Project Paint (and don't die while doing so)

The current project (and sorry for the lack of posting) is painting the house. It's a HUGE project, to say the least. There are parts of the house that are 20' up in the air... and those dormer windows are on a pretty steep slope. All this is why I'm dubbing project: "Project Paint (and don't die while doing so)"...

The reason why we're painting: The house desperately needs it. The previous painters did a cruddy job. There was no caulking of cracks and no sanding (or very little if there was any). So, as I told Bob: "we either paint at least the front of the house this year or have to replace some siding by next year."

So the house front is getting painted.

The good news is that only the front NEEDS to get done this year (you can't see any of the other sides from the street), and it's the side that most desperately needs it. It faces west and bears the full brunt of any weather and wind and pelting summer sun.

We're going with a fade-resistant and UV-proof paint. NOT CHEAP, but I'm hand-painting which saves a LOT of paint. It has to get hand-painted.... there's too much fixing that has to get done  and too many nooks and crannies.

But it's a lot like that book "Give a Mouse a Cookie".... what was just painting became painting and caulking, and then that had trim work, new planter boxes, new lights, some siding repair, some step repair, etc etc.... Very dangerous to have the project take on a life of its own and grow grow grow.

I'm trying not to get overwhelmed.

But, for now, here are some photo updates.

You can see the number of cracks and caulk work needed. We'll be replacing that dinky house light too (hopefully)... It's bad, folks, bad.

And the after. A blueish/grayish/greenish color. MUCH BETTER. A black (I think that's what the color will be) shutter will also eventually get hung (yes, another thing to do-- spray the shutters....).

Oh our poor railings/stair sub walls. What a MESS they are. Bumpy with too many sloppy layers of paint on them and bruises from abuse. Trim is missing in three areas, so we're going to tear it all trim out and replace (joy of joys).

Here is a railing sub-section after significant sanding, patching, and sanding. We'll need to repeat this about 5 more times and then add a thick layer of gloss.

But, it's slowly morphing into something that looks FAR more elegant and upscale. It's amazing at how BAD it was before... .we never really noticed, until we started looking a lot closer.