House Painting Begins

Rupert of Darlington Painting Services began the painting of the exterior of the house on Tuesday, 3 days ago.

My Makeshift Scaffolding for Sanding BR Window

There was a delay of one week while I waited for another quotation that came in at a whopping $5300 for two coats, compared with Rupert's $3200 that included a sealer and 2 top coats as well as filling in various gaps.  The other guy either didn't want the job or is still working to the exorbitant prices in the Northwest, from which he recently relocated.    In waiting for that quotation I missed out on a full week of splendid sunny weather, and now we are dealing with the return of rainy weather, but that's the way it goes.

All 3 Coats on Rear Wall

With much help from Stephen and Brenda I selected Dulux "Light Rice" as the color.  Stephen used his formidable computer skills to set up a system where we could quickly change the color schemes of a photo of the house and we soon accepted that "exciting" or "lively" colors would dominate the house and I decided to go for a gentle - and even boring - color that would blend in with the brick paving, stone wall, green roof, and surrounding vegetation.  Brenda helped me with the nuances of the various shades.  (I've learned to always get the opinion of a woman in issues of painting and decorating.)

Painted Rear Wall, with Sanded Wood Window

I think that my luck has held and I've come up with another winner with Rupert as the paint contractor.  He is a registered painter, lives on Darlington Road not far from here, is a family man who is surviving quite well in the raising of triplets (2 boys, 1 girl, now teenagers), and works very diligently.  We get along very well and it is always difficult for me to break off our conversation so that I can resume whatever I was doing.

At this point all of the house has been painted with a sealer ("Spring" brand by Dulux) and the back wall is finished with 2 topcoats of British Paints "4 Seasons" exterior low sheen acrylic (with UV protection and a 25 year guarantee).  Rupert is now working around the rest of the house.  Rupert assured me that laying down a coat a sealer had been a good decision because even though the brochure on the siding material stated that the planks were already sealed, in fact the sealer was being sucked hard into the planking.

One of the Color Schemes Using Stephen's Software

His brief includes the painting of the metal drain pipes and exhaust vent cowlings as well as the woodwork under the eaves.

Before Rupert's arrival I realized that I had better sand the 4 wooden windows before the top coats were put on the house so I spent 4 hard days sanding one window per day, using a belt sander, a half-sheet orbital sander, and a small palm sander, followed by hand sanding of various nooks and crannies.  The sanding is now finished and after Rupert finishes his work I'll arrange with Paul to do all of the architrave work around the exterior of the house, which will take days.  I will spare no expense in that work because the those trimmings around the house will have a huge effect in the appearance of the house.  Once that is done I will paint the windows and surrounding woodwork.  Also, I'll have to replace two cracked panes and do a lot of re-glazing.