Wait. There's More Prep Work...

Once you've throughly washed your home and replaced or repaired all rotten or damaged wood, it's time for the next phase.  Sanding and prepping require, in my experience, the most amount of time and labor when painting a house.  You can buy the finest acrylic latex or oils on the market, and neither will last anytime if you don't spend the time to prep properly.  It's essential!

I use a variety of metal scrapers.  Some painters tend to use a really sharp scraping tool, but it tends to gouge the wood if you are not really careful.  I always use a blade with a rounded or thin squared edge.  They do the job and without gouging the wood.  While I'm thinking about scrapers please don't use them to scrape paint from windows.  You can crack a window quickly because too much pressure is required to clean off the paint.  Razors only please...

I highly recommend that you "feather" or sand the spot(s) where you have scraped.  This will not only create a smoother, and hence less noticable, transition from old paint to bare wood, but it will further remove paint around the scraped area so that the new paint cannot get under the edges and curl once dry.  Some folks use a sanding sponge.  Wet or dry is fine.  Personally, I always ripped off a piece of #80 and #120 paper to use.  If you have scraped throughly then the #120 grit paper will probably be all you need to feather it out.

Take your time and prep it correctly.  That is the main secret to a paint job that will bond well and adhere for several years.  Once that stage is complete then it's time to move on to another prepping stage.  Don't worry we will get to the painting soon.  These stages really need to be followed even though you may be getting tired or bored or both.  So get with it, and I will see you back in a couple of days.