painting part one.

It's funny. Funny how this all started one morning sitting on my porch in the sun oh how I could build new porch stair railings. Funny that I remember telling myself way back when of all the remodeling projects I planned for my house the one I would never ever (ever) do myself was to paint the exterior. So here I am. Two weeks into the prep work and the end is in sight. Well, the end of the prep/schlep work which just means the beginning ... of the painting. I have this picture posted up on my fridge for motivation. Well and now I have a deadline with some fine folks having offered to help with the painting this upcoming weekend so am under the gun to finish up all this stuff before Saturday.

But I was thinking this evening as I plodded around the house another time looking for any more holes that I might have missed on the previous half a dozen times around to fill with plastic wood that you know - this isn't any worse than any other remodeling ordeal. It's methodical - started pressure-washing the house, then scraping. Then more scraping. And more scraping. Thankfully the house wasn't in bad shape and only (duh) the sides that got the most sun were the worst but not even all that bad -

Let's see ... I've been up and down a ladder a bunch -

Got to wear a climbing harness with sanders (yes, multiple sanders) hanging off the gear loops. Oh and use a pulley (that I carry on glacier climbs) anchored to the roof to raise and lower my shop vac up there so I could suck up all the paint chips I scraped off the trim. Good times.

Then sanding where I scraped. And scraping some more. Did I mention the best $7.99 I spent was at Rockler a few weeks ago on a carbide paint scraper? Well it was. I have gotten my money's worth on that tool. And I am almost finished scraping and sanding and filling and caulking. So I tested some priming -

And I must say it really has not been all that bad. I have to admit money talks and the difference between paying someone at least several thousand dollars (one estimate I got was five Gs) vs. plunking down maybe $500 to do it myself is a strong case for going it on my own. But I do that best anyways.

I painted a little square back by my bedroom window (I'm replacing that crap window BTW when I get back to finishing my bedroom) and it made me quite excited -

Oh, and I also have to replace all the gutters (yea) cos I want white ones - no more brown. I priced all the pieces this weekend and now need to figure out what I all need and (ugh) how much that will cost. But my house will look so completely different one week from now me typing this lying on my living room floor window open it cooling off music on quietly. I like Sunday evenings. Spent probably close to sixteen hours this weekend working. Phwew. Nothing like a productive weekend. And I'll be back at it tomorrow evening after work.

I really am excited to start putting on some paint.

Oh, and scrap that bit about buying all new gutters. I'll just replace the ones on the back addition of the house which are vinyl and don't match the other aluminum ones. But the aluminum ones seem to be in perfectly fine shape and it appears that with a little bit of work they can easily be painted. So I'll be doing that instead. Ah yes, good times.