Learning to Paint with the Graco Magnum X7 Airless Sprayer

I'm in the middle of doing a renovation on a house to sell. The house needs paint in just about every room, and I originally thought I would just hire someone to do it. As I thought more about it, I got the bright idea that I would buy a paint sprayer, do the job myself and $ave Money. 

My biggest lesson in this scenario, is that painting with a sprayer is the easy part. The hardest part is placing tape, plastic, and drop cloths everywhere you don't want the paint to go. Did I say everywhere? I mean EVERYWHERE.

I purchased the Graco Magnum X7 on Amazon, which works great. I was able to get his for about $50 less than what it costs locally at the big box stores.

I also got a couple of add-ons, which included an extra tip, an extension bar, and a 50' extension hose. So far, I haven't used the bar, but the extra hose was well worth it. That way I was able to leave the sprayer and paint bucket out in the garage, as I painted on the other end of the house. 

Painting this room and the hallway went very fast. I probably had this large bedroom painted within about 15 minutes. The coverage was good. Now, having said that, still have another hall, living room and kitchen to paint.

Although the sprayer itself is easy to work, I'm not sure I would go this route if I had it to do over again. When you consider all the preparations that have to be made with taping everything off and covering everything up, it's very time consuming in that respect. There's no doubt that I could probably paint the house at least as quickly with traditional methods(such as with a roller and brush), because nowhere near the amount of prep has to be done. 

I may be saving some money, but I'm spending a lot of time. Once you finish with the sprayer, there's a cleaning and storing process that has to take place. I've only done this process once so far, and it took me around 30 minutes. It may go a little faster next time, since I'll be more experienced.