WHAT?

Taking "do it yourself-ing" to a new level, I started removing cement slabs from my backyard yesterday. This first involved the purchase of an 8 pound sledge hammer since I decided that handling a jack-hammer was most likely beyond me. That, a shovel, a spade and lots of elbow grease are the tools I set about this with.

I considered hiring someone to come in and take out the cement but the only company in the area with the equipment to do this is difficult to get out for "little" jobs like this. I'm still waiting, 8 years later, for them to return to repair my basement wall, a job they started then never returned to finish. Fortunately, they started by stabilizing the wall so it wouldn't collapse when they started digging out the basement and that has served to control the problem with the wall bowing inward.

Cement removal was prompted by the fact that when the basement and back half of the house was added, the backfill was not adequately tamped in before the cement pads were poured. When I moved in, 25 years ago there was no obvious problem but over time the ground has settled, dropping the cement nearest the house, draining directly to the basement wall. So far the water has not infiltrated the basement but it has been hard on the exterior of the house.

Change was needed and it appeared the only way to make it was grab a hammer and take out the cement so this is the latest job. Of course, I was aware of the fact that cement is generally hard but I was feeling confident. I've broken cement before. About 15 years ago I took out an 8'x12' slab before putting the deck on the house. What I didn't account for is how 15 years has treated me.

Now on the third day of cement removal, I have removed about 1/3 of the cement and stacked over half of it out at the curb, hoping it will be picked up when city clean up day comes next week. Getting out of bed this morning went much better than I expected but during the day I found that if I sneezed or coughed, all of my ribs hurt. I actually think swinging the hammer tonight eased the soreness but I may think differently in the morning.

What I found interesting during this project is that when I started taking out the sidewalk, I dug down to remove some dirt from under the slab to make breaking easier. About a foot down I discovered another sidewalk. At the end of the first day's work, I had a 3 foot square hole with a cement slab in the bottom of it. Obviously, at one time the yard was lower than it is now. Hmm! Maybe I could just fill it with water and toss in a couple fish.

Moving on

I think this pleases me. It isn't perfect, a good eye will quickly pick out the errors but the overall look isn't bad. I'm more than half way through the stripping and wrapping portion. I'm actually rather proud of myself, although I am in my third summer of renovation, completing as much as I have was no small task. The best part, all the work has met a standard that I consider acceptable. Some of it is just plain good!


The house should be significantly more energy efficient when I finish everything. The first step was putting new windows all the way around, replacing old, wood sash, single glass windows, many of which had gaps where the sashes met. Aluminum storm windows helped but were not enough to stop the cold winds of a northwest Kansas winter. The last few years I resorted to putting plastic over the inside of the living room windows and when the wind blew, the plastic would "breathe" in and out with the gusts.



The other big factor should be the house wrap I am adding. Over half the house had no wrap at all or totally useless wrap. This shield long ago lost all it's protective properties, looking and feeling more like a child's construction paper that was soaked then dried out. I have occasionally kept my bill from the gas company, which lists fuel consumption for the prior 12 months so this coming winter I will be able to compare to last year to see if the difference is obvious.
On a positive note, I have actually encountered very little termite damage, although there are definitely termites in the area. I have found them from time to time when a log or board is left lying in the yard for some length of time. Apparently, much of this old yellow pine which is used almost exclusively on the original part of the house, is not very tasty to the little bugs. I have found a few boards that they have attacked, probably less than a half dozen, but no active sites.

The front of the house is starting to look naked now, with over half the siding removed. The trim is off the window and will have to be rebuilt as I did not get it done the way I want it the first time. There won't be much time to work on it during the week since days off will be severely limited in the next month or so. Two other workers are out on medical leave now so it will be hard for anyone to take time off unless it is an emergency. Of course, if it starts snowing, THIS could be an emergency.

Rallied!

