The History of Thanksgiving

Below are a few links that we thought would be interesting to read and watch this Thanksgiving Day. We San Diegans have a lot to be thankful to God for this year! Enjoy this day, and we look forward to serving you after the holiday passes!

The First Thanksgiving 

The Pilgrim's first Thanksgiving was nothing compared to our feast today. You will be amazed at the little they had and still with grateful hearts!

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Video on the History of Thanksgiving 

Approximately 3-5 minute video from History.com

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George Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation

An excellent and short read during your Thanksgiving meal 

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Pilgrim's Echo

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Giving Thanks

This time of year is very special to many Americans, and we at Chism Brothers consider it one of our favorite holidays. Why? Because we have many reasons for giving thanks! As a Christian company, we give all of our praise and thanksgiving to our gracious God who has given us many undeserved blessings.

One of those blessings is our clients. We are thankful for your trust that we will serve you honestly and do the right thing. We are thankful that you all continue to give us the opportunity to paint your homes. 

We are also blessed by our employees. Looking back over the years, we have made a lot of changes for the good of our company. One of those changes has been purposeful and selective hiring of people of good character. Today, we are so proud of our team of professionals who faithfully serve our customers! Thank you for your hard and diligent work. Our type of painting involves a lot of challenging skills, and our people have worked hard to learn and develop the skills that help them serve you all better! So, thank you to all of the staff! We could not be where we are today without you.

We hope that you all will have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day this year. Our prayer is that you all will find many reasons to give thanks to the God above who blesses us above and beyond what we can ever imagine. Our very life is a gift from Him. Thank you all for your business, referrals, and compliments over the years! 

No Loud Music!

We wanted you to know that when you hire Chism Brothers Painting for your home project, you will not hear our painters playing loud music. It is common for unprofessional construction workers to do some of the following on most projects: swear, talk a lot, play loud music, take long breaks, leave a messy job site, and smoke! 

The things mentioned above will not happen with our staff. We hire people of good character and train them to be professional painters! To learn more how we strive to be professionals in our industry, visit our Services Page or Schedule an Estimate to experience the difference!

Our mission: to provide a one of a kind experience, simply by doing the right thing!

We Take Credit Cards

People often ask us, "Do you take credit cards?" The answer is quite simple: Absolutely!

It is just another way Chism Brothers Painting tries to service our clients needs! Currently, CBP accepts VISA, MasterCard & American Express.

We look forward to working with you! 

$26 Million Dollar Home For Sale

If you have a copy of the latest Dream Home San Diego magazine, the cover page features a home on La Jolla Shores that Chism Brothers painted when it was brand new for the original owner, Lee Clark. The home has been maintained by our company since the original owners sold the home to the current owners, who are currently selling the property for $25,950,00. It has one of the best views of the La Jolla beaches.

So if you are in the market for a home over $20 million, check out this breathtaking property! 

San Diego Better Homes and Gardens Article

Chism Brothers Painting was recently interviewed about a home we restored in Mission Hills. The article was published in the latest San Diego Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The Craftsman-style home belonged to the current president of the Mission Hills Heritage Foundation, Barry and Hilary Hager. We did a 2 month complete exterior restoration back in 2005.

To read the article on the whole process, please pick up a copy of the latest edition. Some of the photos can be found here:View Now

If you have not hired CBP before, please note that we do all sorts of home painting, wood finishing and complete restoration.  Whatever your home paint needs are, please call us.

Tips on Cleaning Your Cars After The Fires

The AAA Club recently published an article to offer a few tips for Southern Californians affected by the wildfires.

 Here is an article on Keeping your vehicles free of ash.  This is important because incorrectly washing your car could damage your paint-job!  Read the full article HERE

Unique Points of Difference

Potential clients often ask what makes us different when comparing estimates, because no two paint companies are identical. Here are four ways Chism Brothers is unique from the other San Diego Paint Companies:

1. We Are Residential Painting Specialist

We offer the right products, an experienced team of painting professionals and a solid reputation for our attention to detail in painting your home. We do not paint commercial buildings, which typically requires less attention to detail and painting experience.

2. We Offer Excellent Service, from Start to Finish.

We respond immediately to your needs and requests from the moment we offer you a painting quote. The Chism Family has been painting fine homes in San Diego for more than 60 year, and we have built our business by listening and responding to our clients with professionalism and integrity. 

3. We Offer Professional Color Consultation

Our professional color consultant will help you select just the right colors to complement your furnishings and create a beautiful overall color scheme for your home, inside and out.

4. You Can Hire A Chism Brothers Painter For a Day

It's a great way to try our services. Our Painter For a Day™ program includes a professional Chism Brothers Paint Technician with a fully equipped vehicle and 8 hours of quality painting craftsmanship, inside or out. You will be amazed how much our Painter For a Day can do for your home. No supervision is needed. Our staff gets right to work and gets the job done. 

Exterior Cleaning & Insurance

Almost every home in San Diego probably has a fine layer of ash due to the fires last week. We recommend that you look at cleaning your surfaces very soon so that the ash does not do further damage to your painted surfaces. However, before you clean your home, you may want to call your insurance company to see if they will pay to have your home cleaned! It is worth a try.

Our exterior cleaning starts at around $535 up to around $1,100 for a 3,500+sq. foot home. Keep that pricing handy when you talk to your insurance agent.

