House update

Not a ton to report on the house painting front. It's about 80% done, and will likely get 100% done the weekend of September 7. But... between the afternoons being HOT (especially since our home faces west) and it getting darker a little earlier, it's just not happening.

And that's ok. It'll get there. And the neighbors understand. :)

The left to do list:

• Caulk and paint about a 5'x5' patch by the kitchen the blue/green/gray color. (about 1 hour)
• Spray paint the last shutter. (5 minutes)
• Hang 4 shutters (30 minutes)
• Paint the kitchen window trim (30 minutes)
• Spray paint (and regular paint for the unreachable areas) the gutter above the kitchen (30 minutes)
• Paint the trim under the gutter by the kitchen. (30 minutes)
• Paint the lower trim around dining room and living room. (10 minutes)
• Paint the small dining room window's trim. (30 minutes)
• Test the area above small dining room window, decide on color, and paint that 4'x4' area with someone holding the ladder (1 hour)
• Paint the backside of the last stairwell wall (after caulking the one trouble spot) (30 minutes)
• Paint blue/gray/green behind the downspout by the living room window (10 minutes)
• Spray paint the downspout by the kitchen window (5 minutes)
• Paint the ceiling on the front step landing (30 minutes)
• Paint the trim on the front step landing (20 minutes)
• Paint the surround on the garage. (10 minutes)
• Finish stripping the garage, sand, and stain (final house project this fall) (ugh)
• Paint the foundation cinderblocks. (2 hours)

See, all in all, not tooooo much left to do. 

Caulking

The importance of prep in this project is key. Specifically: caulking. All the cracks get sealed. Here's a series of photos to show it paying off:

Here's the house corner before caulking. Zoom in to check out all the cracks.




Same corner, but now with the cracks fixed-- only the first five feet or so length- wise and the first four singles high (that's what I can easily reach).



It lookalike I painted it, but it's just because the house was brushed and caulked. Crazy, right?

Here it is after paint:




Sure a far cry from the cracked yellow.

Paint Progress....

The painting is going well. I'm almost done with the front side by the dining room and living room windows, and the stairwell has coat 1 on as well. I'm going to go over everything again with a roller, but probably once the whole project has coat 1 on it. 

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This photo gives you a pretty good idea of the before and after. The yellow paint was done poorly. I think only one coat (or, at least it has worn like it was only one coat). The siding is cracked (which happens with cedar siding, but you have to fix it). The shutter is still on and is white. 

Compare that to the other side, which has been caulked, fixed, and painted. The shutter will be black. 

Oh, and imagine the house with these new lamps:

I reallllly want to buy them. They're not cheap (though they're still reasonably-priced). I might do it as a "hooray the house is done!" present. Much better than our current cheapo lamps, and much bigger!

Here's the street view of the front so far:

Yes, one of the windows in one of the dormers is out. That's a story for another post.

And so, here's what's left to do:

The good news is that we're halfway done. The bad news is that this side has a LOT of wear on it. Luckily, I have six tubes of caulk with my name on them. 

And, funny thing: When I was taking this photo this morning, I didn't realize something-- FRANKIE IS ON THE ROOF! I'll have to go home and make sure he was able to get back inside and isn't stuck on the roof roasting.

NEW DOOR!!!

TOTALLY not expecting to buy anything, I went with a coworker yesterday to the salvage/recycling place. She'd never been, so I gave her the tour (it's huge and a little overwhelming).

They normally have a LOT of doors, but many of them are old, broken, thickly painted, and not our style. I did buy our chicken coop door (actually, it was free) and our two french doors (one is hung on a closet door, the other is waiting) from Bring, but normally, it's a lot of hunting with no reward.

And I wasn't even looking for a door yesterday. I was just showing her around.

And then I saw it:

Huge, but gorgeous. Solid maple or solid really nice pine. 

I didn't know our door dimensions though, and since I'd have to cut it down a lot, I held off until I knew our door height and width. I found those out last night, as well as what the cost for new glass would be (about $14 a panel for tempered glass-- there are three panels). 

And this morning, I went back to measure. I take a little more off the top and bottom than I'd like, but I don't hit the glass or the paneling, so I'm ok with that. On the sides, I leave plenty of room. 

AND SO I BOUGHT IT. Cost? $150 (plus the approx $45 for glass).  Brand new, this baby would be $700-$800+. I'm pretty darn excited.

But, it's not going to be hung right away. First we have to finish painting the house, and then we can work on this baby.