So what do you think?
As you might imagine, I have a squillion things - or possibly a squillion and seven, I can't quite remember - to do before we leave, so I'll fill you in on the details next week.
I think it's safe to say that I am very, very happy with the end result. It's still a little old house, but it's a much happier one than it was.
Well, before-ish, really. This is what has consumed the past several decades of my life: scrape, scrape, scrape, and brush, brush, brush (with a wire brush to remove remaining loose paint), followed by paint, paint, paint, and then some more paint, paint, paint.
There was also a lot of paint chip collecting. I had to get them cleaned up as well as I could because there's lead in the old paint. A lot of them fell onto the sheets of plastic I put down, but a lot of them were already on the ground. Seems to me I spent an awful lot of time literally sifting through the dirt for chips with a plastic sieve. And of course, as soon as I went through an area, another chip would fall off from higher up where I hadn't scraped. Sheesh!
On the upside, though, there were places where the paint was so bad that all I had to do was look at it and it fell off the weatherboards.
This first photo is from the front and side. Everything that's painted white? I did that. My hands are not happy with me, but they'll get over it.
I painted everything with an undercoat called peel bond that is supposed to help stick down old paint that can't easily be scraped off. It was a bit like painting with wood glue, and since it dried clear I painted on the white undercoat so the painters can see where I've been.
I did some patching here and there, and some of it I'm not very happy with, but I doubt anyone's going to notice except me.
The back:
Here's the driveway side:
And here's the front again:
I calculate I did a bit less than two-thirds of it, which should save us a decent amount of money. Daniel replaced some of the trim around the top - I'm too scared of heights to go up that high.
Right now, I'm not sure if it was worth it (I've had a gutful of painting for a while!), but I imagine it will be once the professionals have finished everything off and I don't have to come home to a sad old house any more.
The Painters-Who-Hopefully-Know-What-They're-Doing started work this morning (Monday our time), and depending on the weather they should be done by the end of the week. It's perishingly hot today, so I doubt they'll be able to put in a full day. Still, I think we'll be able to enjoy it for a few days before we head home for our visit. Can't wait to see how it turns out.
And I'll FINALLY be able to get back into my garden and see if there are any plants in there amongst the weeds. I have my doubts, I think they've all left for more welcoming homes where people actually look after their plants.
What colour did we choose, I hear you ask? Well, it wasn't either of the ones I posted about.
Can we see this new colour, I hear you ask? Well, I had to paint over it and, sadly, I neglected to take a photo of it before I did that. Oh dear. I guess you're just going to have to wait and see.
Cheers!
