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.

It’s An Animal House

I got to thinking lately…and you know that can’t be good.

For a person who isn’t crazy about owning animals (and we never will), we sure do have a bunch of fake ones throughout our house. I’ve added several since I last showed you around the place, so today seems to be a good day to introduce them to you.

Almost every room in the house has an animal in some form. And I love that.

This is Donkit. His not-so-distant cousin, Bunkey, lives in Albuquerque with my good friend, Susan. Donkit came to live with me as a wedding present from Susan and Robin, some of my favorite people in the world.

Donkit and Bunkey received their names when they got teased at school for not quite knowing what they were. Is it a rabbit? Or a donkey? Oh well. Donkit it is. Is that a bunny, or a donkey? Man, it’s getting harder to tell these days. We’ll just name him Bunkey! Combining two unknowns can make a known, in my scientific world.

Donkit happily lives in my office and reminds me of dear friends every time I’m in here working. He was made in Santa Fe is one of the most thoughtful presents that I’ve ever received.

You’ve already met my Moose. It feels weird saying that. He lives in the guest bathroom. Because what could be more welcoming than a moose in such an environment?

My sentiments exactly.

This little owl has been living in our bedroom for a few months now. I really like him, though he looks a little creepy up close.

See what I mean? Creepy to the ninth degree.

Can we get this guy some wrinkle cream, please?!

I found this little duck in Goodwill and promptly paid the $0.50 price tag. Animals aren’t as cheap as they once were, that’s for dang sure. A little bit of metallic spray paint fixed him right up, and now he greets our sleepover guests in the spare bedroom.

I peek in there every time I pass. Seeing ducks in my house just makes me happy. Maybe it’s just a phase. I just hope I’m doing it in a way that won’t make people cringe in four-hundred years when they excavate our house.

“Good grief, what were they thinking? Is that a spray-painted duck?!”

I love him. And that’s really all that matters, right?

You’ve already met this guy before, too. He is one of our first animal additions and has been happy here since we hammered his neck to the wall in a respectful manner last year. He is really quite polite and happily invites people into our house every time the doorbell rings.

I didn’t realize how many encyclopedia sets a gazelle could buy from solicitors!

He kinda has an Egyptian vibe going on with those eyes. He must get that from Hubby’s side of the family. I’m not nearly cool enough to be associated with Egypt.

Can you see her? I love this little duck. That’s right. TWO ducks in one house! And, if we’re being honest here, I’m always on the look-out for another. My motto in life is that one can never have too many ducks.

This is actually one of my favorite views of the house. I love walking down the hall from the bedrooms towards the living room and seeing this sight. After adding this blue glass vase, this is one of my favorite areas in my whole house!

It helps that a metallic silver duck is perched by the blue glass vase, mind you.

Isn’t she pretty? Quack!

When I’m slaving away in a hot kitchen, this is my view of my living room. Have I mentioned lately how very much I love my scorpion-free home? For many reasons. But I must admit…the animals just add to my love.

Now towards the other side of the house in my “reading nook.” This area is far from done, and a fake fireplace insert has been on my want-list for a long time. We also need a comfy and colorful rug underneath, since it’s practically impossible to read barefoot without something soft touching the feet.

I’m presently trying to convince Hubby how cool a used wood pallet wall would look instead of these fake, painted bricks. Texture, Nature, wood…it would bring lots of neat elements to this side of the house. I’ve seen it done here, but it would be all around our fireplace instead of as a headboard.

Since Hubby isn’t on board just yet with my wood pallet idea, let’s simply enjoy our fine green steed. He has been with us for quite a while now, too, and I’m happy to report that the potty training went very well. Hardly any accidents.

Look at that smug grin. He seems to know a secret that none of us do. I hope it has nothing to do with his recent potty training success.

One last view of a horse. I love this part of the house because of all the bright colors. But it needs something more. If I can’t get Hubby to like my wood pallet idea, then maybe I will paint this as a feature wall.

Wood would be way cooler.

So, now you’ve met and re-met all of the animals in our place. I certainly have fun trying to meet our animal-acquisition quota each month. And the best part is that not a single one of these animals sheds or requires feeding!

That we know of…