Paint man

I know most everyone was excited that we would have nice weather this weekend. Temps would get into the high 60s/low 70s (depending on how close to the lake you are) and there would be plenty of sun. It sounds like the recipe for a great time outside.

For me, it meant I would have to stop being such a lazy ass or spending a Saturday drinking and watching baseball. It would mean I would have to start of some of the home jobs I plan on getting down this year. It means being productive.

With the weather as it was, I decided I would tackle painting the porch. I had last painted my porch roughly 8 years ago. But then I just did the floor and the steps up. I did not paint the rails. I don't know why I did that. Either I ran out of paint or I was just being lazy. The rails looked like hell with most of the paint peeling off and just plain looking shitty.

I had to head to the hardware store as I could not find my scraper/putty knife. How the hell did I lose a putty knife? When I was at the store, I figured that only way to properly motivate myself was to get the paint right away instead of planning to use this weekend to just scrape. When I saw the "porch and deck" paint on sale, I just needed to find it in brown and I was set. Got a brush to try and clean it off and I was ready to go.

I didn't take a break and went from store to porch. I scraped like a madman. It didn't take long for me to realize this was going to be somewhat of a futile effort. The wood should be replaced. It wasn't rotted out but weathered quite a bit. Painting it would just be a cover up for the real solution. But that was the solution I was taking.

It didn't take long to get the first rail done. When I hadn't anticipated was all the sides I had to scrape. Lots of nooks and crannies to get into. I persisted until I was satisfied with how things looked. It was on to the next one.

The other rail had it's own challenge. Not making a mess on my neighbor's walk and garden area. Weeks ago I wasn't sure how I was going to do this but then I had my answer. I took an old shower curtain that I keep around for painting projects and taped it to the rail. I moved it around so that the pain would fall onto the curtain and I could wrap it up to dispose of the scrapings when I was done.

Man am I a genius!

Until I decided to change the music being played. One thing I neglected to mention about the beautiful day was the breeze blowing in from the south. Thus when I came back out side, the curtain had been blown away and all of my work was now in their garden and walk. Mutherfugger!!!

I spoke to my neighbor and explained what happened and told them I would clean it up as best I could. That wouldn't be easy as the garden is basically mulch right now. The paint scrapings are brown so it was a trick. My neighbors didn't have a fit about the mess. My guess is they were glad I was finally painting the porch.

I figured I could finish the scraping, have a beer and call it a day. But the motivated side overruled the lazy one and I beared down to paint. I figured I could paint the rails today, then give it a second coat tomorrow when I paint the rest of the porch.

Now hours later and a couple beers later, I have surveyed my work and can say I am quite pleased. Looks much better. Tomorrow will make it that much better when the entire porch has been done.

But for now, I am off to watch the Brewers and relax. My back has earned it.