painting day three.

Well, day three of using a brush. Week three of the project as a whole. Another kick ass day. I opened my blinds at 10 and Dana was parked in my driveway. Hurried and made some coffee in a mug and got to work. I put her to work painting the secondary trim colour (sandy hook green) under the rafter tails and got to work caulking and spackling the last bit of the porch that Trevor had so spectacularly primed the day before. We won't mention the part about me leaving her stranded on the roof (hey I will never quite understand why a climber is so petrified of a ladder even though she tried explaining it to me and it sort of made sense but still) for a while yelling to me from the back of the house but I couldn't hear though the neighbors were probably getting a kick out of her situation. Her cries for help must have been drowned out by the chick a block away screaming bloody 'CAR WASH!' the entire flippin' morning. But then my trusty iPod radio put the kibosh on that crap. And I rescued Dana from the roof. Eventually. Then we started painting the front of the house.

Trevor showed up around 1ish I think it was. No worries. After a few minutes of trying to pick up where Dana had left off he confessed he was better at putting paint on large blank sections of wood rather than more detailed work. So he and Dana switched places so he was rolling and I was brushing behind him. And after a few minutes he promptly fired me and said he could do it on his own. Or he politely suggested that I follow a bit behind doing touch-up cutting in around all the trim. Ha no worries I enjoy the detailed painting and he rocked it on the north and west sides of the house.

After a few hours as the evening went on his zest tapered off and he fessed up he wanted to, you know, spend some time with his family this weekend. That guy was incredible. With a wave of my hand I dismissed him to his side of the fence and picked up where he left off. Dana had finished the trim she was working on under the porch and wandered back to help me do the last bit of the back of the house.

I finished with a headlamp maybe ten minutes after it had gotten too dark to see. Not bad. Not bad at all. Another awesome day with a ton of progress thanks all to a couple of awesome friends.

cheers

Pulling off the fabulous lamp that will find it's way (BS description and all) onto Ebay. It's totally original afterall. And fell from the ceiling to the porch floor (uhh, oops) and didn't shatter. They certainly do not make ugly lamps like they did back in the 20s. And that copy is totally going in the ad BTW.

My trusty and most awesome paint bucket.

A shot before taking Dana's opinion and cutting up all along the side face of the trim with the house paint rather than leaving it white like this. I was going for the relief of the trim from the siding but with it cut in like she thought would look better it was a cleaner line. She was right. Sigh.

A fine mess of empty paint cans. And flowers.

Painting underneath the porch. My porch is going to rock when this is all finished. I am even getting a porch swing as I have previously mentioned in an earlier post or two.

And sometime in the afternoon before I had cut in along all the trim on the front of the house.

Getting there. Just detail and trim work left. Albeit a lot of that but I enjoy that stuff. Painting really is quite relaxing - music on and just get into a groove. Good times. There are a couple of cedar shakes above the porch cos I was testing the espresso oil stain I bought. And the lattice still needs to be painted of course. Oh, and yeah I should probably actually build the stairs I have in pieces in the garage. I cannot believe it is almost September.

Where did the summer go .... ?

another fine day to paint.

Uhh, I should not stay up until 2am the night before I am supposed to be out painting my house by 9am. I think I woke up at about 8:55 and five minutes later Matthew knocked on my front door (props to him for getting onto the front porch sans any stairs). Uhh ... good morning Matthew! He had gotten coffee for himself at Meg's. Then Trevor came by with coffee in hand. Damn them! I needed to make some - did and got rolling soon thereafter.

It was cloudy to begin - even thinking it might rain even though the forecast was supposed to be sunny (to Matthew's credit he said it wouldn't rain but I reminded him he also sports his glacier glasses during cloudy climbs in anticipation of the sun coming out). But we grabbed ladders, paint trays, buckets, rollers, brushes. These guys are both contractors. Well, Matthew is. But they both built their own houses from the foundation up. They rule. And we rocked it. I worked on finishing up the priming I underestimated the day before while they got to work painting underneath the rafters on every side of the house.

