July 9, 2008
moving to the front of the house
On-and-off rain today made the decision easy: work on the front of the house under the cover of the porch.
The walls here have *many* layers of paint, some of which is completely peeling. Much of it, though, is cracked but well-adhered. Today was test to see how much scraping/sanding had to be done so that the everything looks right, but stops short of becoming a project that takes the rest of the year.
Towards that end, today was spent working on one of the bays of the porch wall: scraping, sanding, priming, and a first coat of the pink. It turned out well, even better than the green on the back porch.
I also messed around with a heat gun and one of the original columns. It was relatively easy, almost magical. I was paranoid the whole time, though, thinking about house fires. We have a lot of fires around here.
It wasn’t until I saw this photo on the screen that I realized that the xmas lights were still in place. We’ve gone right past febulights and over halfway back around to the holiday season again…
I used a heat gun on my garage door, which looked just like your porch. Actually most of my trim looks just like your porch - I just had the great good fortune to buy a house that’s 98% brick or I’d be totally screwed. It’s amazing how long the wood in older houses will last with no paint on it, isn’t it?
Keep in mind that porch columns may be hollow and all that wood is very very dry. When I do trim (as opposed to the garage door, both sides of which are easily accessible) I always make sure I stay home the rest of the day.
Most of the paint-stripping-related fires we run are contractor-type people using blow torches, not homeowners using heat guns, FWIW. I’m guessing you’re being more cautious than the average bear.
BTW, I also had the great good fortune to buy a house with square columns. I devoutly hope you have a 5-in-1 tool and an alternative-shaped scraper-on-a-stick for those columns. I would lose my mind with all that gingerbread stuff!
Looks like you have a head start for Christmas 2008! Can you paint around them??
@Jennifer: We had to lop off the bottoms of the front 4 columns last year, they’re solid through and through.
@ JCM: The gingerbread won’t get dealt with until next summer probably, so I can just leave’em up.
[...] We’ve got two front doors, both of which are fairly detailed and also covered in 100+ years worth of paint. Ronni has taken it upon herself to get these clean as the rest of the front of the house gets some attention. [...]
[...] of the area under the porch has the first coat of pink. Somehow this took 5 days… (and, yes, that wall on the right still has the shingles.) Posted at 7:07PM under outside, [...]
I heatgun stripped my 1939 dutch colonial 7 years ago. It took about a year. I did a little at a time. Not only does the wood look crisp and nice, the paint has lasted 7 years with no sign of wear.