Painting

Since the last update, for the most part I've been prepping the house for paint. I could have just thrown a layer of paint on the house and been done with it but in only a year or two it would be peeling because the older layers are in poor condition and the gutters weren't primed. I had to do the right thing and scrape / burn the old stuff off, and prime the gutters. This takes a lot more time than it sounds like it does. I focused more on the entry area than anywhere else because it's the most visible to us and anyone who comes over.

This is what it looked like both before and during the process. The grooves between pieces of siding were filled with paint and it was peeling away. The almond color around the old, ungrounded outlet is the color we decided to go with. I guess in terms of paint colors we've gone full circle back to the beginning. When I rework the front living room I'll put in grounded wiring and a new outlet.

This is another shot of the entry area. I cleaned up the area around the front door some, but since it's unclear whether we will replace only the actual front door or the front door + frame (likewise for the windows to the right) I didn't remove all paint back to the door itself. 

We plan on getting a door kit from Crestview Doors to replace whatever style door we have now. I would like to use the escutcheon that I bought off eBay that's almost too perfect to install, but it may not be compatible with my favorite door kit so we'l have to see... Replacing the door will come at the end of the living room/kitchen project anyway because the height of the floor by the front door will be changing, and that dictates what size door and side light we get.





















This is how the entry area looks now since I haven't painted beyond priming yet. You can see the lines for the paneling once again and there's no more peeling paint. If we decide we can't live with the wood up above I'm more likely to replace it than scrape the paint from it because it's just thin plywood. The old plywood would be recycled as flooring in the attic instead of being thrown away. In the long run it's not so important anyway because once it's time to re-roof we'll probably change the entire orientation of the roof and if that happens, there goes the plywood.

My plans beyond painting are to clean up the landscaping and repair our horrible fence. Then comes car maintenance and after that the big projects start up... With any luck that's only a month away.