Mother May I

If weather permits I’m going to start painting the porch tomorrow. This morning I woke up to either a heavy fog or a very light mist, depending on how you want to look at it. By 8:00, though, it had cleared up. Well, “cleared up” might be putting it strongly. Let’s just say that there was no noticeable precipitation collecting on things after 8:00. I can’t say that I ever saw the sun today. Tomorrow calls for AM Clouds and PM Sun, so I think Mother Nature is going to cooperate on this one.

I’ve pretty much got everything prepped from the porch ceiling down. The trim around the one window is the one exception. That is probably 1 or 2 days worth of work (I only work on the house in the afternoons) and I’m not willing to put off starting painting until Friday. I’m going to include that window with the bay, which technically it is a part of.

I also still need to prep the 4 brackets and the gingerbread above the columns, but again, I just don’t want to put this off any longer. I shouldn’t let that primer sit exposed for too long before I put a top-coat on it. Today I went ahead and stripped the pilaster at the back of the porch and then got everything ready for paint. That included sweeping off everything, lightly sanding a few of the primed parts that have been primed for a while now, and then putting another coat of primer on everything. Oh, and I also caulked before I put the second coat of primer on. This porch really just takes forever and a day. The only things I didn’t prep were the stairs and porch deck. That will probably need to be a weekend thing.



Above is the picture from yesterday’s post but it’s a good reference for color selection. The siding will be the Basil. All of the columns, newel posts, and railing will be Clary Sage, and the balusters will be the Livable Green. Although I’m not painting it tomorrow, the rest of the porch will follow the same scheme. You can see there are the little brackets with the sun bursts at the tops of the columns. They will be just like the other brackets I painted. The boarders will be Clary Sage. The field behind the sunburst will be Basil. And then the sunburst itself will be the Livable Green.

What you can’t really tell in the picture is what is just above the brackets. There is that flat board that sits right on top of the brackets, and just on top of that is a repeating pattern of zigzag cut blocks. They don’t show up in the picture, but they are pretty cool (I just love this house) . I’m thinking about painting the board on top of the brackets Basil, and then the zigzag blocks Livable Green. Then above the blocks there is a small bead detail that will be Clary Sage, and then the frieze below the red crown molding will go back to Basil. The Soffit and fascia above the crown molding will also be Basil. Dare I say it, It will Pop!

So, Mother Nature may I please have a good day for painting tomorrow? There, I asked nicely.