Category Archives: Notes from a quilter

Day 11…

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I just finished listening to this graduation address by Neil Gaiman at the University of the Arts. Graduation speeches are so often awful – the fine ones actually do inspire. While it takes about 20 minutes, it's well worth a listen.

 

Neil Gaiman Addresses the University of the Arts Class of 2012 from The University of the Arts (Phl) on Vimeo.

 

After listening to it, I realized that today I did a bit of what he talked about. There was a job to do and I pretended like I could do it. And I did. I got way up on the ladder and painted the peak of the garage wall. Four times – 1st and 2nd coat of trim paint, 1st and 2nd coat of wall paint.

I just don't get that far off the ground. Never had. Never thought I would. But I really wanted to finish this wall and if it was going to happen I was going to have to do it. So I did. I got good at using the aluminum extension ladder. I figured out how to hold onto the ladder AND to paint. I feel sort of empowered! 

Here's the before shot:

BrockettBefore-GarageWest-01 copy

And after…

BrockettAfter-GarageWest-01 copy

Andrew Bethany, our Scottish garage door repairman is making the garage doors move more smoothly. Yay – this wall is done! You can see the entry to the right. Here's the before of that area:

BrockettBefore-SidePorch-01 copy

 

And after… The final touch, the light by the door, is on and working.

BrockettAfter-SidePorch-03 copy

Now that I am able to get up high on the extension ladder I've got my job lined up for tomorrow. In the photo above, do you see the brick wall to the right? There's wood trim up there that needs to be scraped and painted. On two sides of the house. I can do it!

Steve and Chris and Mark, a friend, got the french doors set in in the back wall:

BrockettBefore-BackDeck-06 copy

I've already painted the wall to the left. That is the only siding that is staying put. And they finished the wall that they started on Day 2 or 3.

BrockettBefore-WindowWall-03 copy

Believe it or not, we stopped work today at noon +/- a few minutes. As I look at the pictures it seems amazing but each job was not that time consuming. For my part, I spent as much time fooling with the ladder and washing my brush out between coats as I did painting!


 

 

 

 

Day 10, the 4th of July!

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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. 

BrockettBefore-GarageWest-01 copy

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!

PaintingGarageDoors copy

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…

BrockettBefore-SidePorch-08 copy

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. 

BrockettBefore-GarageWest-05 copy

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.)



Day 9? Really, the days are running together…

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I am feeling my years. All 56 of them. I am very young by many standards but my hands feel their age. I am practically snorting Advil. I wake up and think… one more week. Surely I have the energy for one more week. And then I get moving and it's OK – until I stop. I thank the scientists who came up with Advil.

But enough of that – what did we do today? I painted. It went surprisingly fast. The flat Hardie panels are a breeze to paint. I had to slow down on the paneling on the back of the house. The soffits were fast. Honestly, the primer on the siding is similar to the new color so I didn't take a ton of photos. Here's one to show how it's looking:

BrockettBefore-SidePorch-07 copy

Steve and Chris spent a lot of the morning getting the ends of the soffits on the door side of this porch just right.

You must pay attention to where the water goes. If you don't, and if you live in Texas, you get a lot of black mold which was all over this area when we started.

The roofers did the flashing in the photo below. Steve and Chris altered the soffit (below) which required chopping off a chunk of the old garage roof that ran below the newer, flatter roof over the side door. (OK – that is a compound sentence that may not make sense. Except that it does if you know what I'm talking about.)

It was slow work and hard work and this area is so much better now!

RoofFlashing-02

My guys did the next flashing. It will keep the water from running back under the lower soffit.

This sort of project reminds me that this sort of project is often figured out on the fly by (hopefully) skilled workpersons. Part of my job during this renovation is requesting that some things are done a certain way. I don't have the upper body strength of my son or husband. I don't have all of their experience. But I have very definite opinions. It's not my house but I'm speaking for Lorna's concerns. Steve and Chris are not always thrilled with my questions but they do consider them. 

RoofFlashing-01

Steve and Chris then worked on the west side of the garage. Hard work, again. I was impressed at the way they got the pointy front areas covered with siding!

BrockettBefore-GarageWest-04 copy

I left after I took this photo. It was 3:30 and HOT. They worked longer and got a bit more done. But don't they look good?!

SteveAndChris-01 copy

Actually, they look good considering they've been working in hot weather for 8 hours. In a different context they look a like ne'er do wells. Trust me, I was good match for them. We were all scruffy looking. And I went 3 times to Lowe's today and hoped each time I would not run into someone I knew. (It's possible that I smelled, at least like Deep Woods Off.) Boy, a shower at the end of the day is a gift!

