They say some folks wear rose colored glasses. Me, I wear rose colored blinders. They keep me from seeing anything except what's right in front of me, and even that is tinted pinkish and positive. I like it here in the narrow little view between my blinders. But sometimes, just every once in a great while, it's good to take off those blinders and get a little dose of reality. Like when you wake up and realize that somehow it got to be the end of September awfully fast and it'd be a good idea to figure out what needs to be done on the house before winter.
I've showed y'all the nice-looking part of the front of the house, but here's the other piece of it, over towards the west side:
It's a little slice of ugly in the middle of that nice gray paint, isn't it? I'd like to get the really loose paint scraped off and have this part of the house at least primed before winter. I don't like the thought of those clapboards going through winter bare. They need a coat, even if it's just a coat of primer. The part of the house up under the eaves is still yellow too, but the paint's not flaking so badly there, so it can make it through the winter like that.
I walked down the west side of the house really, really slow so I could take a good look at it. It's the only side of the house that's done, and I wanted to rest on my laurels a little bit and get up my courage to look at the rest of the house. (Truthfully, there are a couple little pieces of trim to paint and a window to repair before cold weather, but in comparison to the rest of the house.... Yeah.)
Then around to the back of the house....
Oh lordy be. It's an unmitigated disaster back here. The house is all different colors, and not in a Victorian Painted Lady way, either. That's not pretty, but it's not really the trouble back here, either. The gutters need to be cleaned out again and the flashing between the tall part of the house and the shorter part needs to be fixed so it doesn't leak at all. I've gotten up there a couple of times and now the leak's smaller and it only happens when there's pouring rain or a lot of wind, but I want the leak gone. That's a priority. Those clapboards Chris gave me ought to be put on the house before winter, too, or stacked in the scary basement until spring. (They would already be on the house--three weeks ago--if Mare had showed up to help me when he said he would, but the less said about that the better.)
On to the east side...
This is a really flattering angle because it makes the back addition of the house look gigantic, and so in the photo it appears that most of the east side is done. In reality, not so much. The addition is about the same width as the side porch and the yellow mammoth up front. So, about one-third of the east side of the house is done. Sort of. Well, not really. That window in the addition needs to be repaired, caulked and primed (preferably, painted) before winter because part of it is bare wood. The gutters over here need to be cleaned out, too. Something needs to be done about the floor of the side porch, because it won't survive another winter without some serious help. I mean, serious help. Either it needs to get that help or be written off as a lost cause and allowed to die a slow and terrible death over the winter.
So. Now I know what needs to be done to get her all tucked in before cold weather: gutters cleaned out, some primer put on, flashing fixed, repairs here and there, porch triaged....
I'm putting those blinders back on. They let me see one thing at a time.