April 7: Painters came out and pressure washed the house knocking loose
paint off. There were enough white paint flakes on the ground to remind
one of a light snow fall. Their toxic spray will likely kill my pond
fish. "Duh, we didn't know there were fish in the pond."
They also put a coat of primer on the outside bare wood of the porch.
Motley crew.
Apr 8: Although scheduled to return, the painters were a no
show. Said too many guys called in sick.
Apr 9: Several young
guys showed up to start the scraping the shingles and trim. They
unloaded lots of ladders and platform stuff. They did about 2/3 of one
side of the house. About 3PM they packed up everything and
left. The last remaining guy volunteered that they were the WRONG
painters and were leaving. Turns out they were the HIGH bidder
Lineberry painters. (Their quote was double of the other two bids we
got!) Our Phil Rea project manager called the wrong guys.
Since none of the painter's trucks had names on them, I didn't
know.
Although the renovation contract was signed in
early February, Phil Rea had neglected to tell the painter
sub-contractor (Prism) that they had the job. He is busy now and
can't work on our house for a few weeks. More delay. (Phil Rea
will be eating some Lineberry costs.)
After a couple of weeks of
Prism NOT returning our phone calls, we fired them and hired CertaPro
who is a neighbor around the corner. Mark, the franchise owner,
had given me a quote many weeks ago. Good to have contingency
plans!
May 25: A crew of a half dozen Mexicans began by
pressure washing the house again. They got off lots more old
flaking paint. The house took on that camouflage look, and we
toyed with the idea of telling the neighbors, who frequently were
asking if we were gonna paint, that was the look we were going
for. Painter found quite a bit of rotten trim work that will be
replaced. (more $$$)
Kathy and I are busy doing the inside
painting. The new bathroom is done, but each of the new windows
with require attention. As part of the installation process,
window trim (a 1 1/2 piece around the perimeter had to be removed and
nailed back). Lots of nail holes to be filled, primed and entire
widow trim to be painted. Much work.
May 26: After covering up the new
windows and the brick, a coat of primer was sprayed on. A midday
shower only slowed them a bit. Kathy had chosen a aggressive Demin
color for the shingles, and they painted a test path on the porch
side. Color is a bit too purple for my likes, but I'm going to
live with it. I do like the contrast of the dark paint with the
white trim.
May 29: It took the CertaPro crew 5 days to complete the
painting. There was quite a bit of rotten wood to be replaced,
particularly the trim behind to old removed gutters. They came back a
few days later to touch up several places. Kathy provided the
punch list. (She has the critical eye, me not so much.) We
were sufficiently impressed with the work of the painters that we have
contracted with them to paint/rehab three rooms.
June 11: I
finished the rehab of the garage doors and painting. City
codes and compliance guy left a note on the door, saying "Nice
paint job." Huge majority of passer by's remarked that they
liked the paint job. Not so much my next door neighbor.
After getting used to it, I really like it now. Still waiting
for Phil Rea to have the new gutters installed.
