We first got started headed into winter with a blizzard of bizarre events & a broken wrist!

Sir Paints A Lot was originally founded in Billings, Montana in October of 2013. We were excited to be expecting our first child in February, but just before Halloween we found out that rather than dipping our toes in the business we were going to be diving in head first.

So we did what we thought was best and bought as many of the necessary tools we could afford and handed out our business cards to everyone who would take them. It wasn’t the smoothest start, but imperfect action beats doing nothing.

Of course, had I known what was coming I might have waited…

My wife Cait was blessed with a wonderful girls trip to a faraway land. Her timing couldn’t have been more perfect: she missed the cold start to a long winter. It was the coldest winter Montana had experienced in decades.

The first few weeks of December were brutal with temperatures averaging -30 with windchill up to -70! The transmissions in most cars were frozen solid. Snow melting off roofs was running down and freezing doors shut. Windows were clad in ice inside and out. Even the home insulation wasn’t enough! In many cases ice would build on the west walls exposed to the arctic blasts.

That was a pretty hard time. As you can imagine, painters weren’t in particularly high demand.

Four days into a new year we were so excited to be setting new goals. We were just happy we had made it 3 months into our new venture and were eagerly waiting for our first son. We didn’t see the next setback coming…

We headed into town to have a dinner date and pick up some paint supplies. On our way into town on icy roads with billowing snow, we found ourselves in a situation that left us in a ditch. The work truck was totaled. I broken my wrist, and my wife Cait was 8 months pregnant!

Fortunately, Solomon was unharmed. He’s still the biggest of our 3 littles.