House painting

I love house painting, the scorching heat, the big scaffolding, the wild unsupervised children! Actually it's a ranch! Yes! I get to paint the the soffits with a three foot ladder, and since we are rushing our outside chores before it get cold, this is the week it gets done. Cold is a relative term down here. The weatherman keeps saying a frigid cold fronts coming and the night temps will drop to either 38 or 40.
So that means for the first time in my house career I get to paint when it's nice! It's been in the high 70's this week.

The wild unsupervised kid thing still happens though. I was painting yesterday and they were in here singing with their wii with the volume all the way up. Since it was nice the windows were open and the whole block got an ear full.
The other downside of painting is that you are so wiped out there is zero energy left after making dinner to tidy up, so in usual my family fashion the kitchen table is loaded to the gills with, library books, drills, wood glue, caulking, a knitting project etc. The rest of the house follows suit.

So the actual project started a few weekends ago with Robert's part. He replaced six of the plywood soffits and removed about three pounds of caulking. It makes me mad when people do such a bad job of doing things. In one instance we pulled out a piece if caulking two inches thick in the thick part and ten inches long. After we removed it we got out a hammer and with just a couple of whacks the two boards fit right back together. Break out a nail and as good as new. Much easier then trying to fill the hole too.

So Saturday afternoon we started together, Robett scraped the old paints and removed old caulking, I followed behind and caulked it tight. That took about four hours. We are currently only working on the front and one side of the house, the back is basically ready to go and had wood replaced last year. It just needs hit with the paint.

Sunday I headed back out with primer and got all the brush parts, it took about 3 hours. Then I went back and rolled on the soffits.
Monday after getting a late start, I was very stiff and had to get three kids to join me at Home Depot, I got started painting. We went with White for the first time in our lives! Every house we have ever owned but one was white when we moved in, and everyone was promptly painted a grey, green, brown color! I took a good look at the painting though and there were some very tight spaces around the bricks and windows that I did not want to have to paint! So I started with the brush on parts again and only made in across the front. I didn't even get that done since I needed the 100 pound ladder that straddles the bushes. At the end of painting as I was getting off ten ladder by the gas meter I caught a whiff of gas. Lovely. It wasn't a very big leak but still. So I called the gas company while washing out the brushes and we loaded up the car and picked Robert up at work and waited for the gas man. Luckily we didn't sit outside long, unluckily I still had to make dinner.

So today, I get to finsh up! Take two Tylenol and grab your paintbrush! I'll snap some photos later, the kids are bogging the computers and I can't download photos on here.

Coming up next, either insulation or new doors! I don't recommend replacing doors when it's cold out. Been there done that!

Wrapping up summer

We are still busy swimming, started ice skating lessons and trying to stay cool. It was 104 today! We have not done to much on the house since I last posted. I did get the replacement hose for the power washer and the worked on the front of the house. It was covered in the remains of ivy, and the washer just peeled them right off. Before I could use the power washer, which is now my new favorite tool, We had to fix our outdoor facuet. It has been leaking very badly, so we just shut the water valve off. It was a fairly easy fix in theory. The youtube video only took thrre minutes, so why does it always take two to three hours?

So I started taking the facuet apart but then a screw inside got stripped. Luckily my home improvement Super Hero stepped in to save my project. He does this every time I start something. Really without him I would never be able to finish any projects. We repacked the facuet and put in a new washer and Bingo! no more leaking.

I finally finished painting the ceiling in the art studio, it was painful, and I am stalling about painting any other ceilings any time soon. our next project is to put another shelf in our washer closet. i'll post pictures soon.

More Painting!

Yesterday my love helped me stain 6 fence panels that had been powerwashed. It was hot but we went out fairly early for us and finished about noon. It was close to 95 by then and you really shouldn't apply stain over 85 degrees. Well around here that won't be until what October?


Today after spending a good portion of the morning (four hours) looking at home school curriculum I decided to tackle the second coat of paint in the houses living room. We are making it into our artist studio however.

I got started and cut in around the 1/3 of the room that has the drop cloth and then started to roller it. My only new roller was tiny. That wasn't going to cut it. I tried my old roller that I had wrapped up and it wasn't speading paint well. That means I don't get to paint the second coat today. (Can you see me pretending to be upset?)
Not only do I love the ceiling textures of this house, but the air ducts are super groovy too.



I was getting lots of company while attempting this paint job in the form of, "Mama watch this..." He loved it when I said I was done. So we took some Action shots, his favorite kind of photo.

New Blog New Project House

Welcome to Scatterville Ranch Edition

Our project house this time is our 1950's Ranch House. We've lived in it for three years and the first two years besides ripping out old carpet and putting down laminate and some paint hasn't been tackled. Our last project house wore us out, but now it's time to get this one done! So if you want to come along for the ride hang on tight. I will try to post more often but with the kids and homeschooling and life I make no guarantees.

We already redid two bathroom, we still need to replace the lighting in both and decide on what to do with the old medicine cabinet in the other. I will go over that later.

The projects this month are ceiling painting! OW! Fence Work! Better known us I will have some great fit shoulders by the end of the month. I was looking for a good upper back shoulder work out too! Lucky me!

This week the fence!

Why do I choose to work on this fence when it's over 100? So yesterday, I decided that I better test the new power washer we bought for just this purpose so I could submit the rebate we are getting for it. It did such a nice job that I just kept going.



I did about six fence panels yesterday and then stopped for the day. So this morning I'm spraying along, trying to get the two inches of dirt to wash under the fence so it will not rot out the bottoms of the boards and then the hose on the NEW power washer burst open. End of power washing, which is fun when it's hot out.

After calling the number for the warranty and emailing the company requesting a new hose I decided that I better start staining the fence panels that were cleaned before they get dirty again. That was totally not as much fun, and very HOT! So only one panel done today.





The fence looks so much better!



Now to wash off all the mud on my legs.