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.)

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:

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!

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. 

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!

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?!

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!

It's hot outside! What were we thinking!!! Of course, we were thinking that this is when we had time to spend on the remodel. But still – it's hot. But enough of that. Yesterday we (mostly Steve and Chris) worked on the new window for the bedroom wall. Here's the before…

And after…

Steve and Chris got the inside wall sheetrocked (because the new window is smaller than the old window). They didn't finish putting up the Hardie panels outside because of electrical and small window complications. 

Side note: I was gone much of Tuesday. I took Elanor and Jack to swimming lessons and then I had promised to take mom to the Appraisers Court. Long story short is that she paid more for her house than it was worth. She had to to buy a house close to us. Her taxes went up because she overpaid for her house – which she did so that she was close.

Mom had her house appraised, we went before the board, they were receptive to her story and her taxes will be where they should be. It took the afternoon, but it was worth it. And honestly, I was impressed. This board is staffed by volunteers and they do a hard job. They do not routinely rubber stamp challenges to the appraised value set by the county. But if you can show why the appraised value is incorrect, they listen.

Today, Steve, Chris and I went back to working on the side door area. Steve had meetings on campus through the middle of the day so Chris and I worked together for much of the day. I looked hard at the old door and decided it had to go. Chris and I went to buy, and then installed, a new pre-hung door. That went pretty fast and it looks good.

If you look to the right of the door you can almost see some black on the wall. Those are the holes Chris drilled so that he can attach the new light fixture. We spent and hour or more getting a new electric box in place so that the new light fixture can be attached to the wall. It's this sort of thing that eats a day away. But it's gotta be done.

Steve was back at the end of the day and helped Chris get the wall to the garage (on the left) finished and he got a brace under the threshold for the new door.

A complication is that Steven's pickup was rear-ended by a pizza delivery guy last week. No one was hurt but the poor kid's bitty car was totaled. Steve's truck has some real damage too and it is going to have to go into the shop tomorrow. The tailgate won't go down and I gotta say, that is a significant issue when you are remodeling and hauling stuff.

Geico (the kid's insurer) has been OK, but not really fast. Today we called our insurance guy (from State Farm) and I think the truck repair will get going. That said, I'm glad we got the side door today when we still had a truck to get it with. 

Tomorrow I am painting the bedroom, inside. In the cool. I'll feel guilty but it has to be done. Steve and Chris are working on soffits and then maybe moving on to the garage door side of the garage. I hope to have pictures tomorrow…