Five More Sleeps...

... and we'd better be ready because the pre-tour party crowd will be blasting through on Saturday afternoon (the rationale being that as we will all be tending our own homes on Tour Day, this will be our opportunity to see the rest of the homes on tour that we would otherwise be unable to view - nice, no?).  After the pre-tour, preceded by cocktails, we will imbibe food and more drink and then stagger home so we can look appropriately ghastly when we open our doors at 10:00 AM sharp the next morning.  Fabulous!

With the only major project left being the cleaning of the pond, I am down to the little details that will make it appear that real people don't actually live here.  (Just kidding.)  I need to clean the toilet and do some dusting, rake and mow the front lawn, plant a few more things in the garden.  Make sure the cat hasn't peed on anything important and prepare the super secret snack and beverage service for my volunteers (which will be in the garage and restricted to friends and family only).

It's all coming together and I'm hardly going insane at all.  At least not right at this minute.  So, it is now Sneak Peek Time:

 

Mary and Craig deliver Mary's trailer safely to the driveway beneath the rose-covered pergola.

Chaos reigns once again as I paint the front door.  It's not a real "red" but I think it is red enough to reap the benefits of feng shui.

See how nice it looks with the peep hole, plaque (National Register of Historic Places), and brass kick plate.  Verra nice!

Okay, Mom, c'mon, admit it: the utility boxes and wiring don't look half bad painted to match the trim.

 

Traffic will flow from the front door and then through the door next to the piano, into the hall to the bedrooms.  The change is the wall with the thermostat has been painted yellow.  It looked funny white.

Painstakingly scraped about a million layers of paint off the bathroom windows (yeah, I'd put the paint up there for "privacy."  Not really one of my better ideas.)  After tour I'll probably get some etching solution that will create a "frosted" appearance that will still allow light into the bathroom - or not.  I mean you pretty much have to stand in a really nasty bougainvillea with thorns over two inches long to get a good look in the bathroom.  If you're up to it and really, really want to see someone peeing, sitting on the can playing the hand-held Yahtzee, or naked in the shower and are willing to wrangle your way through the thorns, methinks you've earned a good look.  Of course, the sight might blind you but, well, it would save me some work.

Lookin' green and all wild-lifey.  I put out bird seed for my flock but they keep crapping on everything.  Normally, that's totally cool with me - I mean that's part of what puts the "wild" into "wildlife habitat."  But, dangit, right now I'm trying to keep the pillows and benches and stuff poop free for the pending tour.  And the pigeons (ahem, "rock doves"), leave some sizable nuggets behind. 

That's it, though.  No worries.  Like I said, five more sleeps and I've got two twelve-packs of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, so it's all good.

Biding My Time...

It's Sunday. About 3 PM. The mercury stands at 101 in the shade. I won't be scraping, sanding, or painting anything until after the sun goes down.

Inside the light is dim and cool. Crinkled voile covers the windows creating a red glow and blocking some of the harsher rays of the sun. Officially, summer has not yet arrived. My senses tell me otherwise.

Running from Mr. Sun

I start on the west side of the garage, then as the sun moves in the sky on past noon, I change to the east side. Today was the trim facing Matt and Denise's back yard. It was in poor condition. Scraping, sanding, filling. Pete and Babs came out to greet me then flopped on the grass completely uninterested in my process.

Sitting and standing on the fence, I was easily able to accomplish my task. I then moved on to the peeling paint on the lower part of the east wall. I plan to place crushed stone along the base of the structure here. Keep the mud down but allow for drainage. Definitely going to need primer in this area.

Preserving the Past

We have one of those somewhat rare homes in our neighborhood in that we have retained the original floor plan. (We have the as-built architectural diagrams mounted on foam core stored in a portfolio.)

The roof is no longer the original. Not long after we moved in over eleven years ago we replaced the roof (rotting cedar shake), with fire-retardant dimensional shingles. Some doors, including the garage door, have been replaced, too. But structurally, the house stands as it did when it was built in 1941.

As I scraped paint I uncovered the original cedar gables. Starting on the south side of the garage I revealed the worst of it, I think. Blasted day after day by the relentless desert sun the wood is a bit worse for the wear but I am going to be able to salvage rather than replace it.

I discovered a "filler" product that resists shrinking and fills in the gaps and cracks beautifully. It is intended for exterior use, is sandable and paintable, and I think it will work out just fine. Some fresh nails and a bead of sealant around the edges and I will be in business.


I'm going to give it some time to fully cure and shrink and crack (although it's not supposed to), then apply additional material as needed and complete by sanding. After I've sanded I'll wash down all the work areas, apply a primer and then the "painting" part of painting will begin!

Today, I Begin...

I shall start scraping, sanding, patching and repairing the garage. Some wiring needs to come down, first. I don't know how much progress I shall make but I've put this off long enough. Do. There is no try.




And the winner is: