It is Started

The ladder's up along the house and you know what that means: I'm finally getting back to the painting. And none too soon.

The paint on this triangle section (east side) is in terrible shape. You can click on the pictures for a larger view if you need some proof of my opinion. I had already scraped the top part by the vent when I took this pic but you can see all the white of the worn away paint elsewhere.

I got a nice day as far as weather. The day was a little hotter than I expected and I didn't apply sunscreen quite as thoroughly as I should have so I'm a little red in places. It was a good reminder to hit this project pretty steadily because I sure do not want to be doing it in July's heat! Fortunately by 2:00 or so the peak is mostly in the shade and it is more comfortable.

Stage 1 mostly done

The bugs, however, are bad at any hour. There's a wasp nest I can't quite reach right at the very peak. I get a little nervous when I see the three of them colluding on how they can get rid of the interloper (me). I don't have a lot of options for retaliation or defence 20 feet up on a ladder. The spiders are mad because I'm wrecking all their webs. And the flies just like to land on my ankles and make me jumpy.

Once Troy moves the ladder for me again so I can reach the right side I can hopefully complete the scraping (stage 1). We'll have some repairs to do (caulking for instance) but all of the shingles are intact, at least. And then I'll be looking at two coats of primer and the two coats of paint...big sigh. I find even the thought of it exhausting. I need blinders so I only look at the part of the project immediately in front of me.

And then I have 4 more peaks to do and all the window trims. (Look at the above pic. I've scraped off the top of the window but all the paint coming off the sides is coming off quite voluntarily. But I can fix that right: it just takes some work and time.

And by the end of all this standing on ladders I am going to have some amazing calf muscles!!