three colors and putting a swipe or two on the wall to see how they look in situ.

Shop tools.
 

Thanks for reminding me there was a DIY thread.

Anyone have strong feelings about brands of power tools? I'll be in the market for a compound mitre saw and possibly a circular saw, but the only thing I can remember from my blue collar days was that Craftsman tools are shit. Feelings about Porter-Cable? I like that they're advertised on Norm's show, but I hardly think PBS taking your money qualifies as a product endorsement.

Primer recommendation
 

Absolutely do this. Paint chips are wholly inadequate for telling how it will look, and I've found that generally teh colors are more intense in real life than on the chip (because it's a bigger area).

Even better is to buy some heavy stock paper/cardboard and paint that--two coats. Then tape it up on the wall in different places with different light..

Primer recommendation
 

I like the stock paper idea. The room in question is really sunny, but it will also serve as the home theater at night, so I have all sorts of different light situations that might come up.

Thanks!

Shop tools.
 

Bosch or Milwaukee. I would buy PC air tools, but not electric. The Rockwell years killed them in terms of quality, and they haven't made it back yet.

(ETA - my fifteen-year-old Craftsman 8-1/4 circ saw gets lots of use, and just plain won't die. I weant a new, shiny one, but can't justify it as long as this thing just keeps going. I don't understand your Craftsman comment at all.)

Shop tools.
 

Back in my blue collar days, the Big Boss was an airborne vet. The man knew his power tools, and still had both of his thumbs. He said he was more afraid of our shop's Craftsman table saw than he was of the VC. Some part of me suspected this was hyperbole, but I've looked askance at them since. I'm happy to reconsider. Sadly, the nerds at Consumer Reports don't have much on power tools, so I'm a little helpless in this department and had to draw upon the announced prejudices of others --- his was the one I remembered because it was so colorful.

I vaguely remember another co-worker's preference for particular welding gear, but my home improvement needs have not required me to draw upon my 45 minutes of Welding 101. Yet.

Shop tools.
 

I keep on wanting to learn to weld, but I have grave fears that I'd burn down the house if I got anywhere near an acetyline torch.

Primer recommendation
 

We just put up a similar color in a room, and one piece of advice: if the color is even kind of dark, use a foam roller. I'm trying to remember the name of the kind we used, but it's the little white rollers at Home Depot.

For some reason, warm colors in even medium tones go on really, really patchy. Our yellow-orange took four coats (last one with the foam, which fixed all the splotches) to get passable, while the blue in a slightly darker tone in the next room took an easy two coats with a regular roller no problem.

Primer recommendation
 

Also, a color that looks great can change drastically when put next to your rug/tile floor/pergo.

We found that all of the colors we did looked slightly greener on the walls than we had expected due to the fact that our floor tiles are really really slightly peach.

BTW, we have a bedroom painted a mustardy color I love, called Amber Waves by Benjamin Moore.

Primer recommendation
 

Red is really really sucky at hiding. Something about red pigment. Match the nap of the roller to the smoothness of the wall. The smoother the wall, the shorter the nap. About 1/4" or 3/8" should do it for decently laid drywall. Dunno about foam, but I would assume you need a really smooth wall to use it.

Shop tools.
 

I have a TIG welder I can sell you. Got 220?

Primer recommendation
 

The book that I linked to earlier is cut up into three sections, so you can change the floor color, the wall color and the ceiling color to see how the room changes.

Eventaully the floor in the room I'm repainting will have to be refinished, but that's a project for a long time from now.

BTW, does anyone have any recommendations for what sort of person to hire to take off molding? I have a pocket door that's fallen off of its track, and investigation has determined that I'll need to remove the molding around the door in order to get the pocket door out. Fixing the pocket door doesn't look like it will be too much trouble, but getting it out and back on again is the stickling point. I'm guessing, though I haven't talked to him, that a painter is used to dealing with molding, but I may be way off base. Should I hunt down a carpenter, even though it's a fairly small job?

Primer recommendation
 

Really--you have to take it off? Usually pocket doors simply require a lift and unhook.

If it's half-decent molding, get a carpenter, because it will split and you'll need him to put it back together right. If it's nothing special, buy a prybar and do it yourself, and then put it back up and have the painter cover any scrapes/cracks.

Primer recommendation
 

Screw was stripped and half of it fell off of the railing all together. The other half is dangling, and I assume that screw will strip soon. I need to be able to get it off so I can screw the hooks back in. The molding is fairly decent, though it has latex dating back to 1929, so I imagine the structural integrity is pretty strong.

Primer recommendation
 

It probably only has latex dating back to sometime in the 70s, and lead back to 1929, so please do exercise some care. Or at least don't knaw on the scrap pieces.