Stripping/Painting and Soccer

What has my week been consumed with? Yes, soccer and painting. As you can tell by some of my before photos, you would almost think "Why strip it? Just put a high powered blower on your house?" If it were only that simple! We have paint peeling like crazy on our house, and yes, when we start stripping there are obvious spots that are easy, it's the other parts that require arthritis inducing pain. We have found that just good old fashioned scraping with a putty knife is good. We also found a way cool product called the Speedheater Infrared Paint Remover. It uses ultraviolet rays to heat the old paint and it bubbles up and comes off with a sharp knife type blade. It's much safer that a heat gun. I have talked to so many people who have set their house on fire with those. This is much safer, and I highly recommend them. Ask me more about that if you want.

One thing they haven't invented, how to strip paint quickly for the lay person. Yes, if we had the "This Old House" crew here, it would be done in a minute. If we had the "Extreme Makeover" crew here, they would tear it down, and we like our 80 year old cute house!

My husband finished stripping last weekend, and it turned out I had a free day today, so I started in on priming it. We have bought a pretty spendy, high grade, primer. We don't want to do this any time soon. Oh, did I mention? To strip off one side of our house, this is our second summer working on it? Haven't invented the speedy method for the lay person on a budget.

Just some basic peeling here.
This is the south side our house, which going to be done next summer. And we have a plan to try to speed it up so it gets stripped, primed and painted in one summer. Right KM??
My husband's artistry. He was just finishing the trim on the windows when I took this shot.

Here is my artistry. That is the primer. Nice huh? Even if we decide to be lazy and not do a thing more, this side of the house is finally protected after several years just because it has primer on it. It is such a relief! By the way, you can't see it, but we did invest in one of those very cool Little Giant Ladders. Love it, couldn't do this without it. Recommend it.

Oh! Soccer began this week. This is JM's first practice, and that is his coach in the background. I was impressed. The boys got put through their paces at practice. JM went up one league this year from Munchkin League, which is basic beginner, to U8 (Under 8), which is a little more focused and competitive.

And then there is BH. He is modeling his cute little authentic futball uniform a friend brought back from the UK. He's getting geared up for Munchkin League in a few years.

JM has the Michael Jordan tongue thing. That is our pastor's son running like crazy along side.

That last picture with the boys wearing their uniforms was this morning. There was a big jamboree, kickoff, start the season woo hoo. And the coach had them play a scrimmage, and that was intense! This isn't Munchkin League anymore! They will practice every time they are with their coach, and it ain't just shooting balls between cones either!

The pain is starting to set in. I do actually like to paint. I have painted interiors more than exteriors. But it's nice that a day's work can produce some pretty nice results. I primed the side on a house today! Anyway, the ache is beginning. My fingers are sore, my legs are sore from standing on a ladder, my shoulders ache from reaching up and far. Plus, I have oil based primed flecked in my hair. I am not pretty, but the back of the house is!

Three Advil Liqui-Gels.....coming right up!