Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Changing the color of a house is a big decision.  A decision that is costly and not easily changed.  We love this house, but don't plan to spend our golden years here.  It's too big for us once most of the children have flown the nest.  Originally, we planned planned to put gray siding on the wooden parts of the house and then paint the cement a blue-gray.  There were 4 5-gallon containers of polymer paint in the basement from the previous owners.  We mixed in a 5-gallon container of white into the gray to lighten it a bit.  

I began scraping the cement and cement blocks to prepare for the paint.  I completed the scraping and painting on the bottom floor of two sides of the house before I broke my wrist. 

 

Notice under the window where Mike repaired the cement.

Mike also climbed up the 85' ladder to paint the second floor.

About this time, Mike decided that he didn't want a gray house.  We looked at various options in siding.  We considered replacing the missing lattice on the wooden parts of the house and painting the entire house.

 Mike now had the added work of scraping the remaining cement sides of the building and scraping two side of the house that were wood.  He realized the the vines that had grown up on the one side of the house had created a texture on the cement that wasn't easily removed by scraping.  It was necessary to power wash and sand with an electric sander to remove the imprint of the vines. 

 The more we looked at the various joints and edges to the house, we decided to install new siding over all the wood portions of the house.  The gray will be used as a primer, which will be covered with the same color as the siding.

Even though we will be changing the color of the blue-gray, I still think it is a vast improvement over the nasty, peeling yellow and brown.

Mike began installing the siding by wrapping with and insulating paper.  Hopefully, our house will be less drafty this coming winter.

The windows that he installed in the fall were pulled out, so the siding could go into the channel on the sides.  Yet another project for poor Mike.

First dormer window partially finished.  I love the sage green that Mike picked.  None of the houses near us have this color and it is fairly neutral.

Mike will be working on the siding project probably for the rest of the summer.  It's his first time installing siding and hopefully it will get easier and quicker as he progresses more.