Although I am still thinking about hiring someone to put the siding on, I seem to have gotten my second wind and moved on this week to trim out the windows on the north side. The double window required considerable reworking as the window frames, which I used as the base for my replacement windows, proved to be pretty much unattached inside the house structure. I filled large gaps on either side of the windows with boards then used long screws to attach the frames to the house. Extra space, I filled with insulation and expanding foam spray.

These windows were also the ones pictured in an earlier blog, which had their sills and drip caps pounded off with a hammer. The sill could not be completely replaced without taking the windows back out and tearing the old frames out, so the shattered sills had to be planed down as smooth and level as possible to allow for attaching a new sill extension. It was rather labor intensive but it went well and the new sill looks like it could have been there for years.

Strange, making improvements on the house with the emphasis on making them look old. The drip caps are also wooden. I bought piece of "drip cap" at the lumber yard, it was actually galvanized Z flashing but this was not the look I wanted so with further research I found the profile of wood drip cap then found some preformed, at Menards.

I'm fairly pleased with the outcome on this window, although it is off slightly but advice from my supervising father was to forget it as no one would notice but me. That is probably true. I can get a little anal about my projects, which is why they sometimes take so long and don't always get done. I want what I do to be done right and when something is off, I can sometimes double or triple the time and effort involved by taking it apart and redoing.

This is why I have a problem with hiring someone to work on the house. I absolutely hate when I hire someone to do a job for me and find that I could have done it better. This happened the first time I hired someone to roof my house. The job was poorly done, there were places that leaked, they did not replace decking that had deteriorated, just went over it so there were soft spots. I did learn a lesson about checking for references with that and when I had the roof done the next time I was satisfied with the job.

Perhaps I should not be so picky about these things but when I pay someone a few thousand dollars to do a job, I expect to be happy with the work. I also find it rather offensive when the advertise themselves as experienced at something yet do a shoddy job that I could improve on. Oops! Got on a rant there. Personal annoyance there, easy to get going on the subject. Enough of that.

Three day weekend!

Great opportunity to get some work done on the house. At the end of day three, for the first time I am really wondering what I have gotten myself into and thinking about hiring someone to hang the siding. I found the north side rather daunting, primarily due to the number of intrusions into the wall. There four separate holes for wires related to the phone and Internet then the defunct central air unit contributes two more. I was able to work out the house-wrap issues, with some creative cutting and taping. The prospect of installing the siding however was frightening. Getting someone out to disconnect everything in order to feed the wires through holes in the siding just seems overwhelming. I had already dealt with the prospect of having the electric company come out and disconnect that utility but until now had not thought about the holes in the siding installation is likely to require.

The idea of seeking help on the siding is becoming more appealing. Installing the windows was not intimidating, trimming them has been fun as was the painting of the gables. Up to this point, I've really not seriously considered turning the job over to someone else but I am just feeling tired. Perhaps that is the crux of the matter, I am just plain tired and don't feel like doing more. On the other hand, if that is the problem, a few days should make a difference. Guess I will see how I feel about it tomorrow.

Moving Tool World

The last of the repair and trimming on the south side is finally done. I started on the north side last weekend so my living room windows have been covered with house wrap since Tuesday. Rain was expected so wrapping was important as the walls were down to bare pine sheathing.

With work done on the south side it made sense to move tool world to the north side. Actually, getting the canopy out of the south yard was past due, the grass has suffered from being covered for 3 weeks. Having 10 gallons of sawdust sprinkled over it didn't help either.

The canopy was moved today, along with the scaffold/ladder but the tools will wait until tomorrow. The rest of the north siding needs to be removed but the project is complicated by the fact the phone boxes and connections are on that wall. They will have to be carefully detached and suspended so the wires are not damaged while the siding is removed from under them. The process will then have to be repeated when applying the new siding as the boxes cannot be left detached in between.

A week later and tool world is in full swing on the north side. Being a pop-up, the legs of the canopy pull out after the cover is on to get proper height. This has worked out so I can drop the tent down to about a four foot height for the night, providing better protection for the tools.

