So Troy gets up early this morning, like he often does, to play on his tractor while I am sleeping some more. But this morning, when he comes back into the house, instead of being proud of the work he has accomplished before even going to work in the morning, he is muttering loudly and berating himself. What is it? Well, he got the last inspection on the trench so he got all fired up to fill it in. It has, after all, been open for a couple months now. Only after filling in a good portion of it did he remember that he was planning to insulate the sewer pipe because it is quite shallow. Doh!! He has decided to dig it back up and try again...
I, meanwhile, got started on a job I've been moaning about for too long: the painting of the shingles on the side of the house. (I think they're shingles; I don't know what else to call them.) Of course, painting doesn't start with painting. So first I put wheels on the section of scaffolding (yes I have scaffolding--aren't I spoiled?) and moved it to the right place. This took more time than you would think it should. And I am not as strong as maybe I could be... Then I built a platform to stand on. Then I got a scraper and started scraping off the loose paint. This is when I discover that this will be a lot more than painting. (Is anyone surprised?) First, there are a lot of missing shingles which the last people ignored, but which I don't think I can. And second, a lot of the shingles that are there, are there because the paint is holding them there. It's not pretty.
Anyway, I got the scraping all done before the sun moved over to that side of the house and I decided I was done. Thankfully it's in the shade until about 1:30, so that's is a good chunk of time to work in the shade.
Here is what I'm dealing with:
This is only a little portion of what needs to be done, but I think it's one of the worst. Knock on wood. (Other sections are closer to the roof and vertical so they get less rain damage.) Not a lot of paint left, is there? There aren't a lot of nails holding the shingles left either. I wonder if it used to all be rounded shingles. The ones with the corners cut off at an angle do not look as well done as the rounded ones (and they would be a lot easier), and the square cut ones on the bottom two rows don't match at all. But I don't know. There's a variety of cuts on the sections above, so they may not have all matched.
This is the worst section:
I will have Troy look at it and render judgment and I hope we don't have to replace anything under the shingles. It did, however, feel pretty spongey.
I've been working on the west side which I don't have a picture of. But very similar to it is the east side, seen here on the right:
So I've been working on the little piece of "roof" over the window, but the plans are to repaint all the sections that are blue a very similar blue. If you look closely at the upper section you can see that some rows are rounded and some are squared off, but the even the diamond shapes don't match the window portion. I'm thinking it was a quick repair.
And do I see hearts on the lowest row of rounded shingles? On my house--hearts!? Ah!! What am I going to do about that!
Other than that, the only news is that we worked together (imagine that!) and got the TV antennae in the attic. It is nice to no longer have it suspended from the precarious living room ceiling, and our reception has improved dramatically. I can almost get ABC now. (The rest are good.)
Ta ta,
christina
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