Well...unfortunately the house scraping has not been going as fast a planned. Other things have gotten in the way; such as a yard in terrible need of upkeep as well has very high winds and rain.
So, I've used the Paint Shaver Pro as much as possible around the porch area, with the exception of the columns. The rest has to be scraped by hand. For this we are using the heat gun and the infrared doohickey as well as good ol' muscle power.
All this hand scraping is taking a lot of time and our arms are sore. Hopefully, next week will see more progress.
Here is the south side of the house.The reason the trim around the door and windows isn't scraped is due to the aluminum frames still attached. Once we take those down (when there's no wind) I'll get them with the Paint Shave.
You can also see where I've been hand scrapping the columns.
Did you notice Shalimar inspecting the work?
BTW - I had to stand in the rain to get this picture!!
The east side with SWMBO's father scraping away. More paint was removed since this picture was taken - mainly along the edges of the moldings and casings.
Do you see the molded lintel on top of the main window? It took me about two hours just to scrape this using the heat gun. Really makes me appreciate the Paint Shaver!
Okay - now for the BIG news!!!!
We found some original house color!!!!!
Yup, you read that right - original house color.
Do you see it?!It's Robin's Egg Blue and it comes from where the corner mold meets the ceiling of the porch.
After this I did a little more testing and found more on the ceiling. So, true to form for the time period, the ceiling was painted a sky blue color.
Trivia question.... Do you know why they painted porch ceilings, and soffits, a light blue?
Anyway, this is now making us wonder if the house was originally painted a tan/beige color. Why? Because of the tan/beige stuff we are finding under the white!!
What do you all think?
Oh - before I forget... Take a look at the picture again. You can see where I've scraped on the rounded molding - right? Okay, now follow the curve to the right of the scraped area.
See it?
Can you believe how thick the paint is up that high?!?! It is over an 1/8 of an inch thick.
We have our work cut out for us.
Till next time...
Cheers!
Larry ~
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3 comments:
I can relate on all counts!!
The heat gun just doesn't work too well when the wind is blowing 30 mph.
That's about the same thickness of paint I have, too. They must have just slathered the old paint on. I know I have drips and runs everywhere. It really obscures the details.
Looking forward to seeing which one of us gets done first!! My money is on you.
Tan, white, and highlights of robin blue would be lovely. Very calm and peaceful combination.
Thanks for the update. You're making good progress, but seeing how much work it is makes me glad my house is (unpainted) brick.
(Roll 'em, roll 'em, roll 'em, keep them doagies rollin' . . . )
Hello, I have been follow your blog for a while now. I have a deep need to own and renovate an old house of my own someday, but for now I will just live vicariously through you guys.I have been told that the reason the porch ceilings where painted light blue is to deture dirt dobbers, wasps, ect. That kind of thing.
Jamie
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