I'm STILL painting the house.

Even though it has been nearly two years since the last post, I thought I'd let the three or four readers who might still be out there know that I am still painting the house.

Last weekend was a beautiful near record couple of days which allowed me to finish painting the interior of the front porch. I had been working on that since mid July when I finished the last of the north side.Here is a picture from some time in early July when I was finishing on the side:

 Once I was finished the north side, I started on the porch. I knew I could not possibly remove all the paint from the beadboard ceiling, so I ended up using a random orbital sander and 60 grit paper, followed by 80 grit. This took off the loose stuff and gave me a good smooth surface where there was tight paint remaining. The porch is 8 feet deep and 34 feet long. I worked in thirds, hung drapes to contain the paint dust and wore my usual HEPA filter mask and goggles.Here is that part of the porch now. I managed to finish the first third barely before Labor Day weekend. Most of this project has been worked around home Iowa football games.

 

Since there were three consecutive weeks of home games I didn't get to start on the middle third of the porch until late September. This was the portion around the front door. I managed to get this completed right before Homecoming.

Lisa had gotten very nice house numbers, but they were a dark patina brass. I took out my 150 grit sandpaper and managed to shine up the numbers enough so that they can be seen from the street. I found a hammered copper doorbell to match the house numbers.

Here is the last portion that I just finished. I put up the new screens and hung the porch swing back up. Of course there is a home game on Saturday. Unfortunately the temperature Saturday morning is predicted to be 24 degrees, We probably won't sit out there long...

A Post About Working!

Finally I can write a post about working on the house. Tomorrow Pete is coming over and we will jack up the back porch roof, take out the columns and replace the decking.

I asked to borrow Pete's Sawszall so I could take out the railings, he said he'd drop it off when he came to get my heat gun. When I came home at noon from work, the railings were already removed!

The porch looked a lot more open:

With that already done I decided to see how much it would take to remove the steps. I have always hated our back steps, everyone does. They are pitched at an odd angle and the cement pad they rest on is so badly dipped that it collects over 4 inches of rain every time we get any precipitation.

I remember leaving via the back porch one night back in April of 2005. We didn't live here yet, and were in the process of emptying the house. Most nights I would come over after the girls were in bed, usually about 9 PM and work until 2 AM, go back home, sleep four hours and get up to go to work. As I was leaving I tripped on the damned stairs and recall the thought going through my head as I was pitching into the dark, "Dammit I've done all this work here and I'm going to die of a broken neck without ever having the opportunity to enjoy the place."

Luckily I sprawled into the yard and was unhurt.

Anyway I got out my big-ass pry bars and set to work. Here is the beast, tipped on it's side.

After I finished my neighbors introduced me to their electrician who had worked on my house when Mick and Helen lived here. He asked for a tour, so I showed him around. He was very impressed with our work. As I showed him out the back I said to be careful, as I had pulled the stairs out and they were set back in place without anything attaching them to the porch. His comment was that he couldn't count the number of times he'd been here and seen groundhogs go under the porch as he approached.

I know why the steps were so damned crooked.