Painting the House

Since with Covid-19 I can't go out and "paint the town", and I've completed my inside painting projects, so I decided to go bigger.

I received a quote for having the house painted and when he asked when I wanted to have it done I was kidding with him and said "how about tomorrow?".  He surprised me back by telling me he had a cancellation and if I could get a permit right away they could do that.

I looked at paint colors, called Left Brain to confirm he was okay with my choices and then went to the office to get the permit.  Grasping the form in my hot sweaty hands I drove over to my friend who is on the committee that approves such things and got it approved on the spot.  Called back the painter to tell him the permit was in the window and it was game on!

Then I started a feverish clearing of everything from the deck and around the yard.  The stuff on the deck had to be removed before leaving in June anyway, so I'm just ahead of the game there.  The neighbor helped me push Left Brain's motorcycle over to the neighbor's house.  My golf cart went to another neighbor's.

Since Left Brain is gone I am able to pile stuff up in his area and Gracie took it upon herself to recreate a scene from the Princess and the Pea.

I emptied out the sheds and moved them away from the house and got everything ready.  But when I tried to go to sleep that night I was too excited and kept thinking of things I'd forgotten.

So at 1:00 am I got out of bed and went outside to take care of that stuff and pulled out the bobby pins I'd put in that night to experiment with curling my hair.  I was laughing so hard when I saw it - it was ALIVE!  I've never had such big curls. I wasn't sure I could get through the door with this head full of hair!

I watched TV until about 3:30 and went back to bed for a couple of hours when George woke me up at 6:00 which is his routine.

I went out and put the car on the street and arranged a bunch of stuff in the big pull out drawers under the deck.  They arrived about 7am to do the power washing part of the process.

After that dried a bit they returned to cover everything in preparation for the priming.  It's like being in a cocoon, there's no window I can see out of at all.  This is taking staying in your house to a whole new level!  After priming the house they will do two coats of paint.

I had hoped to get a photo of the house before they started but they were too darn fast for me!  So, this is what I have to show for now.

West side - the back of the house

north side of house with my cactus garden.  One got kicked up and needed to be replanted...which is pretty darn easy.

East side - front of the house

south side of house and front

It's an adventure for sure and I'm so glad they could do it while I'm here to see the transformation.  When they get to doing the painting I imagined we'd all be over at Sandy's to watch the show.  However, they did it so fast it was almost over in one day.

First it was primed and looked so weird to be all white.

I caught this shot as he started and we watched the stripes on the trailer just disappear.  This was all done by one man alone who was very talented with the sprayer.  I'm guessing this will be over quite quickly.

Being basically trapped in my house I have no idea what's going on.  I texted Sandy earlier today to ask what was happening.  I was hearing voices, not that that's unusual...but these were in Spanish.

Later on in the day I got a text from Paul asking if I changed my mind on the door color, but that the shade of purple was nice.  I almost ripped the tape off the door to run outside but then remembered...this was Paul I was dealing with.

Sandy & Paul are doing their house next and now Chris wants an estimate as well.  Wanda had just had her house sided and started a wave of home improvements on Nash Street.  So, it's all her fault.

Long Live the Queen