Wednesday, December 17, 2014

A Completely Non-Christmasy Update: Painting

Uh, hi. Been awhile, hasn't it?

Sorry about that.

After I painted my foyer, I had my sister and her clan here for the week of Thanksgiving, and that also included a guest dog, my oldest son home from college, and some drop-in visits by cousins.


It was busy, crowded, and noisy, there were lots of shoes piled near the front door, and great big pans of food on the kitchen stove. My coffee pot was in use non-stop and truth be told, my wine corkscrew was too. Meaning the whole thing was pretty dang near perfect as holidays go.

But with all my October travel and November company, I didn't really wrap up the exterior painting season on the blog.

And that's because with all my October travel and November company, I didn't really wrap up the exterior painting season in real life, either.

I left the south side looking almost exactly like it did in the spring:


But partly because I decided I wanted to concentrate on areas of the house I saw when I looked out the windows, like the patio area: 


And the front of the garage: 


The summer, between work, kids' schedules, and rain, didn't allow for much else. In a fit of frustration I slapped some paint on the screen porch: 


And I spent much of the rest of the time reglazing windows, a job that while necessary, wasn't a big show-boat noticeable improvement. 


I also had a handyman spend a day patching a rotten area of siding and a dry-rotted windowsill:


Progress, as I've said before, is progress. And writing this blog post is as much an exercise in realizing that as sharing with readers. During the summer I was too frustrated with the pace and weather delays to feel like ANYTHING was happening. Now I feel pretty good about it, and when April comes I'll be ready to start in again. 

For now though, I'm happy to just contemplate the idea from the comfort of my sofa. 

7 comments:

  1. You've done so much, and it looks really nice. Can't wait until next Spring to see how all the changes in store.

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    1. Next stop on the exterior is painting the sides of the house; it's look done from the street side then. Hurray! And thanks!

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  2. You'll get there. I'm glad you're able to take satisfaction from your progress now, and you're not making yourself wait for the end to feel that.

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    1. I feels good to be able to look out my kitchen window and see progress. That has made all the difference in "feeling" the progress.

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    2. I'm with you all the way on that feeling--looking out the window and seeing nice smooth paint instead of ratty, peeling paint makes all the difference! You've made a lot of progress this year and you should be proud of that!

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  3. Stuff happens this time of year. It's good to set aside what we usually do and to focus on other stuff. Nothing better to focus on than being with family, IMO. (BTW, that photo of the front of your garage is a perfect representation of what we old house folks do too keep sane and motivated ... new paint on the part we see, with the rest of the building waiting (and waiting) to be finished.)

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    1. Isn't that the truth? I've learned to give myself some small steps that have big psychological payoffs. The front of the garage was one of them!

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