Around one o'clock or so I made a run to Don's Drive-In to grab some lunch for all of us. Then Dana showed up and I put her to work priming the trim board that ran underneath all the rafter tails all around the house while us dudes all sat on the porch eating lunch and watching her work (she had lunch before she came up). We were wondering what anyone passing by might have thought. Dana joked she should start crying to increase the dramatic effect.

Then the sun came out.

And after three weeks of me prepping scraping sanding scraping sanding filling caulking scraping sanding we started putting on some f'ing colour. It started out rough trying it with just a brush and on the crap siding some lame moron put on instead of even trying (come on I figure at least try) to match the original beautiful fir siding. Like it was going on pretty thin. At which point the sprayer debate arose with Dana and Trevor siding with having me cave and going out to rent one while Matthew and I arguing it would be too much hassle and likely - in the hands of someone who has never used one (umm, that would be me) - cause a lot of overspray on all of the trim that the two of them spent the morning painting.

In the end the homeowner rules. I guess. That and we switched gears to try loading a roller with paint and using that to apply it. Then I would follow with a brush to get the nice effect of the brush strokes on the siding and to even it out. And it worked quite nicely and looks like it'll go on in one coat. I will have to come back and cut in around all the trim but that's OK. And so rolling with that plan we started to make some progress and in maybe 3 hours or a little less had the longest side of the house complete and were starting to wrap around to the front of the house when the pizza kid arrived.

"Whoa, it looks nice. You doing this as a job or does one of you own it?"

"Uhh, yeah I own it and thanks. But to be fair it looked pretty crappy before so any change is a step in the right direction."

Then I tipped him and sent him on his way and for the first time in a long time I retired from painting before the point of having to switch on a headlamp to keep working. Meaning it was still light, but we washed up and headed over to Trevor's to have some pizza.

So some pics then of what happens all in a day's worth of working on one's home with a few fabulous friends ...

Trevor being his awesome self and priming the entire flippin' porch railings and details.

Umm, this was totally staged and quite the moment. Good times.

She's got the rolling part under control.





Damn you Dana. That's what I get for leaving my camera on the grass.



And what we all accomplished in a day (well from two sides anyway) -



Friends are the best thing ever. Cheers to you guys and thank you much for all your help ...

historic colour schemes.

So totally random every now and then I check comments to my comments on Flickr. And I noticed today that this photo of Daily Bungalow's came up with a new comment. It's a colour scheme from a 1916 Arts & Crafts kit catalog (yes, the whole idea of Arts & Crafts houses is that you would buy the kit and, well, build the house yourself).

And from that photo she's put up links to photos of houses gathered together in varying exterior color schemes. And mentions that you should have at least three colors for your palette. Check. And it turns out the green I randomly chose (albeit from the Benjamin Moore Historic Collection palette as I've mentioned in the past) is pretty close to the color at the bottom of the second (from left) column.

Hmm. Well, just saying. Seems I've chosen ... wisely.

a fine day to start painting.

Yes, a fine day indeed.

It was supposed to be mostly cloudy today but I will take a little sun. Maybe seventy out or so. Perfection. And so time to grab a roller and get to work (wearing what used to be my favourite pair of jeans that are now probably too tore up to even really wear outside but oh well) -

Today was not going to be exciting. Still prepping but at least using a roller and a paintbrush instead of a carbide scraper and orbital sander. Still I missed some spots I discovered as I put on the primer so I kept the sander handy and a brush and rag to clear off the dust -

After going all around doing all the ground level stuff it was time to pull out the extension ladder and get to priming the trim along the roofline. Good times. I will miss climbing up an extension ladder.

And it seems that it's next to impossible to find a contraption that holds a roller pan horizontally level so I dug into my climbing bin and pulled out a nylon runner that I used to loop through a pail hangar and tied to the tray. Wallah - roller tray holder twenty feet off the ground. I must say climbing stuff has come in handy with this ladder business.

After wrapping up with that it was time to have some lunch. And I'm just going to throw in here that by chance I found the perfect bread for grilled cheese sandwiches the other week at Fred Meyer. As in I have been on a quest to find this mystical white bread for at least ten years and I took a chance on a loaf and kazam! Perfect grilled cheese -

This is quite important (and the moral is sometimes take a chance on something).

