Blue Never Felt So Good

Pardon my melodramatic writing for this one post.

We started painting this old house 24 months ago. It started during our kitchen remodel. Painting was something cheap that we did to keep us busy while we watched the contractors work inside. Since then, we've been chipping away at the project, side by side. Each side took about 3-6 months to complete. Winters and summers also slowed us down.

One added detail to the painting project - I also decided to refinish/replace each shingle before the paint. Anyone can paint a house, but most aren't willing to go to the trouble to scrape, refinish and caulk every nook and cranny.

This year we finished the south wall, and in a rush to finish the front of the house, I elected to hire a contractor to replace all the old shingles with new.

I would say this was the most difficult and physically demanding project we've taken on. I went through 4 orbital sanders, 14 boxes of shingles, 50 tubes of caulk, and thousands of sanding pads.

We're happy with the results, and more happy to say we're done! Enjoy.

The carpenters started on the left edge and worked to the right, bottom to top, sections at a time.

Carpenter's progress at end of day 2. We had to buy 11 boxes of shingles for the front.

Completed shingles before paint. I stripped the window trim and fascia boards after they left.

This type of project definitely requires a helper. The porch roof really helped them out with easy access.

Pregnant wife helping me out with painting. Worst husband or best wife ever? 

Painting done, with a lovely lady at the door.

Kinda looks like a ship at this angle.

A month before we bought the house.

4.5 years later.

Before/after.

Painting Progress: Three Sides Done

Look what we finished this weekend . . . .

Current painting status is three sides done, as well as the front porch - leaving just the front 2nd and 3rd stories to sand and paint. I'm starting to believe this project might actually end some day . . . .

Shingle Refurbish - South Wall (Side 3 of 4)

Before and after Mount Etna blue Duration Paint from Sherwin Williams.

The weather finally turned to spectacular this weekend. Our March and April were unusually rainy and cold, so we've held off on typical outdoor stuff.

I'm about 70% done with this project. The last 30% might be the most difficult, as my motivation seems to taper with house projects as they span in time. Thankfully, I've found a new source of motivation in a pregnant wife. I've got about 6 months to put this project in the books.

If you're keeping score, I started the south side last Fall. After this past weekend, I'm happy to say the bottom half of this side is done. I'd love to put up a new post in June with the entire South wall complete. Fingers crossed.

Looking up, you can see what work I have ahead of me.

We'd like to replace the middle window asap. You can see it's pretty beat up. The paint in this section of shingles were really blistered and came off swimmingly.

Some shingles just aren't worth the effort of stripping. The old paint is secure and smooth, so I've learned to embrace a little bit of irregularity. 

Happy Bench

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Chris and I were driving home and saw this sad little bench on the curb. Upon inspection we saw that, while the wood slats were beyond shot, the size and shape of it was very charming, and the wrought iron of the bench was very nice and in great shape. So we brought it home and planted it in the garden. 

The wood appeared to be maple, but someone had painted it dark red a while ago. The red paint was peeling and the wood was rotting. I liked the idea of painting it - our garden is surrounded by beautiful cedar and if this bench was going to live there, it needed some color to get the attention it deserved.   

The first step, though, was replacing the wood slats - all of the ones on the seat were rotting, and one of the pieces of the back as well. So CJ and I headed to Habitat ReStore - a materials source that has been very good to us - and we found a 1"x6"x16' piece of pine that would work great. It was a nice clean piece of wood - no knots - and would be just right. It was truly 16' long though so we borrow their saw and broke it down in the parking lot so it would make the drive home. 

Once we were home my handy hubby cut them down to size

and installed them.

I tested the new and improved bench out, and it was nice and sturdy. 

At this point it was getting pretty late in the day, and it just so happened to be an absolutely beautiful day, so we decided to quite our work for the day and put that old rotting wood to work. 

 

We didn't burn quite all the old lumber though. Wrigley claimed this slat for himself and insisted on fetching it as we relaxed by our fire. 

 

 

So this morning, here's what our little bench looked like:

I looked through our stores of exterior paint and found we had about 3/4 of a quart of Glitzy Gold left from painting the back grate of our house. This cheery yellow seemed just the right thing for our new seat. 

So we painted.

And a few short hours later this little bench looked like new. The yellow brings out the green in the metal, and shows brightly in front of the trellis and fence.

The last painter got red paint onto some of the hardware, and for now we're leaving it. It could be fun - an homage to its former life. Or if it bothers us I will drop some matte black paint into the recessed holes to fake the screws' original color. 

There are also a few spots where dabs of paint bled through tape onto the metal. I have a feeling it will flake off pretty quickly, but if it does not a little steel wool will correctly it quickly.

In all, I'm thrilled with the upgrade. We probably won't sit on this guy a ton - maybe occasionally here and there when we're enjoying the garden. But it will be the perfect inviting spot when we want to. The rest of the time it will likely be a set down place for garden tools and vegetables while I'm working.

At a total cost of $4.80 (for the pine from Habitat ReStore), I'd say this was a great upgrade.

Slowly but Surely

We're continuing with progress on the house exterior. Summer was unusually hot, so we took July off from sanding and painting.

With great repitition, the actual sanding has gotten easier. The end result is a smooth, fresh shingle. Painting is the easy part, and takes only a fraction of the time.

We're close to being completely finished with the North face of our house. Next step: South side this fall.

It's finished!

I'm happy to announce we're done with the back of the house. I'm working on an animated gif that will show the entire process, but until then, you can see the final results below. We rented an airless paint sprayer for the final coat, Expensive, but time saving.

Our turning walnut tree leaves inspired a final yellow coat on the attic vent window. Overall we're happy with the results, and even more happy to be done.

Paint Progress

Fall has been nearly picture perfect around KC. The cool dry season has proven perfect for house painting. With each week's passage, I find myself getting more and more nervous about getting everything done before the end of the "painting season."

Thankfully, today we were able to finish the 1st coat of paint on the entire back of the house. We even broke out some orange paint for the attic vent area, which was like a cherry on top of all the progress.

We used to live on a screet in KC affectionately called "Nutterville" by locals, in which every home was painted with a wild pallet of colors that you really don't see anywhere else in the city.

We jokingly called our orange vent an "ode" to our previous hood, and we like it - (hopefully the neighbors do too).

Our last step for the back of the house is to rent an airless sprayer and cover all the blue shingles again. We used rollers for the 1st coat, but there are too many valleys to fully cover with a roller. Anybody have some advice on how to pick out a good sprayer?

Climbing the Ladder

We're almost done sanding the huge back wall of shingles at our house. Once this wall is done, we're hoping the rest will feel a lot easier. Needless to say, this project was harder than we anticipated, but we think that the work will all be worth it in the end. Jay and Alex pitched yesterday to help us speed up progress. Results below.