Painting the Porch Railings

 

Trying to paint the porch railings,

and this grotesque thing climbed onto the base

 while I was taking a break.

 

Seriously the most gigantic slug,

 or snail, or whatever it is, I've ever seen.

 

Thank goodness, Terry moved him for me.

 

Two coats so far.

This black is not easy to cover.

 

But I can tell I'm going to like it.

 

There he is.

Terry set him on a rock,

and he watched us paint.

 Ha ha.,, ewwww.

 

Terry still had some energy,

 so he painted the inside of the door.

 

Needs some molding.

 

The porch project will have to wait now,

because tomorrow we go to work at mom's house.

 

 

Get the Expensive Storm Door...

 

There's the nasty old door...

 

and here's the new door.

 

(See the black porch rails?)

I will be painting those white...

 

I really want some new white wood

 or PVC porch railings,

 but we need new porch steps first,

 so for now I'm just going to paint them.

 

What a big difference it made;

just painting the entry door,

 and installing a new storm door.

 

Oh yea,

and some tuck pointing by Terry,

 and brick washing, and general cleaning...

 

We learned a lesson;

buy the expensive storm door.

 

There is definitely a difference

 in quality and installation.

 

I'm happy.

Curb Appeal

 

Here we go.

Terry came home from work,

and we got to it...

 

He used a grinder to remove

 all of the crumbling mortar

 from the decorative cement around the door.

 

There's the old storm door.

Bye-bye.

 

I painted the door jamb and

I painted the entry door a nice shade of beige.

 

Here's the mortar joints ready for new cement.

 

He's getting pretty proficient at this tuck pointing thing...

 

After all the tuck pointing and the painting,

 it was 8:00 at night when we finally pulled

 the new storm door out of the box.

 

It fit like a glove, and went on

 with none of the usual nonsense

 this house fights us with.

(Perhaps because we bought a more expensive door)

 

It got dark,

 and the mosquitoes attacked,

 and we will finish it up tomorrow...

September Morn

 

This is a messy batch of pictures I took;

in no order whatsoever...

 

 

We finished putting cedar up

 on this wall in the basement.

It looked great until morning

when the sun shined on it and you could see

 the underlayment through the seams.

 

So we took it all down and

took a break for a few days.

 

New storm door for the front entry.

Ready to hang...

 

Terry's ingenious invention for cleaning out the gutters.

 

Terry's estate sale shovel

that he refurbished,

and it looks brand new.

 

It's so dry,

our ground looks like the desert.

 

So we finally got back to the wall.

We just stacked the boards

 instead of bricklaying them,

 and it worked out much better.

 

Now his messy workshop is hidden from view,

and the cedar smells wonderful.

 

Trying to clean up the whole basement.

 

Back to the entry door...

 

There it is, what a mess.

 

We were going to buy a new door and storm door,

but after much debate,

(and seeing the prices of new doors)

we decided to keep the door we have

 and just update the storm door.

 

As bad as I would like a beautiful new door

 with leaded glass window insert,

 I realize that it would be ridiculous

 to spend that kind of money

 when the old door just needs to be painted.

 

So, no window...

but $500 still in my pocket.

Logging Saw

 

Still working on this logging saw...

 

I think I'm almost done.

 

Hard to take a panoramic that you can see,

so I broke it down...

 

My favorite thing is the fisherman in the boat.

 

Just a few more little things to touch up.

I hope my brother likes this.

Labor Day Weekend

It's boiling hot outside,

so we go down to the basement.

 

I did some cleaning and rearranging,

 and some painting in my art workshop.

 

Terry finally hung up the paper towel dispenser

that was gifted to us when we moved in.

Pretty cool.

 

Terry got to work on the dividing wall for his workshop.

I moved some shelving into the "dead space room"

 under the porch, and loaded it up with my excess tile.

 

Here's the beginning's of a wall...

 

And there is the wall.

 

Tonight, Terry worked on moving electrical stuff around...

 

and I worked on the logging saw

 that my brother wanted me to paint a scene on.

 

My first try was not eagerly accepted,

so I am trying again...

 

Hmm... the things that keep us busy...