I have been a little scarce, due to the gigantic task of painting our house. Here’s the report from painting day a couple weeks ago. Work is continuing on the trim, the back porch, and various outdoor furniture, as well as getting all the yard components back in place.
I have to confess that I grossly underestimated how much work was involved in painting one little house, and one simple shop building. But to give you an idea, here's a series of photos of the front of the house.
We aren't done. There is still plastic over all the windows and doors (except the back door-we took the plastic off so we could access the bathroom). We need to pull down the plastic and paint trim tomorrow, or at least as much as we can do in a single day with an exhausted crew! Then there's cleanup and moving the various shelves, storage sheds (like that deck box in the first picture), and tools back into place.
But all of that is for another day. For today there is a giant order of takeout Chinese food, and gratitude for the help of family in getting our new color started!
This is where we started. The hydrangea and rhododendron (and the morning glory, fuchsia, and blackberry that were growing into them) completely covered the front of the house. Plus there were calla lilies and a rose bush to the right of the door, and lilies along the righthand wall. It all had to be cut back so we could get to the house.
The deck box got moved and we started cutting. It took several days and created a massive yard debris pile in the back yard. We still hadn't cleared a path completely behind the bushes, but we took down a lot!
Another day, another debris pile. But progress was definitely being made. The debris pile from the front was dragged around to join the growing pile in the back, and the lilies and roses were chopped down.
Tape and plastic over the door and windows. My daughter patiently circled the house with a paintbrush and a bucket of primer, covering the bad spots. That entire front wall (left side of picture) was a bad spot!
At the end of the day Saturday we have paint on the house. The shop (not visible) also is painted. We still need to uncover doors and windows, paint trim, etc. But we have paint!!