Awake from Hibernation: catching up
I'm not DEAD!
So apart from the handful of posts that I never finished, the blog has been pretty quiet for the past few months. I blame winter, since all the upcoming projects involve leaving gaping holes in the skin of the house, and I for one don't enjoy working when it's so cold I can't feel my fingers. Now that summer is upon us and 70+ degree weather is here to stay for a while, I no longer have an excuse to not work on the house.
I hired out the exterior repainting job that was overdue, but I'm not entirely impressed with the work. I didn't have much choice in crews since even getting a quote proved to be a 3 week ordeal with only a single quote to show for it. Part of the issue was the lead paint that is certainly on every single surface of the house, but it still shouldn't have been that hard to find someone with lead certification. The crew that did get me a quote was super cheap (not that I had a lot to compare it with) but I get the feeling they didn't actually do any lead abatement since there are paint flakes all around the house. Regardless, the cedar siding proved to be a problem as the back side of the house and garage started bubbling the day they finished. The bubbles where even the primer failed to adhere are probably what caused the last paint job to fail in so many places. After a week of callbacks and repainting only to fail immediately, I decided to let it sit for the summer and have it fixed again in the Fall.
I did some tactical pruning of the pear tree in the hopes of reducing the fruit load this year. I also pulled a substantial growth of ivy out of the yard and have been doing general yard maintenance since early spring. I can happily report that we have at least 3 confirmed survivors in the pond. We haven't had any issue with raccoons recently, but it will be baby raccoon season soon enough. I bought some giant touch sensitive plant for the pond, as well as restocking it with duckweed and water hyacinth.
The primary job scheduled for this summer is to make as many of the old windows functional. This will include removal and refurbishment (by yours truly) as well as making new screens and storm windows as needed.
So apart from the handful of posts that I never finished, the blog has been pretty quiet for the past few months. I blame winter, since all the upcoming projects involve leaving gaping holes in the skin of the house, and I for one don't enjoy working when it's so cold I can't feel my fingers. Now that summer is upon us and 70+ degree weather is here to stay for a while, I no longer have an excuse to not work on the house.
I hired out the exterior repainting job that was overdue, but I'm not entirely impressed with the work. I didn't have much choice in crews since even getting a quote proved to be a 3 week ordeal with only a single quote to show for it. Part of the issue was the lead paint that is certainly on every single surface of the house, but it still shouldn't have been that hard to find someone with lead certification. The crew that did get me a quote was super cheap (not that I had a lot to compare it with) but I get the feeling they didn't actually do any lead abatement since there are paint flakes all around the house. Regardless, the cedar siding proved to be a problem as the back side of the house and garage started bubbling the day they finished. The bubbles where even the primer failed to adhere are probably what caused the last paint job to fail in so many places. After a week of callbacks and repainting only to fail immediately, I decided to let it sit for the summer and have it fixed again in the Fall.
I did some tactical pruning of the pear tree in the hopes of reducing the fruit load this year. I also pulled a substantial growth of ivy out of the yard and have been doing general yard maintenance since early spring. I can happily report that we have at least 3 confirmed survivors in the pond. We haven't had any issue with raccoons recently, but it will be baby raccoon season soon enough. I bought some giant touch sensitive plant for the pond, as well as restocking it with duckweed and water hyacinth.
The primary job scheduled for this summer is to make as many of the old windows functional. This will include removal and refurbishment (by yours truly) as well as making new screens and storm windows as needed.
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