The goat next door enjoys the activity when I start popping the canopy back up. He starts butting the fence when I start work. His "mom" has been gone for about 3 months, visiting kids. Someone comes to feed the goat and the macaw but I think they are lonely. The bird will squawk and today it sounded like it was trying to imitate the sound of the sander.

I find myself talking to the goat when I work. I've been feeding him pears that fall from my tree and he gets excited when I toss them over the fence. He stands on his hind legs then lunges at the pears. If they are green, he will smash them with his horns so he can eat them. I think he is starting to look forward to my arrival, he will trot right over to the fence when he hears me.

With dark coming earlier every night, work time in the evening, after I get home from the paying job, is getting limited. A couple hours is about all the time available now so things aren't moving real fast. I was to have off most of this week to work on the house but the real job infringed on it so today was actually the only day I stayed home and I took a couple hours out of it to write a letter and make several phone calls.

Oh well, tomorrow is Saturday, no work pressure. My dad will come visit but he may find himself set out under the canopy to "supervise" while I finish trimming out the windows. I should be able to finish that portion tomorrow then will move to the front of the house. I may spend some time tomorrow checking on possible workers to help get the siding up when I finish with prep. For now, I think the dogs have the right idea. They are all sacked out on the library floor.

Craftmanship, Creative Expression or ..........

just the sense of accomplishment? I'm not sure what the feeling is that comes with getting something right on this project but it is a good one. I created a proper sill where none existed before and found myself feeling like I do when I create a sculpture.


My hope, as I renovate my house, is to give it as much of the folk Victorian look and character as possible, within a budget. I replaced the windows with modern, vinyl, double pane windows but I'm trying to recreate an "older" look in the window casings, giving the impression of original without the cost.


The challenges are varied and many. For some windows, I reframed completely and used new construction windows so there was no existing casing present. Some windows were replacement windows which slipped inside of the existing frame after I removed the old sashes. A couple of these had existing casing, including sills, although the style was not consistent as these windows were trimmed in brick mold rather than wide, flat boards.

Others of the replacement windows were trimmed but the previous owners destroyed portions of it in order to apply 4'x8' sheets of masonite siding. Since they wanted quick & easy installation they apparently beat the sills and drip caps with a hammer to knock them out of the way. These pose the greatest challenge, trying to make the remnant of the sill into a smooth surface which will allow for grafting on a new sill extension and creating new drip caps to take the place of those smashed to bits.

The first two efforts at building sills went well. These were not damaged, they were new window sizes and no sill was there after the reframe. Basic theory for the remaining sills is the same though, so I do not foresee major problems but only time will tell on that.

Poor old house has weathered a lot of years and they have taken a toll on it. The old cedar siding is in surprisingly good condition, termites never touched it, despite having made a few attacks on the sheathing beneath it. I hope to "rehome" the siding to someone who can use it as it seems a terrible thing to send beautiful, resiliant wood like this to the dump. On a small application, this siding could be brought back to usefulness and serve even more years protecting structures for someone.

Pretty in Pink

Three years after deciding to reside, here I am finally stripping siding off of the house in preparation for applying new, fiber cement siding. This is a seriously dirty job! This house was built at the end of the "dirty thirties" but in 75 year on the central plains a lot of dirt collects in the walls and ceilings of a house. It is not unusual to find an inch or more of dirt at the bottom of spaces between studs. I resorted to the shop-vac to clean up as I pried up sheathing boards to check for sill damage.

The old part of the house was built in 1936 and in keeping with the time, the sheathing in that section is solid, 3/4 inch thick, 8 inch wide yellow pine boards. AMAZING! Beautiful wood and rock hard after 75 years except for a few spots along the sill where water or termites have attacked during the past 3/4 century. Fortunately, I only found one damaged section, only 16" wide and not rotted through the full thickness, so I reinforced this rather than cutting out the sill to replace the bad area.

