And then we rested....

Okay, so the paint has been stored away, the Advil refilled, the scrapers and brushes cleaned. The back of our house looks like Ty Pennington came and kissed it goodnight. It looks great! I have to toot our horn. My husband and I worked our tail ends off on this project, and we almost thought it had us licked a few times. Remember, this is ONLY the back of the house...we must stay humble here, there are several other sides that still need ALL of this work to be done to it. Here it is from start to finish.


Nice spider! Check out the bubbling paint behind him. This picture was taken a few years ago. We need to give you the full extent of "before".

Here is JM when he was TWO! He is now six. Look really closely at the back of the house. Yes, peeling paint. Been going on for years, and the house was becoming an eyesore, and the risk of permanent damage to our house was very real.

Here is my husband's two year odyssey of scraping paint. He used a scraper, paint sander, and an ultraviolet heater. It was back breaking work, and he deserves free Advil for life for what it took to do that.

Here is my handy work after his two year journey. This is primer. We thought that looked so nice after looking at scraped wood for so long. This is the basement window. Look closely. Previous owners of our home have painted it, and took the easy way out and didn't tape the windows. So, we had to try to scrape paint off of glass. I do believe in doing a project right, just wait, you'll read more on that later. In the process of trying to scrape paint, we broke the glass. Okie dokie! I hired a friend to make me a new one, and it looks great! Wait until you see my "ta da" photo at the end. But again, I want you to languish through the whole process with me.
This doesn't look like much, but the whole back of the house got caulked. No leaks!

Here is the back of the house painted! Nice huh? Remember, I like to do projects like this right. What isn't painted? Yes, the basement window and the foundation. By now the foundation has paint drips forever on it, plus it's just plain cement. If we could only paint it and seal it at the same time....hmmmmm.....had to convince the husband that would be great to do.

Here is the NEW basement window from the inside. Blue tape? What is that you might ask. It's painters tape that costs a few dollars, and makes a project like this look a thousand times better. Better yet, I taped off the hinges! I live in an 80 year old house where every single hinge is painted. Why? Have you ever heard someone on HGTV say, "What a nice touch. Love to see it when homeowners take that extra step to paint the hinges and door handles." NO! Don't do it! Take the three minutes it takes to tape it. Then use artist's brushes to paint around it. You'll still leave a splotch, I guarantee it. Use a rag and wipe it off. Somebody smack me unconscious if you ever see me paint a hinge!

What is that AM? Well, that is an eighty year old hinge from my dining room that more than one previous homeowner over the years has painted. If I ever want to remove that hinge, it will take a very sharp knife and some unkind words. What really stinks, once the first person does it, the rest of us homeowners have to do it. I did end up painting an exterior light fixture because I couldn't leave it blue! It's either paint it or get a new one....and we're already into this project too many dollars as it is. The fixture works, and it's now mocha in color.

Okay, are you holding your breath? I am not kidding, the final results are more than I expected and I am so pleased. What is really sick. I am trying to think of how to squeeze in some more stripping, caulking, priming, painting, taping, edging on another side of the house before it gets too rainy. Fat chance! Next summer.

Ta da! The window that looks pristine and we can actually get light through now. My poor plants. Those plants are currant bushes, not looking too bushy right now.
















The handsome house. We love it. I love the foundation, I love the new window. I love thinking about the rest of our house looking so good.