House work
As many of you know, Ell and I have been busy trying to downsize our life. The biggest thing we're eliminating is our house. There are a few things, some of them major, that need done to make the house a little more appealing in this down housing market. One of the bigger projects is painting the house. While slapping paint on wood sounds fairly simple, when you're dealing with a 190 year old house there tend to be many problems and the problems tend to be complex.
The short list of what needs done before paint can be applied...
-Pressure washing the dirt and old paint off the siding
-Scraping and sanding the siding
-Replacing a rotten support board on the front of the house
-Tearing down and rebuilding a bulkhead (rafter support)
-Trimming out the porch
-Replacing missing wooden siding
-Trimming out the new windows on the front and back of house
-Moving electrical wires and light fixtures
-Pressure washing and applying soap and cleaner to the porch floor
-Aluminum siding removed from log part of house
-Caulking every board, trim, window, door, corner, edge, hole, gap, and all the other things that need it in a 190 year old house
I already wrote about the work that was done two Saturdays ago, and I worked almost all of this past weekend as well. The painting is scheduled for this Saturday at 10:00 am, but unfortunately about half of the list above still needs completed. Almost every step of the job has ended up being harder and taken longer than originally thought, and I had already been rather generous with my expectations. I'm either fighting with the gaps and holes that come with a log house, or having to replace the horrible workmanship of people who added onto that log house with horrible construction skills.
It sounds like I'm complaining, but I'm really enjoying all this. Sometimes I feel so lazy pushing papers and typing keys all day, that hard physical labor refreshes me like nothing else. As Adrienne always says, the banker title doesn't seem to fit me. If the feeling of being alive that I've felt the last few weeks is any indicator, she might be right. I still yearn to work with people, but I don't think the image of my dad working hard every day will ever stop being my life-ruler.
If you have no plans on Saturday, come on over. We're providing lunch, and will even accept special beer orders for after the work is done. (I'll also accept any help anyone offers during the evenings this week. How's that for begging?) Peace.
The short list of what needs done before paint can be applied...
-Pressure washing the dirt and old paint off the siding
-Scraping and sanding the siding
-Replacing a rotten support board on the front of the house
-Tearing down and rebuilding a bulkhead (rafter support)
-Trimming out the porch
-Replacing missing wooden siding
-Trimming out the new windows on the front and back of house
-Moving electrical wires and light fixtures
-Pressure washing and applying soap and cleaner to the porch floor
-Aluminum siding removed from log part of house
-Caulking every board, trim, window, door, corner, edge, hole, gap, and all the other things that need it in a 190 year old house
I already wrote about the work that was done two Saturdays ago, and I worked almost all of this past weekend as well. The painting is scheduled for this Saturday at 10:00 am, but unfortunately about half of the list above still needs completed. Almost every step of the job has ended up being harder and taken longer than originally thought, and I had already been rather generous with my expectations. I'm either fighting with the gaps and holes that come with a log house, or having to replace the horrible workmanship of people who added onto that log house with horrible construction skills.
It sounds like I'm complaining, but I'm really enjoying all this. Sometimes I feel so lazy pushing papers and typing keys all day, that hard physical labor refreshes me like nothing else. As Adrienne always says, the banker title doesn't seem to fit me. If the feeling of being alive that I've felt the last few weeks is any indicator, she might be right. I still yearn to work with people, but I don't think the image of my dad working hard every day will ever stop being my life-ruler.
If you have no plans on Saturday, come on over. We're providing lunch, and will even accept special beer orders for after the work is done. (I'll also accept any help anyone offers during the evenings this week. How's that for begging?) Peace.
posted by Sam at 11:22 AM
4 Comments:
Sam if i lived closer i'd be right there. For now however all i can offer is prayer for good weather and strong backs.
Wish I could be there to help. hope you have a great workday, though.
I don't think I can make it for a weekend - hard work on a beautiful day is absolutely refreshing though!
I guess if it sounds like too much fun, I could do some of the thirty billion projects right here on CR A!
Anywho, I always find it a tad bit ironic how much work people put into their homes when it comes time to sell.
Adam has a long list of things he'd have to do around here before we sold it - I tell him if he does all that, I just might want to keep it! :)
Yeah, it is ironic how much we're doing just to sell it. And people have actually suggested we won't want to sell when it's all done. But I take a little different opinion on it. All (well, most) of the work we're doing is just to make it look better. It won't affect the ability the house has to secure us in it; in other words it won't change its livability. All we're doing is making it look better so it fits into the happy little picture of what others think it's "supposed" to look like. It's a classic case of keeping up with the Jones'. I'm sorry if this sounds snippy, I get so annoyed with the culture of look good over function good. Our house functions just fine without (almost) any of the work we're doing to it. Crazy, huh?
Post a Comment
<< Home