Painting the Exterior

Our first project is to paint the exterior.  When we bought the house the paint was peeling and chipping.  After 103 years the paint was falling off the house in big chunks.  It was obvious  that we needed to scrape the paint back to bare wood, re-prime, and then put a high-quality top-coat.  Everyone in town only remembered the house being white.   It was known as "the big white house on Jefferson Street".  We decided to add some color - but we're still not really sure what our neighbors think of it. 

This is how the house looked when we bought it in December 2000.

Click any picture for a full-size image.

Since we are doing all the work ourselves it will undoubtedly take some time.  Initially we guessed a couple of summers.  Now, we're thinking about three to four years.  The worked is tedious and time-consuming but we'll continue the work nights and weekends.  We started on the southern side of the house - the first view most passers-by see.  Work started slowly in June 2001.