So anyways back to work the rest of the afternoon and into the evening until I ran out of primer and had to make a mad dash to McLendons before they closed and the light died (it starts getting dark around 8 now and is more or less totally dark by 8:30 which is completely crazy).

Got back, took this photo then finished priming the south side of the house (thankfully the longest side and in the worst shape by far cos I was starting to feel the burn after nine hours of priming).

A long day but lots more progress ...

I am now on my couch listening to Lisa Gerrard on repeat psyched about getting up early tomorrow for another incredibly long day. But (and this is key) it will involve actual color.

Oh, and a little side project I had going today as well -

Testing spray painting a gutter. It looks like, well, a brand new white gutter (yes, this was one of the brown gutters I tore off my house). But I'll let it dry a full 24 hours before taking a hose to it and trying to scratch it to see how tough the applied primer and one topcoat are. I had a dude out this morning and the quote for 150' of gutters was about $650. My estimate for buying all new gutters and replacing them myself was somewhere around $450 so his estimate wasn't terrible. But if painting works that of course will be the cheapest route by far but will involve a bit of work that I will have to tackle pretty quick cos I'll, well, need gutters.

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And a little post script ... after giving into the night and lack of light and finishing everything up for the day I headed out quick to Fred Meyer. Was standing in the checkout line and this girl who was probably Julian's age came up behind me with her dad and put the little divider thing on the belt behind my stuff and then set this little stuffed horse she was apparently buying on and then another divider behind it. When she finished with that she folded her hands and set them next to the belt all proper like. It was about the cutest thing I have seen in a long time and quite made my day. Kids are awesome.

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.

electrical woes.

This was Electrical Mystery #2. Electrical Mystery #1 was the one in the kitchen when I was rewiring that circuit (and the result is here). But for this one, I sort of hate to think how long it has been since I have been stepping on and tripping over extension cords leading from the living room to my bedroom cos one day the bedroom circuit just decided to freak out. It was a Saturday morning and Julian came to me and asked why the fridge wasn't working (the fridge happens to be on an outlet on the other side of my bedroom so it is on the same circuit - hey, I didn't design the circuit OK). I said of course it was working I had just got something out of it. Turns out, uhh, he was right. It wasn't. And neither was anything on that circuit. Why I don't know. So I of course went downstairs to the breaker panel and checked if the fuse was tripped. Nope. Hmm, time to dig deeper so I grabbed a voltmeter and checked the panel. Hmmmmmmm, power leaving the panel on that circuit. So why were none of the outlets or fixtures working?

I tested continuity for the rest of the afternoon that day and was officially stumped. What I could determine was the first outlet on the circuit was out but there was f'in power leaving the breaker! What the heck!? So I let it sit.

Until today.

I had had enough so I crawled up to the attic to inspect a box I had pulled power into from an outlet below and wired a few splices into for my closet light, the ceiling fan and the wall sconces. There was no power going into or out of that junction box. But hmm, what was that ... ? A cable coming up from my bedroom. I tested it and it had power! What the heck ... so I checked and much to my delight it was on the bedroom circuit. So now I had one wire with power on that circuit. That one wire had to lead to the answer

So I followed it down. This meant taking down the drywall I had hung above my bed to see where it came from and where it went. I tested it -

Yep, power. After doing that I could see it - and my answer! It led to an outlet box below in the kitchen that I had actually sealed off with drywall when I hung sheetrock in the kitchen cos there was an outlet two feet directly below it so why have two outlets right there? Again, I did not design this circuit - let me just say that again.

But that had to be it. So I went into the kitchen with a drywall knife and cut out a square where that outlet box was and sure enough - there was power going into that box from that one cable but not leaving it -

I have no idea why. I still have no idea why. But I pulled off the wire caps on the neutral and hot splices and boom! The circuit lit up!

So I finished up with the electrical in my bedroom installing the sconces and testing and it all works.

What is weird is if I put the wire cap on the hot splice the circuit dies. If I take it off - it's fine. I still have to solve that mystery but no worries - I once again have power and it is sweet. I pulled the extension cords and tucked them back away in a drawer. And the sconces look pretty nice (I wasn't sure how'd they look - it was sort of a gamble for bedroom lighting).