The newer portion of the house was built in 1975 and large sections of it are sheathed in this less desirable product. Although it has the advantage of being much flatter than the board sheathing, as is obvious from reading the labeling, this product "may smolder or burn". I hope to never see this warning tested but meanwhile I tell myself it can't burn any faster than the dry old wood in the rest of the house.
Siding does come down off this much easier since it is much softer than wood so nails can be pulled out without great effort.

As the project requirements have grown, "tool

world" has been created in the side yard. Indeed, I am a KU alumni but the canopy was selected only for it's clearance price as I needed a shelter to keep tools under while working. After a few days of dragging hammers, nails, screws, drills, saws...... back into the house every evening, I was looking for alternatives. This one gives me the chance to display my Jayhawk pride while keeping my tools dry. The 10' span of the canopy is almost as big as the side yard so I'm now effectively killing the scrappy grass that had finally managed to grow in this space. Sacrifice is sometimes necessary.

After all the siding on the south side of the house was removed and hauled out back where it is stacked, in hopes someone will want it, I set about applying pink, fan-fold insulation board. Having initially planned to use vinyl siding, I bought fan-fold to help level out the surface for the new siding. With vinyl it is not necessary to remove old siding but the lapped texture is not amenable to siding over without something to smooth the surface.

I did not find the application of pink fan-fold to be great fun, despite the lovely appearance the house has all covered in pink, with red text all over it. OK, I'm kidding! Pink seems to be all about trademark, they want EVERYONE who goes by to know you bought an Owens Corning product. Hardly anyone gets to see that pink, cotton candy stuff you put in your attic or walls but this stuff is like a giant OC billboard.

Since it comes in 4' widths, 50' long, which unfolds spontaniously, it proved to be a challenge to keep the sheets of insulation where they needed to be while holding a stapler in one hand. It went up but not without a fight. Then, after getting it tacked over half the south side, I did additional research and found it was at best a waste of time, in terms of R-factor, at worst a possible problem in terms of moisture retention when used in conjunction with housewrap. With that information I decided to finish out the south side but I will not be applying fan-fold to the rest of the house. Too bad, it would have been interesting to have the entire house pink, especially if it turns out I don't get the siding attached before winter sets in.

What is it about having projects to complete that makes 10 more projects present themselves? Do it yourselfer karma? I spent my weekend restoring a wood patio door to replace the old aluminum slider, cleaning and sealing the deck and taking more siding off the house so I can start on the new siding when it arrives. There I was in the incredibly hot, humid outdoors, sweating, sweating, sweating but things were moving along well. After dark it was finally time to give it up and go inside, feed the dogs, cool off and get ready for bed. Then the fun began.


Quick bathroom stop was in order but when it was time to flush, no flushing going on. The clip on the flap was broken so flipping the handle did nothing. Now flushing involves taking the lid off the tank and sticking my hand down to pull up the flap. OK, I can deal, just have to get a new flap and install it. A minor inconvenience. Maybe a shower will make me feel better about it all.


How fun it is to peel off sweat saturated clothing! Ready for a nice cool shower, instead I get COLD shower. It seems the hot water heater has gone out again. This means lighting the heater and letting it run long enough to heat a tank of water before I can shower. Eventually I did get the shower but shortly discovered that as soon as the tank of water is warm, the heater goes out again. Now I have to figure out why my water heater, which is only about 3 years old, will not stay lit after heating. This also means that every day, when I get home from work, I have to go down and light the water heater so there will be warm water for a shower after I finish my outside work for the day, since the temperature is running pretty close to 100 (or higher) every day. Who was that who said they were tired of winter? WHAT WAS I THINKING?

Well, one should always be careful what they wish for. Winter left and summer came. Spring was entirely too short. Way too little got done this spring so now with August upon us, I am finally getting started on siding process. I started pulling old siding off and stacking it out back, hoping someone will want it for a garage or shed. I don't want to have to keep it around until big cleanup week.

