Friday, September 26, 2014

paint by the foot

These past few days have been beautiful, and it looks like we'll be getting more of the same in the upcoming week.  I've been using the time to wrap up some painting I started much earlier in the summer - the plan had been to be much further along, but sick dogs, a spike in paying work and a troublesome neighbor managed to throw a wrench in those plans.


This part of the house was in wretched condition when we bought it.  A window had been removed, and the hole filled with fiberglass insulation covered with a piece of plywood.  The rotted built-in gutter and leaking downspout were pouring directly into the hole, which made a lovely spongy home for a colony of carpenter ants.  On the interior, this space had been walled off from the rest of the bedroom to form a kitchen of sorts, with a collapsing drop ceiling and a nice 50's steel sink cabinet that had never been installed.

and yes, they removed tile to build that wall...

braving the plywood and temporary tar paper
We have no idea why this window was removed, although I did pull out pieces of broken glass from under the floorboards - our best guess is that it's one of the windows used to fill in the doorway and stained glass window in the original entry from when the house was divided and the entry moved.  We think the other window in the entry came from our office - which has a little wood replacement window.  When we restore the entry we'll move the two windows in there to these two spots - for now I'll count my blessings that I found a used replacement window with the perfect dimensions at the Habitat Restore for $15.  While I'm usually the first to expound on the evils of vinyl, there's a time and a place for everything.


When we installed the window we jerry-rigged a new sill and trim that will be replaced when we re-install the correct window.  Since the restored window will be slightly different dimensions, it didn't make much sense to spend too much time or money on it.  Same goes for the cedar shingles, we replaced what we had to when we put in the window, but the rest are at the end of their lifespan and will get dealt with later.


None of this had been painted, caulked, stained or primed though, so three years later I conned the flying monkey into helping me set up some scaffolding.  Convincing him wasn't too hard being that water was making it's way in through the un-caulked window.  Half a tube of Sika-flex bronze later, this section of the house is water tight (why can't they make a brick color though!).  Many hours of scraping, sanding and filling later and I was able to prime everything, although it wasn't until yesterday that I actually got paint up.  


the flashing had to be re-glued and clamped

primed, stained and caulked
two months for 15 feet of trim...
from the inside, just need to finish plastering
 Hopefully this slow progress isn't how the rest of the painting will go, on the other hand, I bought scaffolding casters, which may have been my best idea ever.

9 comments:

  1. Wow, this is insane. The house is really lucky to have found you! And you're right, this is one of the very few vinyl window applications that I totally approve of.

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    1. Well, the house would be luckier if it had met someone with deep pockets, but at least we've kept it from caving in so far. And I never would have thought plastic windows would have me doing a dance in the aisle of the Restore, but live and learn...

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  2. Your house is so beautiful! I love all the architectural details of it. And I also totally approve of the vinyl window in this situation. Much better than a colony of carpenter ants! Ewww!

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    1. The ants were so much less disgusting than the soggy wood though. At least until they starting biting....

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  3. Vinyl is a perfectly acceptable stop-gap measure. It's when people make it permanent that I take issue with :)

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    1. Exactly! Seeing it up close while painting made me twitch though - but at least I got to support Habitat by buying something for once, instead of just donating....

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  4. Your temporary window is perfect for the situation, and it will prevent further damage that the old plywood and roofing felt was allowing. From a distance, with the painted trim, no one will be the wiser. Congrats, BTW, for getting the painting done ... I still haven't figured out how to keep momentum to get to that point.

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    1. Well, the only painting that's done is this corner and the new work in front. It's a shame this summer was such a disaster, I was just getting into a groove with it - didn't even have a chance to use my new abatron!

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