painting

Another moderate weekend of work, but the end is definitely close enough to taste now!  The biggest indicator of progress is that the scaffold has been broken down and won’t be set up again for this project.  The only things left on the punch list are:

• strip and re-finish front door
• finish sidelights and trim around front door
• touch up the trim around 6 windows with bronze paint
• paint and install 2 more storm windows
• paint exposed trim on back dormer
• add trim around back dormer windows
• rebuild rotted posts and railings in front of porch

Considering where we started, that is a teeny little list.  It may or may not all get done this fall, but we are at least weather-tight and ready for the rain now.

Sidelights look much more distinguised with their new bronze paint

Bronze-painted storm windows re-installed

All rafters painted!

The lazy (but fast) way out of the mess of a back dormer...covering it with metal!

Looks done from this angle (except for the plywood, of course)

Considering it was a weekend of mediocre productivity (my helper couldn’t make it on Saturday, and I only worked two shorter days), we still accomplished quite a bit.  The key is that we have so many different little projects and areas going at once that it feels like we’re constantly knocking things out. Here is a shot of the side yard, with the scaffolding now in it’s 8th position.  If I were starting all over, I think I would have dumped another $60 into the thing and extended it enough to cover a full side of the house.  I’m always having to manage around the scaffold’s position, so at times it can get inefficient.  Such as when it has to get left in place while we’re waiting for paint to dry for touch-ups.  But regardless, we’re actually done now with all the walls (yes!), so it’s only purpose in life is to serve as a platform for the straggler rafter tails and accompanying gutter.

And what do you do when a windowsill is too messed up to save?  Well, if it’s on a dormer that’s tucked way up in the back of your house where no one can see it, you just cover it with sheet metal!  I couldn’t figure out any way to salvage the chewed up thing, so I found flashing in the perfect size and just encased it.  I will paint it to match the rest of the trim, just in case anyone goes to the back corner of the yard and looks up, but I can pretty much guarantee that nobody will see my “cheat.”  This worked so well that I am also going to cover the gable ends with metal.  These areas just aren’t worth spending the hours and hours they’d require to do it right, and I’m in a rush to at least get this area good enough to make it through winter intact.

Galvanized sill

I took yesterday off, so that I could be home to work with my helper.  He was able to put in a rare full weekday day, and I wanted to stay enough ahead of him to keep him busy.  Although the picture doesn’t look that much different than the last shot of this side, we got a ton done yesterday.  All the areas have been prepped, and much of it has been painted.  After we work again on Saturday, we will be able to move the scaffolding into its next-to-last position!

Subtly better

Things are really feeling good.  Three of the dormers are done, sans touch-ups, and we have moved the scaffold over to the other side of the house.  The end is clearly in sight now!

Dormer #3...check.

Cheap labor

Primed jambs and sidelights

Completed west side

The tallest platform shoes ever

One of the lingering prep issues with the exterior was the drip cap on the dining room bay.  It was suffering from the double injustice of being the most exposed on the ground floor (because of the bay) and having been installed improperly.  In several areas of the house, the drip cap was horizontal instead of sloped.  With our big eaves it’s not usually an issue, but the dining room catches more rain than any other area.  And if there’s no slope for the water that builds up, what’s going to happen?

Unfortunately, I was unable to find any moldings that matched the profile of our drip cap.  McCoy had one that looked right, but it was 1/2″ narrower than ourso match our house’s (F890 on pg 27 of their molding catalog.)  So, I ended up buying a Cedar 4×4 and table-sawing my way to new drip caps.  I can’t remember which took longer, making them or installing them, but they came out great.  Sadly, my “brilliant” idea of adding  a drip groove feature to the caps was one of short-lived glory.  Once I installed the molding below, I realized that my groove was going to be covered by caulk

Horizontal cap + rain = not so good

Old v. new

8° of freedom

Not yet rotten!

My helper and I put in a combined 20 hours yesterday, and I finished the body color on two of the dormers. He primarily focused on the rafters and ceiling on the right side of the porch, as well as the foyer window. We got just enough done that we were able to move the scaffold to the next section of the house! He is going to show up a few morning this week to paint the next set of windows, as well as finish up the eaves and rafter tails above.

Just a few accents, touch-ups and a stained door away from being done in front

Location #5 for the scaffolding

No more blue visible from the front!

After another full week, things are looking much, much better.  The front is almost completely done, as is the west side.  We finally picked the accent color, and the front dormer is the first area to have all the colors together in one place.  I stripped down the peeling paint around the front door and even started the door itself.  Ultimately, we plan on staining the door and sidelights.

Porch ceiling, with only a few touch-ups left

Front window trim painted

Remember how the front windows used to look? Not to mention Chloe...

A full-day project! (trim not painted here yet, but note the accent color above)

The old purple door

A complete paint job! (at least what you can see...)

And the scaffolding has been moved around the corner for more rafter tails

Now it's hard to believe we lived with this color for so long...

This is getting ridiculous.  The scaffolding moved over to the edge of the garage, straddled the stairs, grew one leg to reach a lower stair, angle-braced itself against a concrete wall and extended itself by 8 feet…all to reach the front of the porch gable.  Given that the bottom of the scaffold is a good 7′ above sidewalk level, it made much more sense than trying to do this with a ladder.  Not good for those afraid of heights!  (the careful observer will notice that I also ripped out one of the rotten posts to make way for the structure.)

Crazy, growing scaffolding

All of the trim paint on the dormers is done, with the exception of one more coat for the west dormer.   With the fading of summer, I’ve started focusing on the areas that will be the most exposed to rain.  The fourth dormer, in the back of the house, is likely going to get neglected for one more year.  It’s not visible from anywhere, so it’s easy to defer.  Too easy.

We hired a young kid to help out with the painting, and it has really made things go so much faster.  I can now work on prepping areas and then have him follow-up with the painting.  He’s cheap, so even with his help, we are going to be coming out at only a fraction of what it would have cost to have someone else paint our house.

West-facing dormer, ready for primer

East-facing dormer, with finished trim...imagine how fun it is to get in there for the 4 sets of rafter tails on each side

Trim done on top, body done below

I put in 5 or 6 hours today, and I was able to do the eaves in the front left corner, as well as add a second coat to part of the porch ceiling and around the front door.  It’s weird…this paint looks so good after a single coat that in some areas I’m forcing myself to do a 2nd just out of some outdating painting principles that have been embedded into my brain for my entire life.  I mean, seriously, if you’re not getting up on a ladder to scrutinize it, you would never guess that that was only one coat.

And this picture also shows the rafter tail ends that we are going to have to lop off.  These are the only two remaining on the house, so we are reluctantly going to make them match the rest of the tails.  The ends are rotten anyway, so there’s not much of a choice.

End of the tails