The End Is Nigh!

... at least, we hope so.

We're now in Week 8 of our 3-week painting project. That's what the painting contractor told us: three weeks and X dollars, where X is some fraction of what we've actually spent so far. Seriously, this paint job is costing half as much as it cost to buy our first house.

But it's really pretty.

We've got seven colors in total instead of the four we started with. With the help of an actual, professional colorist we tweaked the two main colors (the red and the blue) a little bit, added a new glossy white in addition to the main white color, and brought in new gold and brown colors. These last two go on the "acorns" up high, plus a few of the small details elsewhere. Overall, we're really happy with the result.

The neighbors and passers-by seem pleased with it, too. We can't step outside without someone stopping to chat, comment, or give us a thumbs-up. We haven't heard a single complaint. The sole exception was one of our good neighbors who said she didn't like the "fuchsia color" but then immediately backtracked the next day. I think she sensed she was in the minority and had maybe hurt someone's feelings.

There was briefly (very briefly) an eighth color. The painter added a pale purple color over the front door while we weren't looking, but immediately admitted it was a mistake. We agreed, strenuously, and begged him to paint over it. Maybe that's what the neighbor was complaining about.

It seems like the bulk of the painting was done a few weeks ago. The guys keep showing up every morning, but it's getting harder and harder to tell what they're actually doing. To be fair, they spend a lot of their time painting on a second coat, which doesn't look any different but takes just as long. And a lot of it is detail work, like painting narrow bits of trim inside the window frames. That can take a long time but not look like much. Still, we're getting pretty tired of looking out through the scaffolding. Kathy and I have threatened to finish off the details ourselves. The painters are very good and we like them. They're just... thorough.

Now we're down to the short strokes, literally, and the scaffolding is scheduled to come down next week. There's nothing up high anymore that they need to reach. Today they're painting the front and back doors and steps, which you can obviously do from ground level.


The new downspouts arrived a few days ago and got painted, and they're being installed at this moment. And we need to find a way to install little hooks for Christmas lights all around the upper story. We've never been able to hang lights higher than the first floor (i.e., the height of my ladder) and this seems like the perfect time to remedy that situation.

Fortunately, the weather has been perfect -- 68 degrees and sunny -- almost every day since this whole project began. That's good, because we've had the furnace off for most of that time because all the windows and doors were standing open. Even without heat in the house for two months, we've been pretty comfortable. It also means the painters have gone through an amazing amount of Gatorade, cola, and iced tea. I think the drinks alone have added $500 to the painting bill.

Oh, well. Almost done. In a few days the scaffolding will come down and we'll finally get our first clear and unobstructed look at the house. I hope we still like it!