I had to replace the diningroom window this spring when the wind broke a branch out of the tree next door and it came through the window. This one is installed better, I put the sill wrap on the bottom. I put in the new bathroom window last weekend and started working on the replacement patio door. Projects are backed up, I'm sure there are enough to last me until I die.

In the spring I finally started building my library. I am excited about this, I have wanted my own library for years and I am enjoying it. There is still a lot to do, including gluing maps to the rest of the ceiling and putting up new paneling over the strandboard that was on the walls when I moved in. The floor still needs to be sanded and sealed but that is a project for a long weekend as I will need to rent a sander. I've made my list for this weekend, hoping that will keep me on track to get things done.

I am feeling rather worn out so hope to get some good sleep tonight so I can get lots done this weekend. I have rehab to do on my replacement patio door as well, that could eat up much of a weekend but since it is in the garage, I can work on it in the evening since I put lights and outlets in the garage. I can fire up the sander and get that ready before the siding arrives. The more I can get out of the garage before 5000 pounds of fiber cement siding arrives, the better it will be.

Enough, already!

I am ready for the end of "Winter"!

While I will admit to experiencing near euphoria at crawling between flannel sheets, warmed by the electric blanket, on a cold January night and the sight of early sunshine on ice covered trees is more beautiful than any diamonds to me, I have grown weary of the cold.

Sloshing through piles of melting snow, shoveling openings in the plowed ridges across the driveway to release the car and chasing dogs out of the house because they don't want to squat in the snow are all reasons to look anxiously forward to the arrival of spring.

Perhaps in some future year, when employment is no longer a requirement, when all the home improvement projects are done, I will look forward to winter days. When sitting on the yet to be built window seat in the south window, reading a book while soaking up winter sunshine, will be all I feel a need to complete in a day. Then the cold may be welcome as a perfect excuse to accomplish no more than this on winter days.

The Fall of My Remodeling

I love fall! It is my favorite time of year. Trees turning shades of yellow, orange and red, mountains of gold, red and brown grain, glowing in a waning sun and crisp moonlit nights all just take my breath away. Like a lazy cat, I could curl up in front of a south window, soaking up the Autumn sun and even thunderstorms can be awe-inspiring, creating rainbows over golden fields. No matter where you live, Autumn brings new beauty to nature.

This year fall brought something else. It brought a halt to my house renovation projects. There have been days and days of rain which has effectively ended my painting of the fence, a project I hoped to finish before winter set in. The windows I hoped to install before snow flies, have been held up by the quilt project I took on. The siding didn't get started this year as fall swooped in before I got started and ordering siding in September didn't seem like the best plan.

So, here sits my house, still wanting more paint, more windows and a lot of siding. There is still the possibility of the windows getting in if we have a nice Indian summer but with the first snow having come last week, I'm less than optimistic about the possibility.

I hope to be able to post some more updates on the house this year but only time will tell. A few more mild, sunny days will be treasured for the extra moments they will give me to finish outside projects. And if that doesn't work out, there are plenty of inside projects to fill up the winter months.

Painting again....

Loving it, real color at last. I started with the butterscotch this time and decided if I get tired of all the color, I will go back to butterscotch and white. It looks good with my roof. For now, I like the 4 color scheme even if the local teens refer to me as the "crazy lady" doing the "wild" paint job on her house. Even my 30 year old son, who lives out of state, heard from his friend that it was "pretty colorful". I told him it was OK, my "grown up" friends like it. Who would have thought that a bunch of teens and twenty-somethings would consider something with a little color "wild"? The generation gap is wider than I thought.


