The paint was looking pretty bad on the west side of the house, so I’d decided that was to be my “holiday” weekend project….and a project it was, indeed!
Just getting started; the paint didn’t look too bad until you got to the lower two courses of siding. Looks can be deceiving, though; I’d flake a little piece at the lower edge, then discover that the whole thing wanted to peel off. I scraped anything that was loose enough to come off; it looked like shit, but new paint over loose paint would mean I’d get to do it again next year.
I scraped until I got tired of doing it, then decided to take a break and do some primer. I left the bottom course because I knew the caulking between the bottom of the siding and the concrete ledge was brittle and performing no sealing function at all, so it would all have to come out. This is what I had finished by Saturday evening.
Quelle fucking mess. I had to half-ass it because I had no time, but considering their repair for a (broken? rotted?) end of the trim board was to jam the hole full of Liquid Nails and call it good (for the record, it had gone brittle and I was able to flip it right out with my finger), I think my little chunk of plywood is okay. I couldn’t make it fit perfectly without sawing the ends of the trim piece straight, but I said fuck it because it was hot, and I wanted this done over the weekend.
Not pretty even with caulking, but at least not leaking. It’s in the lower corner of a window on the back side of the house; functional is more important than fashionable.
All of the days kind of blended together, so I’m not 100% sure what day I did what, and I don’t care. 🙂
I had the new paint computer matched from a section that hadn’t been sun-bleached, so it’s at least pretty close to the original colour…which is more than can be said of the paint that was on there. For the record, this faded piece is the very same colour as the “Love Story” pale pink paint that we ended up with when I built OK’s hoce.
Caulking and primer all finished. Looks pretty bad, but better than peeling paint and leaking caulking.
First coat of paint! I had torn down the old phone wires; nobody uses copper landlines anymore, and the mess that Charter made with their wires looked bad enough, so I didn’t need more fucking wires. I don’t care if it’s the back of the house; I still painted the ugly black wires that Charter strung all over the goddamed place; he didn’t even make an effort to be neat, but painted, they blend in fairly well. I didn’t paint the Charter box, though; I taped that off and wrapped it in plastic. I can live with it, I suppose.
I made one HELL of a mess with all that scraping!
On Monday, I did the second coat of paint, and also the window frames.
I taped the frames off, which is more than can be said for the previous painter. I know my trim paint is darker; it was the best we could match with the piece I was able to chip off from an un-faded area. Even un-faded their trim colour would have been lighter.
They had painted these lines (yes, I know the pipe insulation needs replacing) all the same colour as the house, but I used trim paint on the bottom so it blends in better with the brick. Still not beautiful, and I have a couple of little repairs to do on the brick, but it’s an improvement.
FINALLY! Hours of work and gallons of sweat (holy crap, was it hot out there!), but the siding on the back of our house is protected from the elements. I even threw down some clover seeds in the bare spot; since it’s so dry, I’ll have to water them, but it’s right by the tap anyway, so it’s not like a lot of work. Words cannot express how relieved I was to get this finished.
