Spray Painting the House

I am feeling better every day. The physical punishment from the cancer treatments and the surgery is getting lighter slowly but surely. After three years—showing numerous battle scars—I feel like I have returned. My landscaping business and my sweet wife keep me busy on several levels. But last week I had a promise to keep. The time had come for a “Happy Wife, Happy Life” moment. The house needed painting.

We live in Summerville Park, which is a nice older subdivision not far from downtown Rome, Georgia. Actually, this week the neighborhood is celebrating its centennial anniversary. I think our house was built in the mid nineteen-twenties, way before lumber sizes were standardized.

When word got out around my friend and contractor circles that I wanted to paint the house, I got lots of prices and advice. Several people told me that I would be wise to install vinyl siding. My answer to that was, “One does not put vinyl on a house that was built in 1928 and then beautified with six inch drop lap siding some time in the mid fifties.” What I didn’t say was that times were hard and I needed to economize.

So I got together with my wise and funny son, Paul, and we made a plan. I would get everything ready and he would come over on a Saturday afternoon and spray it for me.

My wonderful landscape helper, Victor Hugo, is always looking for extra work. I enlisted his help. I rented a pressure washer, bought a few paint scrapers, and put him to work.

One of the things I needed to do myself was to take tape and painter’s paper and mask the windows. I thought I would take off Friday morning, do the taping, and relax that afternoon.  It turned into quite a job, though, and I didn’t finish until the next day. I enjoyed the way the taped up windows looked from the inside with the afternoon sun shining through.

Paul called late Friday and told me that his plans had changed and he had to work on Saturday. He said that he could be at the house ready to spray by three o’clock. I started having doubts as to whether we would finish the job on Saturday I rented a sprayer for the weekend. Saturday morning, Victor and I decided that we (he) should brush paint the fascia so that we would avoid spraying paint on the roof shingles. He took care of that while I taped up paper and made other preparations.

Good old Paul showed up right on time. The weather was magnificent. I was watching the sun roll across the sky as we fiddled with the sprayer and got everything working just right. All three of us went to work. I was amazed at how efficient the spray gun was. Paul had told me that it would take four hours. He finished in three and a half. I had to go get more paint at one point.

We got everything sort of cleaned up. I pulled the masking tape and paper off of the lower windows and opened them a bit so they wouldn’t stick shut. I admired our work in what was left of the evening sun.

I was tired. Wife was happy. That’s a good situation. There’s still a lot to do, but the main part is over with. I think the most care at this point will be to continue the discussion of exactly what shade of blue the shutters will be painted.

Thanks for visiting John the Plant Man.  We had a tornado come by Summerville Park a couple of years ago. Here is an article about fixing up for our neighbor Ken Nance

As usual, I would just love for you click here to go to Amazon and purchase the ebook edition of my wonderful book, Requiem for a Redneck to go on your Kindle. I have also noticed that Amazon now has a free Kindle app for iphones and tablets. Is that cool or what?