Neighborly Love with Paint and Power Washers

You have probably figured out by now that I am married to a rather thoughtful man. He is always looking for ways to help others. In this case, he decided that the youth in our church could help with a service project for a great family.

He pitched an idea to the owners, and they decided to go along with it! We are painting a house!

On our first day of official work, it was cleaning-and-scraping day. The plan was to prep the house to get it entirely ready for primer and paint. Just like with everything, this step took longer than expected. But we still got a lot done!

The house, built in 1968, has had two coats of paint on it. This latest coat has been on at least since the early eighties. It was flaking off and was ready for a makeover!

If you look closely, you can see the original house color! When the house was first built it was green, and now it’s blue. The owners have picked out a beautiful warm gray and darker gray for contrast. It looks slightly dark olive green under the right light. It will be a beautiful update to this beautiful home with beautiful people inside!

Some of the prep work involved taking down some rotting wood. With no paint to protect it and the relentless Phoenix sun baking it, this wood didn’t stand a chance. Here, Hubby is pulling down the rotted stuff to replace it with new.

Paint was coming off the brick on the side of the house, too, which meant that lots of scraping had to happen to get the old off. Here is Tom, scraping away! We had lots of wonderful help today, which always makes any job easier.

CJ tackled the side of the house with wood. Once all of this old paint is off, we can power wash and prep it with primer. The original goal was to primer this past weekend, but rain threw a wrench into that plan. Now, we are headed over tomorrow to prime it so we can do the first coat of paint on Saturday.

Tony was here to help today, too. He spent most of his time wandering around telling people how hard he was working! Cracked me up.

This is an up-close shot of the trim surrounding the front of the house. It is a great view of the paint coming off in some places. With some power washing and a light sanding with a power sander, this will be ready to go with a new coating!

We will also paint the iron work. I have already spray-painted the house numbers, mailbox, and doorbell a beautiful brushed nickel metallic. No one is surprised by that, I’m sure.

I went shopping with the home owner, and we found a gorgeous porch light to replace this probably-original fixture. I even spray-painted the new light to match the same finish as the “new” numbers and mailbox! Everything matches and looks great! I can’t wait to put it back up on the house!

Everything that is dark will be painted the dark gray. We won’t be painting the bricks below but gave them a good scrubbing with the power washer. Just getting some dirt off made them look better. We have had lots of dust storms this past summer!

Isn’t this house adorable? I love the porthole window. And not just because I scrubbed off all the paint surrounding it with a wire brush!

Here we can see the power washer in action. This amazing machine did a lot of work for us today, saving us from even sanding some spots.

And now I want one. This thing was so cool!

Dave was the power washer extraordinaire today, but he taught the boys how to do it, too. Hubby’s goal through these service projects is not only to help others, but also to teach the boys things that will help them in their lives down the road.

See? Thoughtful!

The whole house got a washing, but it really made a visible difference by removing the flaking paint in lots of places.

Here is a corner that could use some loving.

And after a little wash, lots of that cracking paint was removed!

Dave was soaked by the time the house was clean. What a trooper!

To prep for painting, I removed the house numbers, mailbox, doorbell, and light fixture. This is going to look incredible when it’s all said and done!

I casually mentioned a fun color for the door, and I think that they are on-board! In their color palette is a beautiful red that would really pop against all of the new gray paint. We will be painting the door whatever fun color they choose and updating all of the trim in the light gray.

Who knew that power washing could be such a great preventer of sanding? We will still sand to prep the surface for primer and paint, but the power washer removed a lot of stuff that would eat through a ton of sand paper. I’m so glad!

 

Here Tom and Nathan exhibit perfect scraping skills still. This whole brick surface will look brand-new by the time they finish.

Here is the front after a good power washing! Hopefully, you won’t even recognize this house once all of the paint is up. And hopefully these boys will know how to paint a house after everything is finished!

Marshall is supervising Dave’s washing skills here. “You missed a spot…”

I removed lots of nails throughout the trim of the house. Some, like on these corner, simply needed to be hammered back into place. The others had been for Christmas lights forty years ago.

Payton worked hard while enjoying some music. I was impressed with some of these boys’ willingness to work.

Many hands make light work!

Some of the back patio trim had rotted away. We took down the old piece, and the new one has since been put up by another guy from church who does wood trim for a living. I love how everyone pitches in to make things happen!

Ted was pretty excited to be working so hard today. He is such a great man and a dear friend of ours!

Tom grinded some old nails to prep for the new wood. I love how the sparks are flying everywhere…including his glasses!

As you can see, we had some good workers today. We were just happy that people showed up to help. We got a lot done today, even if it wasn't entirely ready for primer and paint by the time we left this afternoon.

And the weather cooperated…unlike this past weekend. I hope we get some primer and paint on in the next few days! Even in the fall, exposed wood sitting under this sun is not a good thing!

And hopefully soon, this house will have a total facelift!

Do you think that Hubby’s crazy for doing this? You should have seen the looks he got when he first suggested it. I’m glad that it is all coming together and that so many people can learn from this and pitch in. It has been fun so far, and even more fun to help wonderful people and neighbors.

They certainly deserve it.