Day 8…

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it didn't hit 100 today. Yay! Steve and Chris got the siding and soffits up on the north side of the garage:

BrockettBefore-GarageNorth-04 copy

I washed the mold off of the back wall. A job I was not looking forward to but that wasn't that bad. I also washed and scrubbed the garage doors, but I did not take a photo. Really, you can't tell they are cleaner.

BrockettBefore-BackDeck-05 copy

Steve, and later Chris, took the gutters and soffits off of the back of the house. The French doors will be replaced tomorrow or later in the week.

This bit of old siding is staying put, not being replaced by the Hardie panels. If you look at the left side of the photo above you'll see electrical boxes. We really don't want to touch them. The siding is in good shape. It's staying put.

The roofers were here today, replacing the flat, leaky roof over the side porch. You can't see it but believe me, it's way better. And Chris and Steve got the soffit more than half done over this door:

BrockettAfter-SidePorch-02 copy

Tomorrow I start painting. I had hoped to start today but there you go. I have lots to paint. Maybe the temps will stay below 100. We can all hope…

 


Days 5 and 7…

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Steve had to work at his real job for a good bit on Friday. I painted inside, Christopher worked outside. This is what the north side of the garage used to look like:

BrockettBefore-GarageNorth-01 copy

Chris took off the siding, soffits, and gutter:

BrockettBefore-GarageNorth-03 copy

Taking off the wall led to a serious cleaning out of the garage. I think Chris enjoyed imposing order on his stuff. The pile of debris next to the street is much bigger. I need to take a picture of that tomorrow!

Steve did have time to take the siding off of the front of the garage and he replaced the rotted parts of the studs that hold the roof up.

BrockettBefore-GarageWest-03 copy

BrockettBefore-GarageNorth-02 copy

The garage is open to the breezes for now.

We took the 6th day, Saturday, off. I did some actual quilt-related work. There are now fat quarter bundles up on the site! Click here to see them. I expect to send a newsletter soon. Probably when we are about done with the renovations.

Steve and I worked 3 hours today, Day 7. Steve put up some extra wall studs on the north side of the garage. We put the facing up around the side door. We caulked. I put the finish coat of paint on the wall around the window inside the bedroom. You can see the quilt, The Ground (as seen from above) hanging over the bed.

BrockettBefore-Bedroom-04 copy

The window still needs to be trimmed out. The french doors to the back yard (which you haven't really seen yet) get replaced later this week. The bedroom is mostly done, but not all the way done.

This afternoon Mom and Elanor and I are going to see the local production of Fiddler on the Roof. It'll be a nice break! Tomorrow I begin painting outside and the guys are going to be putting up more siding. I'm hoping that by the end of the week most of the painting will be done as the final siding and soffits go up.



Day 4…

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I worked inside today, painting. The new bedroom window was smaller than the old one which meant that that room needed painting. And Chris and Lorna were ready for a new color. I can paint fast and accurately so I was on to paint. The room used to be a darker turquoise blue…

BrockettBefore-Bedroom-01 copy

I remembered to take photos after I had painted the ceilings and had begun the white primer coat on the walls…

BrockettBefore-Bedroom-02 copy

The ceiling is now pale sky blue, the walls will be white. One wall, with a very large bookshelf against it, is remaining turquoise.

BrockettAfter-Bedroom-01 copy

I couldn't paint up next to the window because Steve is still working on the sheetrock. It won't take much to go back and paint that area.

BrockettAfter-Bedroom-02 copy

You see that light fixture? I broke the globe that goes to it. I was being careful but not careful enough. It exploded when it hit the floor. What a mess. Chris and Lorna are going to find a new one at IKEA on Saturday.

Tomorrow I am painting the finish coat of white in this room and in the attached bath, so they match.

Steve and Chris got two of the three soffits up at the side of the house…

BrockettBefore-SidePorch-05 copy

BrockettBefore-SidePorch-06 copy

The roof will be repaired over the door so the guys want to wait to finish that soffit.

The guys then moved to the back of the house. Here's the before…

BrockettBefore-BackDeck-01 copy

Chris took down the thing over the deck and the gutters at the edge of the roof. He and Steve began taking the siding off of the east side of the garage…

BrockettBefore-BackDeck-04 copy

Tomorrow I am finishing the inside painting. Then it's back outside. It is very hard to believe that the 4th of July is next Wednesday. We'll be working on the house. If we keep at it we are on target to be finished two weeks from today, or earlier. Each day is hard, but we're getting there!