Luxbrush Painting Co. Inc. held their third annual summer outing on Saturday, July 28, 2007 at The Great Escape and Splashwater Kingdom in Queensbury, NY.

Employees and their families enjoyed a fun-filled day at the park and a lunchtime barbecue with all the trimmings.  "It was a nice change from the frenetic summer pace our painters have been maintaining," Holly Armstrong, Administrative Assistant, noted.  "The day gave everyone the opportunity to spend time with their familes and each other without thinking about deadlines."

During the barbecue portion of the day, President Harry Lux III presented awards to employees of note.  Robert Woods of Shaftsbury received a plaque commemorating his five years of service.  Lacy Bailey, of Bennington, was voted by his peers as Company Clown, Justin Decker was elected as Most Improved Employee, and taking top honors - Luxbrush Crew of the Year for 2007 - was the team led by Travis Senecal of Eagle Bridge, NY.  The five-person crew, consisting of Senecal, Woods, Cindy Shortt of Hoosick Falls, Amanda Brillon of Bennington, and Chelsea Nye of Manchester, was rewarded for exemplifying the characteristics of teamwork, craftsmanship and productivity for which Luxbrush Painting is known.

"The Crew of the Year contest was a close one," said Lux.  "It just goes to show the type of top-notch people we have on our staff.  In my eyes, they're all winners."

With daylight hours gradually decreasing, and the balmy weather slowly fading, we find ourselves spending more and more of our time indoors.  Indeed, for people in many parts of the country, the cold weather season lasts from November through April - meaning that for half of the year, we spend much of our time indoors.

With this is in mind, doesn't it make sense to invest in making your home's interior as comfortable as possible?  You're willing to pay for that exterior paint job, but what about your home's interior?  Don't settle for another ho-hum room.  Design an interior landscape.  Build a welcoming environment.  Create atmosphere.   And what better way to set the mood of your home than with color?

Here's a list of the emotional associations humans have with particular colors:

BLUE: Peace, tranquility, serenity, calm, and coolness.  Scientific studies have proven that certain shades of blue can actually lower pulse rates and body temperatures.

BLACK: Technically the absence of color, black denotes power, sophistication, elegance, mystery and solidity.  Western culture tends to think of black as a color of sadness or forboding, but in other parts of the world, black is viewed as a color of good fortune and strength.

GREEN: Nature, renewal, fertility, youth,, vigor and growth.  The soothing coolness of green is often used in hospital waiting areas and operating rooms and is the most common color worn by surgeons.

ORANGE: Warmth, energy, enthusiasm, and vibrancy.  The combination of red and yellow, the color orange shares the characteristics of each of its parent colors, but with a higher level of luminosity which makes it perfect for road hazard signs.

PURPLE: Royalty, nobility, luxury, spirituality and wisdom.  The first purple dyes were derived from a rare snail making any textiles tinted with the precious substance extremely expensive and, therefore, only affordable to a select few.

RED: Danger, anger, heat, energy, intensity, and passion.  Red commands attention and has been proven to activate man's fight-or-flight response and raise blood pressure.

WHITE: The convergence of all colors in perfect balance, white is the color of peace, tranquility, purity, innocence and cleanliness.  Whereas Western culture often uses white to symbolize good, many Eastern cultures view white as a symbol of austerity and coldness.

YELLOW: Sunshine, warmth, brightness, joy, happiness, optimism and hope.  The yellow rose is a symbol of friendship - less passionate or threatening than its red counterpart.  However a yellow daisy is the sign of an unfaithful lover.

After months (or even years) of putting it off, you finally hired a painting contractor to paint the exterior of your home.  Despite your initial reluctance, the experience was trouble-free and your house is now the envy of all your neighbors.

Congratulations!  But don't think your work is entirely over.  Now it's time to protect your investment by doing whatever you can to prolong the life of that paint job.  How, you may ask?  By reducing moisture.

Moisture is the number one enemy of paint, and although you cannot control the weather, there are very simple ways to reduce moisture from other sources:

1.  Many times, water vapor seeps from a home's interior, through walls and into exterior clapboards.  To minimize water vapor, install exhaust fans in your kitchen, bathrooms and laundry rooms.  Always vent to the outside and NOT an attic or crawlspace.

2.  Examine crawlspaces and attics in order to bring them up to the ventilation specifications for new construction.

3.  Prime all interior sides of all exterior walls with an oil or ECO Primer.  These products reduce the amount oater vapor passing from your home and into the walls. And don't forget the basement - a prime battlefield in the war against moisture.

4.  Install a dehumidifier or air conditioner in your living area to reduce mosture from the air.

5.  Do NOT bring green firewood into the house to 'cure.'  One cord of green wood can realease as much as 200 gallons of water during the drying process.

6.  Do not allow snow or ice remain in contact with siding or decks for extended periods of time.

7. Ensure that roof gutters and eavestroughs are free of leaves and other debris which can cause rain and melting snow to accumulate and flow onto siding and decks.

8. Good painting contractors often offer a special rate for yearly maintenance - especially for past customers.  the maintenance includes pressurewashing, inspecting for potential problem areas and performing minor touchups.  You may not want to drop more money into that paint job, but just as your car requires regular maintenance to perform optimally, that new paint job will last longer with a bit of preventive (and inexpensive!) medicine.

The cooler weather means Back to School, but it also brings the dilemma of what to do with the kids on cold, rainy weekends.  Here's a fingerpaint recipe that's easy and cheap to make and is non-toxic even for the smallest of kids.

Original Fingerpaint

1/2 cup cornstarch
3 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups cold water
food coloring

Directions

In a medium pan, mix all the ingredients together to make the finger paint. Cook over low heat 10 to 15 minutes. Keep stirring the finger paint mixture until it is smooth and thick. After the finger paint has thickened take the pan off the stove and let the mixture cool.

After cooling, divide the finger paint into storage containers depending on how many colors you would like. Add a few drops of food coloring to each container. Stir the coloring in to the paint to determine the shade of color. You're ready to finger paint! Cover tightly when storing.