I Finished Painting the House. Right?
This past summer of 2015, it was my job to figure out and keep Larry informed of what prep work he needed to do for my projects so I could stay busy both inside and out. I didn't want to waste a day with nothing to do, so he willingly did my list each morning before starting his own. My major outside job was to paint the house, and poor Larry had to do the hard part of scraping, sanding, and caulking ahead of me. The newer addition only needed cleaning, but the old part was in really bad shape and required a lot of muscle. We had painted it the first fall we owned the farm, but this time, Larry wanted to do an extra good job of preparing it. He could only work at it an hour or two at a time, because it was hard work for someone his age, or any age. I wished I could help, but I couldn't. Thankfully, a lot of the house is brick.
It is a good thing I like to paint because it seemed the job got bigger and bigger. First of all, it required primer. Then surprisingly, it required more than one coat.
One happy day, I excitedly announced that I was finished. That is when Larry mentioned that the back wall of the screened-in porch was actually part of the house. I countered with, "We never painted it before!" So, I WASN'T finished. And, he wasn't through scraping.
Oh, but it was worth it. Doesn't it look nice? Although the house was yellow when we bought it, this wall was green, which made us wonder how long it had been since it was painted.
Here is the story about the door and why I think it is beautiful even though it is rather beat-up: It had been ugly from the beginning, and Larry often mentioned replacing it. Last year, when we fixed up the living room, (another story) I altered a curtain panel to cover the small windows. It was definitely a good disguise from the inside, but now, Larry suggested that I might want to scrape and paint the outside. Since when did I do the scraping? Well, I guess since he was too busy! So, he gave me the tools and I worked on it off and on, getting down to the bare wood around most of the window panes. He finished up with a wire brush and then caulked it for me. What was interesting was that underneath the coat of white was a coat of blue. BUT, in-between those two coats was a coat of thick dirt that some person had painted right over. It was so disgusting and unbelievable. Well, I guess nothing should surprise us by now!
Sometimes, we went out on the screened-in porch and just stood an admired what a difference a little paint can do! So now the house is finally painted. Right?