Fire Update Part 2

We are now beginning the fourth day of the fires in San Diego. The winds have died down and the fires are not as strong in certain areas, but the fight is not over. There is fear that the fire direction could change, so we are praying this will not happen. Over 500,000 have now been evacuated from their homes, which is more than during the Katrina disaster.

Driving to work this morning was unreal. San Diego traffic did not exist. I drove into our complex and it was pretty empty. Chism Brothers Painting is taking one final day off of work, because we have employees who live all over the county. It is hard for them to get down here. At least one of the homes we were working had to be evacuated. Most of the other work going on is in areas of La Jolla, which has been untouched. Assuming the fires have died down and all roads are reopened, CBP will be back to work on Thursday. 

Thank you to our out of town friends, fellow painters, and family, for all the emails and phone calls! 

Fire Update Part 1

Due to the fires around our city, we have sent all of our painters home for the day to be with their families. Our office is currently open, but we plan to close early today. If you have questions or comments, please email or post on our blog. We will keep our customers, community and our fellow network of paint contractors around the country updated as we find out more.

One of our foreman lives near one of the major fire locations (Escondido) and he evacuated his home early this morning. Our company vehicle was left at his home, but at least his family and pets are safe. His home is under a major threat, but we will not know the results until the smoke settles down. There is currently no containment. The difficult thing about this fire is that it is all over the place. No one really knows what is going on and where. 

More updates to follow... 

Should I Stucco or Paint?

People believe there are now three options for their stucco: Painting, Re-Stuccoing or applying the "Never Paint Your Home Again" product. I still suggest there are only two options: paint or re-stucco. The never paint your home product is a fad that will not last. The products will not last forever and will be replaced with another "amazing" product in 10 years.

My suggestion is if your stucco is not currently painted, you should consider getting it re-stuccoed or color coated. Color Coating is also known as "fogging." To "fog" a home, a contractor will repair the damaged strucco, and spray on a mix of color & water to recolor your existing stucco. If the stucco is in really bad shape, sometimes a plaster company may need to sandblast and fully re-stucco. This option is a little more pricy but will give you a new look. 

Of course, if everyone stuccoed their home and did not ever paint the stucco, my company would suffer a little. However, I like to offer the best solution for my clients. If longevity is your goal, stucco it. If you want the best look, want to change the color or want a more uniformed look with no water stains, painting looks best. One final positive side to painting is that it can help if you have a lot of existing hairline cracks or water intrusion. There are paint products designed for exterior waterproofing the home that really do work.

Whatever your needs are, please allow Chism Brothers to have the First & Last look. We'll give you an honest answer of what should be done on your home. We do it all the time and you will like our solutions! 

Update From Chicago

We just wrapped up our first day of our paint conference in Chicago with Nolan Consulting. This conference focuses on a number of different topics for professional painters: hiring the right staff, quality marketing efforts, managing the jobs, producing quality projects and customer service. The consulting firm, Nolan Consulting, was established to work specifically with paint contractors, which is very unique. It is business training for our own industry. Therefore, we learn from other painters about ways we can improve our current business systems. We are learning and being reminded in a lot of areas and look forward to when we can return to implement some changes.

Chicago is sure an amazing city. Mike Chism, James Becker and I (David Chism) are staying in the downtown area. It looks like it is 10x the size of our San Diego Downtown. We tried the Chicago Style Pizza last night, and got introduced to a new coffee shop that is breaking ground in America, "Lavaza Coffee." Lavaza has been around a long time selling the coffee product, but they are currently testing their cafe's in Chicago to see if they will expand. The weather is beautiful, but it still does NOT compare to San Diego. I can see why people who come to San Diego either stay put or figure a way to vacation here on a regular basis. Just wanted to write a little update! If anyone needs an estimate, go ahead and email or fill out the form! We are still responding to emails and phone calls in our absense. 

Quick Trip to Chicago

On Tuesday, October 9, three of our key managers & estimators will be headed to Chicago for two painting conferences. These conferences will help Chism Brothers Painting continue to provide the best possible services to you. Our office staff and production manager, Marty Sass, will be managing the day to day operations in our absense. Our estimator will have his email and cell phone if you have a question about an estimate or current project. 

We are looking forward to returning with more to offer our clients and you!

What Paint Products Do You Use?

One of the questions we hear frequently at Chism Brothers is, "What paint products do you like to use?" This is a great question. Our answer is different than most of our competitors.

Chism Brothers Painting is not married to one paint manufacture like some of our competition. In our type of business, we have to constantly stay apprised of the latest products on the market and what is best for our clients' beautiful homes. Just as Consumer Reports gives ratings on a number of different paint products in their publication and rates them based on various factors, we also have our own rating system for all the products available to us in San Diego. For example, if a client has a problem with mildew in their bathroom, we will recommend a nationwide product from Zinsser called, "Perma-White." This product is not ordinarily available in our town, so we have requested from Dunn-Edwards and Vista Paint to stock this product for us because it works. We also cater to our customer's health needs. If a client is allergic to certain types of paints, we will suggest a low VOC or environmentally-friendly paint. 

Because we are always on the lookout to find the best paint for your home, in some cases, we can even help you save money on the overall cost of the job without trimming paint quality. Benjamin Moore has created a new product called Aura, which is guaranteed to cover any paint color in two coats. The paint product is environmentally friendly and is a premium paint. We recently saved a client in Mission Hills the cost of a 3rd or 4th coat of paint when we painted several red accent walls using Auru. 

So, when you ask a paint contractor what brand of paint he uses, make sure his response is similiar to this, "We use the best paint products we can find for your home."