I am of the Woodstock generation. Do you realize that Woodstock took place 40 years ago next week? I wasn't there, I was in Arizona then, getting ready to start college. Back then I would have thought a house painted like mine was "cool" or maybe even that the colors could have been more intense. I know this because when I got my first apartment a year later, I painted every wall and the ceiling, a different color. Color and bold pattern were in. We dressed in it, we painted it on our cars and in our rooms, sometimes we painted it on our faces. We pursued individuality fervently, to the point that we were all alike in our striving to be different. Our life plans did not include conforming to the social norms established by our predecessors, we were going to create a new, brighter world. We protested injustice, we demanded change, we asked for peace, sometimes with violence.

Like everything, I have changed with time. The 40 years since Woodstock has also brought me well into "middle age". My joints tell me about it in the morning and by evening, my feet tell me about it. I wear out quicker, I'm not as strong as I used to be and sometimes I totter when I turn too quickly. Taking risks is now scary more often than it is exciting and I worry more about what will be on TV than who will be "out" tonight. I find that putting a little paint on my house and sitting around with a bunch of dogs makes for a pretty darn exciting weekend. But I still challenge authority sometimes and I try not to conform all the time and I still love color.

I ordered the new windows for the north side on Saturday. Custom size, tall, thin replacement windows. Wider windows would have been nice but after re-framing for a couple of the new windows, I decided that was more than I wanted to do for these windows. The old windows are original, wood sash windows that do not seal tightly. There are aluminum storm windows, which help but I have put plastic over those windows, in winter, for years. When the wind kicks up, the plastic "breathes", moving the blinds in and out.

Installation shouldn't be difficult, pull out the old sashes and put the new windows in and close them in. It will be nice to have windows there that are easy to open and don't have to be covered with plastic in the winter. The dogs will like it too, as they always enjoy looking out those windows when they are open.

Months later, April 2010, figured I would come back to this blog. I got the windows installed in the last couple weeks as well as the guest room window. Closing around the inside and trimming out is yet to be done but it has been really nice to have the weather warm enough to start the outside stuff. I bought 1600 square feet of pink, fanfold to put under the siding. The wind will have to settle before I try putting that up though. Being pink foam, it will fly like crazy in a good wind. I'm excited about the arrival of spring so I can get back to my outside projects.

Finally........

Weeks have passed since finishing the painting on the front (West) of the house and I am FINALLY ready to start painting on the south side. Priming wasn't finished until 7:30 PM today, Sunday, so it's hard to say how much painting will get done this week. I may get started after work during the week as I am now excited about getting to put on color again.

Getting ready for paint on the south face took a lot longer than I anticipated. I quickly figured out that it was going to require a complete scraping after all, then the fascia joint at the top of the gable required cosmetic work (silicon implants) and the bottom of the fascia was unacceptable so that had to be rebuilt. The really ugly, box shape at the bottom of the gable was built from fiberboard so not only was it ugly but it also was swollen and soft in places from moisture. Removing it was easy, figuring out what the the person who built it was thinking was impossible. The bottom end of the soffit board was cut off as was the end of the little shelf below the shingles.

Since it appears the meeting of the bottom of the gable and the back roof occurred at a time after the original part of the house was built and it lacked architectural grace, I opted for an ornamental addition, joining the fascia board of the gable and the rear roof together smoothly. A matching curve was cut and installed on the other side, above the roof of the porch. Of course, having added this small feature on the side gable, I wonder if the front gable should also have curves. This is why my projects seem to never end!

Windows

Windows can be wondrous things that let light shine in and give a view of the world outside our domains. Old, drafty windows can be nothing but money sucking sources of frustration. I started replacing the 70 year old windows in my house about 4 years ago. The replacements average out to one window a year but not every year saw a new window. There are 3 windows still in need of replacement and I hope to see those go in this summer.

Last summer the window in the front face of the house was transformed from a tall thin window to a more pleasingly proportioned component of my home. It brightened up what is to become my library. I have always liked the idea of having my own library and the larger window seemed important for that space. Since it was a new installation window, not a replacement window, putting it in was more challenging. It required re-framing the opening after cutting into the existing framing. In the process, other problems became apparent and it ended up requiring me to replace part of a sill plate and cripple in some studs which had deteriorated at the bottom. For a few days I propped pieces of sheet rock against the inside wall to make sure no strange animals moved in during the night.

