The main event of the last week was our rental of a bucket lift for the weekend. We had planned to do this to see how much painting we could get done, or if we could do any at all from a bucket. Busy as we were, this blog post is a couple days off my regular schedule.
Diving right in, I will first mention that I misplaced my camera and switched to my backup old Canon. Between Pam and myself we took a number of photos and I have a new video / photo compilation I will link to later on.
Our first attempt to set up the lift and use it (a trial run, if you will) occurred at the west wall of the garage. I had a small area right at the top of the peak that I could not get to from my tallest ladder. A few photos will help understand my story.
From there we moved to the north side of the house. There were repairs needed to the siding under the media room window, and Pam pre-painted a few boards for me to use for the repairs. With the repairs completed we began painting, although it was late in the day and shadows stopped our progress.
Sunday morning I pressure washed the walls to remove the old and loose paint. Then the fun really began as we opened our paint buckets and had at it. Pam and I took turns painting (the bucket holds only one person at a time) and we managed to get the red on and dark blue around the media room and bay window trim. Although some white trim was painted, particularly behind the gutter downspout, we just plain ran out of time to do all the white we had hoped to get done. It will have to wait.
I have created a 4:24 video / photo of the painting process. You can find it on my Heart House video page or go directly to it from this link.
There were a few other events last week. I misplaced my camera and am using my backup Canon. This is irritating, to say the least, as I know I had the camera Saturday morning when I picked up the lift and brought it home. I hope the camera turns up at some point.
Pam ordered and received a small garden bridge for the flower bed under the oak trees. Some assembly required. It turned out well, and looks very good after Becky, who visited us, put another coat of stain on it.
Now it is time to recover from the long days we put in over the weekend. Working from the bucket is not easy as it moves and sways with the wind, which was quite gusty at times. A rain shower halted work for a while on Saturday and we had to wait for the walls to dry before we could resume painting. (That delay cost us time that we would have used to finish the white trim.) It was “an experience” as neither of us had worked from a lift before, and we are not sure we would want to do so again, but is is far less expensive that hiring a painter to do it so a repeat may be in the future.
Photo Archive
More black – and – white photos from my files.
That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!
Pam’s Penny
Positives about the bucket lift experience — very few wasps (or any bugs, really) up there, bucket was actually a small-ish platform with numerous handholds and waist-high containment for safety. Negatives — I don’t like heights, the bucket itself didn’t swivel to place a person straight-on to the job at hand. Late in the day yesterday a brisk breeze gusted, whereby being extended in the bucket felt like being trapped on a bad carnival ride. We are both still getting our equilibrium back today.
There is a very good reason I did not choose any occupation that required me to dangle in the air. About halfway through the afternoon yesterday, I was trying to figure out how I could put together the $$$ to have the painting company finish the job. But we persevered.
Happy Trails.
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