My House? It is Done! (Whew!!!)

So...

My house, The House of your friendly Neighborhood Oldgirl LadyLee, was painted last week.

I'm still a bit O_O about it all. Well, how it all occurred, that is. It was a bit like the whole Lucy Jr. thing... I won't write about it. Like that situation, I have to spend much time thinking about it. This post would be waaaay too long if I hashed out my thoughts here. So I will just leave that alone for now. Sometimes I think I get a bit too deep off the pages for y'all.

So like I said, the house was painted. I was loooking at my house last year, and I'd noticed how much it had faded. There were also some dry rot issues. So I knew that either this year (2015) or next year at the latest, it needed to be painted.

So imagine my thoughts a couple of weeks ago when I was backing out of my driveway, and saw the house across the street being pressure washed.

I stopped my car in the middle of the street and went over to talk to the people, because I knew my house needed a good pressure washing. Maybe they could pressure wash my house and porch. I was having some interesting algae issues. And maybe they could give me a reference for some of the wood work and painting that needed to be done.

I talked to the guy, Mr. Al, and he said he was prepping the house for painting. He said he could give me an estimate, and he walked over to my house. I had to get my car out of the middle of the street, so I pulled back into my driveway. By that time, he'd walked around my house and had come back around. And he gave me an estimate that was right around what I needed to pay.

I asked if he could give me a reference for woodwork. He said he was a contractor and he could take care of that. As a matter of fact, he saw what needed to be done when he walked around the house. And he gave me an estimate for that.

And it was about $500 below the money I had set aside.

I told him to go for it.

He said when he finished the house across the street, he would start on mine.

And I was good with that.

He even threw in the porch treatment. I needed it, because the porch was all jacked up... brown, and it had some algae going on. I needed it stripped and repainted.

And he did that. 

I wish I would've been around when he stripped it. He used some indoor/outdoor bleach or something like that. All I know is that I came home and it was done.


And some tomfoolery was happening around the fireplace.

The wood had begun cracking a few years ago. Then it just fell off. O_o.  I remember jumping out of my car one morning and just knocking it off.

And the garage frame needed repair.

It wasn't looking like that before they pressure washed it. That water knocked all kinds of stuff off.

Then there was the trellis... The wood holding the other pieces began to rot. And the corner had cracked open.

I noticed that back in October. Ugh.


Well! Mr. Al saw all that before I could tell him about it. And he said he would fix it.

GLORY!!

There they are prepping my house last Wednesday.

And then the painting began...

I didn't get many pictures. An Oldgirl was trying to go to work, you see. I wasn't hanging out watching them all day.  He would get there in the mornings before I left for work, and we'd walk around the house discussing things. But I would leave. Have at it, dude.

It was interesting to come home every day for 2.5 days and see the house looking different. Here's one intermediate picture.

And here are my final pictures!

Look at the trellis! All nice, clean and white! I noticed one day while leaving that they had to pop off those small boards and replace those. I was thinking "Lawd... don't let that drive the price up!"

Look at my front porch!

We were discussing the color. I told him I wanted a clear stain. I'd applied some dark stain a few years ago and I didn't like it and it wouldn't fade out. So my porch was way uneven.

He came back with some expensive stain/paint.  What the world?

We discussed it more. "You need some good protectant on that porch. This is a nice color, and it will be better."

I looked at the steel gallon of deck paint. I remember seeing that particular brand in the store. And I remember moving on down the aisle towards the cheaper stuff.  I pay no more than $25 for a gallon of stain. But hey, I thought that I would try something a little different.

When he put it on, it went on BRIGHT red. I looked out the front door with a raised eyebrow. He said, don't worry, it dries darker.

And you know what?  It did. And that happens to be my favorite part. The porch!

How beautiful is that?

If you know anything about me, I don't like colorful stuff. But this is awesome!

They even painted my front door. I told my sister "Since it's spring time, I should paint my door a nice pretty bright green!"

"No," she hollered. "I will just make you a wreath!"

I was just joking anyway. But wouldn't a bright green door sing "Hello Springtime!!!"

LOL

Here are pictures from the back.

He edged the corners of the house and the chimney in white. They weren't edged that way before. I like it! It's a nice touch!

One of the locals had been curiously watching all of the action... And he came over the day after all was done and offered me a $15 special on cutting the grass and trimming the hedges. I was going to do it myself, but hey... I told him to go for it!

Here's a final picture, taken early in the morning during the sunrise.

I really like my house. It looks like a brand new house, just like it did some 9.5 years ago when I bought it.

A fresh coat of paint made it all spiffy! So glad that all went well.  Everything went way better than I could ever imagine. (We've all heard  the crazy contractor stories). I'm thankful for that.

He'd given me a ballpark figure of how much the work would cost. Like I said, it was $500 below my budget. (Of course I didn't tell him that).  So when I got the final bill, the price was $458 below the original quote. So in all, I spent $958 less than the amount I budgeted for. GLORY!!

I thought about going and buying one of those nice big screen kindles... but I did the right thing and put the cash back in the bank the next day.  (My finance group would be so proud. I am learning to watch my money a bit better. I am a true Financial Freedom Fighter! Go Triple F Posse!)

Like I said, I am happy with the house.  And I referred Mr. Al out to three folks. Hopefully that pans out for him and his crew.

Now it's time to take care of the inside of the house. Hmm...