With it all back together and the new window in place, I truly believe it was worth the trouble. Not only does the front face look much more balanced, the north corner has new stability. The before picture is overwhelmed with greenery but that has changed as well, with the cedar shrub and spirea bush being removed. The pear tree is still there but will be pruned this fall.

When finished, all the windows in the house will be new, except for the front porch window, a large picture window with colored glass sash at the top. Formerly covered with a solid pane aluminum storm window, which was separating at the sides, the window is such a integral part of the character of the house that replacing it was not an option. The storm window with it's gaps and the large single glass of the window made for an energy nightmare so change was a must.

Using the glass from the storm window and learning "on the job" so to speak, I cut pieces to create a new, wooden sash for the old glass. Once assembled, the old style storm window set into the window sill, fitting tightly. Since I have never opened that window and never stressed over not being able to, I saw no reason to think I would need to open it in the future so I made small wooden brackets which were screwed to the sash and the sill, fixing the window firmly in place. Caulking around the top and sides made for a snug, double pane window which should be energy efficient.

The colored glass upper sash is one of the most striking features of the house. Sadly, the former owners did a very poor paint job on the frame and two pieces of glass were cracked. So, I set out to restore this window to the attractive architectural feature it had once been.

The center was clear glass, cracked across so that was removed and one end glass was also cracked. The original end glass was a lavender shade but there was no matching that color at this point so both end pieces had to be replaced. At the glass shop I found a beautiful rich ruby red glass, which the shop had just enough of to cut my 2 pieces. Having ordered these and a clear glass oval for the center, I was on the way out of the shop when I spotted textured glass. On that rack there was a piece of glass with a leaf design on it which was amazing so my order was changed.

The next day I picked up my new glass and went home to install it. Paint was scraped off the remaining glass, the sash repainted, glass was installed and the finished window sash was rehung. It is a beautiful thing with the setting sun shining through it, setting the wonderful colors aglow. This is a project I was truly pleased with.

Scraping, scraping, scraping........

OK, painting was inspirational, creative, fun even..... but scraping can get old after a while. What I had hoped would be a limited scraping, just knocking off a few loose spots, has turned into a down to bare wood scraping. Then, to make things more entertaining, when the side gable of the house was built, the facia and soffit boards were not joined evenly at the upper angle of the gable. Sadly, I have had to accept that this is a fix that is beyond what I can do. To square up the facia would require removing the board and repositioning. This would involve disrupting my roof which I am not going to do since the roof was new 4 years ago.

I'm working on a cosmetic fix that will minimize the uneven appearance although it is unlikely anyone will notice it if I leave it exactly as it is. I tend to be a bit obsessive about projects I undertake. If something is being done, I want it done right and it irks me when I have to settle for adequate. This serves to bog down a project at times, while I tweak it into "perfection". This is also why I actually prefer to do the majority of projects myself, rather than contracting someone to do it for me. I absolutely hate paying someone to do a job that I could have done better.

The first re-roofing on my house was such a situation. It was bad enough that when it was time to roof again, I was tempted to take on the job myself. Fortunately, I learned from my mistakes and did some research into contractors and found one with a good reputation and I went with high grade shingles. I can truthfully say that I have the best looking roof in the neighborhood now.

The past week has provided only limited opportunities to work on the house. Between two evenings of conference calls for dog rescue business and three nights of rain, painting has not been started, even though most of the scraping was finished last week. I was able to do some caulking, tighten up some joints and replace or tighten some shingles. I also managed, over the past few weeks, to let my sander, heat gun and scroll saw get rained on. So far these tools appear to have come through it, after drying out completely they still run. I will be the first to admit however that this is NOT a good thing for power tools.

