Last year on the 4th we were renovating my Mom's house. This year it's Chris and Lorna's house. Next year I hope to actually celebrate the holiday in a more traditional way. But today began even earlier because it was a holiday. Go figure.

My friend, Laurie, joined me at 6:30 AM to put the first coat of green paint on the garage doors.

These doors are actually salvaged doors – not original equipment with the house. About 6 years ago we were able to take them from their last house and install them at Chris and Lorna's. They have always needed painting but it seemed like such a big job. FYI: with a roller and a brush it took all of an hour (or less) to paint them both. It took maybe 2 hours total for two coats. Really, we should have painted them sooner!

Here's an interesting note about color. The doors looked  gray before. 

When Laurie added the new green paint the doors turned purple. Not a shy purple, a screaming purple. This is yet another heads up to quilters: Colors change depending on what they are next to!

Laurie had meetings today (she is another person who had to work on the 4th) and I kept painting. By noon I had the finish coats of paint on the back walls, the side porch area, and the north wall of the garage. Here's the side porch…

It looks so nice!

Steve and Chris spent the rest of the day finishing out the siding, facings, flashings, etc. on the west garage wall. It was slow going but it looks great. Tomorrow I will paint this new wall around the garage doors and they will move on to replacing the french doors on the back wall, over the deck. 

I don't love being too high off the ground so I do hope that I can make myself go high enough to paint the peak of this wall. Four times (The wall color, twice. The trim color, twice.)