Sunday 11 September 2011

How to paint the top of the house?

No prizes for guessing what we did this weekend. Yep, more painting. Pick the people with no lives. We eat, live and breathe house painting around here.

Do you know, we never actually intended to paint the Sow's Ear by ourselves? It was always a job that we intended to outsource to the professionals...I really don't know how this came about...

Jason just started painting the back deck walls last September on his weekends and pretty much kept going. Very Forest Gump-like.

Go, Jason, go!

We've gone through so many litres of paint...I don't think we even kept count.

So here we are nearly a year later and we are finally painting the front façade of the house. And the funniest thing about it is Jason doesn't know how to reach the front gables to paint them. The gables are too high and our carport and front stairs are in the way to get mobile scaffold in.

Note how the gables are unpainted. Jason could only reach so far on tippy-toes. And I don't really know what poor Jason is doing in this photograph. He looks like he's collapsed from over-painting.

We briefly looked at hiring a cherry picker for a whole weekend but then we thought we could get away with using an extra long extension ladder (we need to buy one as it is something we'll always need). Or maybe we should just get someone in to do the final hard-to-reach part? What do you think?

Where's Mr Rooney when you need him?

Newly painted lattice and arches. There used to be casement windows here a very long time ago. I wonder when it was opened up...
I've been relegated to fence painting. No heights for me.

19 comments:

  1. Could you 'chopper' Jason down to do the tricky bits?

    It's looking good!

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  2. Ha! I might ring Channel 9 and see if they'll winch him down with his paint tin and brush.

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  3. What about one of those jet pack thingies?

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  4. I was thinking a chopper too, but a small remote control one with a paint sprayer gun thingy duct taped onto it. On second thoughts the extension ladder is a better idea. Would lend you ours except Legoman rendered it completely structurally cactus while chainsawing that massive tree in our backyard and a huge log fell down and completely stuffed the bottom rung. DIY = disaster around here. melx

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  5. maybe a super long extension pole?? I think you can stick those foam type brushes on them and just slap the stuff on. best to put down verrry big drop sheets first : )

    xx

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  6. It looks so fresh and lovely. Even if poor Jason looks a little worse for wear. I think you should call Mythbusters and get them to do some experiments on the best method to reach gables.

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  7. I'd say that the best strategy, psychologically, is to tell Jason that It Simply Can't Be Done.

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  8. We had to hire scaffolding to paint the last little bit of our house...we put it off for nearly a year because we kept hoping there would be an easier way...anyway our house is an old corner shop and the bit we needed to paint is right on the edge of the foot path...it needed 4 coats plus undercoat and sanding etc etc and we had to wheel (not easy in itself) the scaffolding down the road and around the corner every time we had to do any work. Not fun, lots of swearing, but when we finished we couldn't believe we had left it so long!

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  9. Ha! I like the chopper comments. You could get Channel 9 to chopper Jason in but the problem would be they wouldn't actually be at your house. They'd be hovering around Mt Coot-tha!
    My brother is a painter. I'll send a link to him & see if he has any suggestions although I think the answer will be lots of scaffolding.

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  10. Jason seems the sporty type. How about a spot of abseiling or stilt walking. My husband wants to do this very job on his long service- reckons it's a doodle. I beg to differ.

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  11. Can't you phone The Renovator's, I am sure I saw them in Brisbane tonight on the tele? They could do a Renovator's Paint Rescue At Sow's Ear Special! Are you sure there used to be casement windows on your front verandah? Ours have big picture windows there..but we know it was closed in during the eighties during a reno here..the top detail of the window is exactly the same as yours and has grey paint on the back where you can't get to paint it now 'cos it's too close to the 'new' windows!

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  12. At last I can be useful!

    Terminally frugal, I decided to scrape and paint our eaves myself, and since our house is built over water, ladders were not an option. I dangled from the roof. I am an OLD LADY and I dangled from the roof, pausing only to relieve dizzy spells. It Can Be Done.

    I did tie twine to the handles of scrapers and brushes, since there would have been no getting them back. For myself, I just kept my centre of gravity back and used long handles where necessary.

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  13. It is looking pretty darn good though
    Jason= legend

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  14. How would Jason like to come over on a working vacation to Canada?! Where IS Mr Rooney by the way???

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  15. It's looking great! You must be excited to see it all finished.

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  16. Oh wow, sorry I have missed your last few posts... How fantastic is your house looking. You guys have worked so hard that I think you should get a professional in for that last scary bit way up there... I am with you, no heights for me either. ;-)

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  17. Yes it doesn't seem quite right at the sows ear without mr Rooney's wit and charm....did I just type that... he he. Perhaps he should do a guest post and fill us in on his adventures down south. That high bit on the house definitely looks like a job for someone else, Jason is very clever, and very nimble, but that just looks scary high. Xx

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  18. You know how much I love these action shots! We are outsourcing our painting..the hubbster is not quite game......

    Your home is looking gorgeous ♥

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