With one weekend day left, I hope that tomorrow will be more productive. I would like to be ready to start priming by the end of the day. I could then start painting after work on Monday. After getting the front gable painted, I have really been anxious to start getting color on the side gable. I have all the windchimes down now and will have to decide what color to paint the wooden parts since most are seriously in need of paint of sealer. An excellent night or rainy weather project which will need to be done before rehanging any of the chimes. There are actually at least two more that go down the right side of the gable. I really like windchimes, as you might have guessed, except for the upkeep. Painting and restringing is a regular proceedure, especially out here where the wind blows a large percentage of the time.

the Answer!

Yes, you can get high painting with acrylic paint. Of course it is all in your head or maybe a little bit in your heart and it won't fry any brain cells. Back in the 60's, we called it a "natural high", one that didn't require chemicals to achieve. Over the past few weeks, as I have worked on my house, preparing for paint and putting the beautiful colors on the gable, even with a 1/4" brush, I have found myself feeling what I can only describe as a "high". There may even be an addictive aspect to it as I was a bit morose over missing my painting "fix" on a rainy day.

Having limited experience with chemically induced highs, I have most often found that sense of warm, joyful lightness in accomplishment, in beauty and in creating beauty. Sculpting something beautiful out of wood, building an ornate porch post, restoring an earlier beauty to the front of my house, all bring me a sense of fulfillment and contentment. I find that there is a point in a creative endeavor where I begin to really see the potential of the finished work. At that point, the project becomes an act of love and working on it leaves me feeling much the way love (or chocolate) does.

This really isn't the first time I painted. I painted the garage once and it only took 5 years. For some reason the creative senses didn't get aroused over garage painting. I started down one side, rounded one end, ran out of paint, then got sidetracked. Did I mention I have ADD? By the time I got ready to paint again, the color I was using was discontinued. So, started painting with a new color from where I left off and then, you guessed it, the same thing happened again. This was all in the days before you could take any paint chip in and get it matched. Finally, with the third color used, most of the garage got painted, in part because my son joined in and finished up the west end. That project didn't leave me with a particular love for the process of applying paint.

The difference in how I feel about painting my house must be related to the lengthy consideration of color schemes, the careful recreation of shingles to take the place of broken or lost ones and the painstaking painting of one shingle at a time to achieve the pattern I hoped for. It has become a creative work rather than a paint job. Anticipating the completion of the project, how it will look with new colors and textures, how it will all fit together when it’s done leaves me with a sense of excitement and impatience.

It has now been nearly two weeks since I last painted. Having passed up one pleasant weekend day due to feeling a need to catch up a few inside chores, I find myself unable to get back to painting as it has been overcast and rainy almost every day since. Humidity is high, doors are swelling and painting in that doesn’t seem like a good idea. I’m looking forward to some dry sunny days that will draw the moisture out of the wood so I can move on with painting. Meanwhile, there is always the basement to clean out. EWWW! At least the stairs going down there look good.

Looking good......

I'm certainly glad I decided to take step by step pictures of my renovation of my house. Looking at them, it is hard to believe the change so far yet there is still so much to do. In May of 2008, I took this picture of the house before starting to work on it. As you can see, the masonite siding was deteriorated and warped. The gables were dull and peeling. There was definitely a need for a face lift on the old house.

With all the color applied to the gable, I think it looks pretty good. It is definitely a BIG change and is eyecatching. As of today, the paint on the gable only needs touch-up but this project will hold for a while as I started priming around the porch today. There is a second gable on the house, facing south. The house originally was L shaped with a gable on both "ends" of the L. The porch was added at a later time as was the extension to the back which probably doubled the square footage. The south gable will require more scraping than I had hoped but the old paint can't be left as it is. I just hope it doesn't require as much work as the front gable did. I'm anxious to get on to painting the second gable.

Can you get "high" from painting? Well, that is a subject for another blog. For now, I gotta go.