Day 13…

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We woke to very slightly cooler temperatures this morning. In fact, the next couple of days are supposed to be cooler – highs in the low 90s! Better late than never, right?

Steve and Chris finished out the eaves and soffits on the east and north sides of the house so that I will have something to paint tomorrow. They also finished putting up new siding on the wall below where it meets the brick. 

BrockettBefore-WindowWall-04 copy

I cleaned off and painted the outside of the new french doors. There's not a lot of area to paint but darned if it doesn't make a difference. I didn't realize how reflective the glass is. If you look close you can see me in my painting clothes holding my camera. 

BrockettBefore-BackDeck-07 copy

Steve and Chris spent some time taking down unneeded wires on the last wall of the garage. Amazingly enough, this is the last area that needs to be renovated. Our goal was to be done by Wednesday, July 11 and I think we're going to make it!

BrockettBefore-BackDeck-08 copy

I haven't written at all about the play that Chris and Elanor are in. The play is Sarah, Plain and Tall which is being put on by Theatricks here in Sherman, TX. Rehearsals began before we started the renovation. Dress rehearsal was last Thursday and there have been performances Friday, Saturday, and today. The show continues through next weekend. I have no idea how Chris is managing except that he young(er than we are).

I haven't seen the play yet. We have tickets for the last performance, next Sunday. I have heard reports that Chris and Elanor are good in their roles. Here's a photo Chris took of Elanor backstage opening night. She is not Sarah, nor plain, but she is tall for her age! 

Photo



Day 12…

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The peaked eaves on the east and west sides of the house needed to be painted. This job was going to fall to Steve and Chris because I don't usually get that high off the ground but they were busy putting up soffits today and I was out of any other useful work to do. So I put on my big girl panties and painted the high parts!

BrockettBefore-Eaves-01 copy

The wood on the east side needed to be scraped. As the flakes were flying I squinted and tried not to breathe too much. I only got a little bit in one eye and even if there was lead in the paint, I didn't gnaw the boards so I should be fine. 

BrockettAfter-Eaves-01 copy

I had to get on the roof to paint part of this area and to paint some wood peaks that are in a weird place on the roof. I was on the roof twice today. The first time I scooted around on my bottom. The second time I was able to make myself stand up and just walk – albeit crouched over.

Chris and I decided I didn't need to paint the louvered metal things. They don't look great but they don't look awful either. They are just fine the way they are. 

Chris and Steve put up more soffits/eaves on the back of the house. You can see the bit that wrapped around to the east side where I was painting. This takes more time than you'd think to construct. And there was a bit of creative use of flashing. 

BrockettBefore-EastWall-01 copy

The more we do, the more I realize that carpentry, construction, is a lot like piecing. You measure, you cut, you figure out how to fit the pieces together so that they cover what needs covering. Except that here we can use Liquid Nails and caulk :-). 

You can see part of a tree in the photo above. It is a huge pecan – one of the biggest in our town. This is a lovely tree that provides needed shade, but I had no idea how much they shed! Sticks and limbs that come off that tree daily. And sticky stuff, and other plant matter that piles up on the roof, on the ground, on the deck… I'm beginning to actively dislike this tree and it knows it. It drops stuff on me! Chris had to take the gutters off because there is no way to keep them clear of tree junk. But pecans are tasty and it is a pretty tree. So it's staying put.

We're taking tomorrow off to clean house and Steve and mom have one last dog obedience class. Taz is actually behaving better, and mom is too! We'll go to church tomorrow night and then we're watching Independence Day over the pool. Sunday it's back to work on the house.

Just so you know, I have found time to do a bit of quilting. Soon I can show you the finished AAQI quilt and I've started working on the project for my Adventure in Italy class. Really, you want to be saving your pennies for this trip – it's going to be great fun!


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…