Sorry for the snow delay...

Here it is, May 1st, and we are buried in snow yet again! Unfortunately we received about a foot of snow last night, which put a prompt halt to any outside painting we wanted to accomplish this weekend. A brief update so far however, we are about 40% done with the exterior painting. This is proving to be quite the laborious task, with washing of the aluminum siding and removing rust the most frustrating, time-intensive task by far.
         Our method for success:  1) Wash aluminum siding and remove all traces of rust.
                                                2) Apply one thick coat of Bull's Eye latex 1-2-3 primer (this stuff is amazing, it truly protects the siding, applies quickly and easily, and lays a great base coat for rich color)
                                                3) Apply two coats of Valspar Ultra Premium Paint in Arid Plains.

We has chosen to do this all by hand, with brushes. Honestly, our hands hurt and our wrists are wondering what they've done to deserve such abuse, but the result is nothing short of amazing.

Although we've suffered some minor setbacks (minor accidents, major bruises, dog's covered in paint (it is a very flattering color on our bulldog!), and weather), we've had nearly the whole neighborhood stop and tell us how amazing it's looking so far. Now, we don't mean to toot our own horns here, but we're putting in some MAJOR sweat equity into our home, and are very pleased to see our neighbors agreeing with our hard work.

I can't wait to post the photos of the "after", but for now, here are some glimpses of this major project:

Closeup of rust-covered siding BEFORE cleaning, priming, and paint

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Front BEFORE

I can't get this to flip, but nevertheless, it's a fantastic closeup of the BROWN siding. Yes, that would be rust you see. Good news is, this rust was surface and had not ruined the siding. It's a little thing called upkeep prior homeowners... meh.

 

 

And, a few teasers shots!!:

our beautiful pup Chloe, with a side matching our new paint color. Thanks for sitting against the house pup!

My extremely brave and amazing fiance! (The little green ladder is mine! =D ) And, our new exterior light fixture!

Please send us warm weather!

NEXT PROJECT!!!..

Weather permitting, we will be tackling the immense task of stripping, prepping, priming, painting, and sealing the exterior of our house over the next few weekends. The house is currently 5 different colors (if we don't include the sections of siding that were replaced in bright blue and never painted!), rust, chipped paint (where it does exist) broken siding, the wood trim is bare, dry, and dead, the sealant used to exist at some point probably 10 years ago, and the gutters are currently a great metal strainer in which all the water simply gushes out. Oh boy. After digging ourselves out of the snow and our first winter in our new home, we had a chance to really survey the damage, and agreed... this project is going to SUCK! However, we are confident our home will look amazing once we dedicate our blood, sweat, and tears into this next project. We spent last weekend testing paint colors and types of paint, 2 trips to Lowes, and 2 different house colors... and we finally decided upon Valspar Ultra Premium in Arid Plains for our primary color, and our wood trim in Polar Ice.

Weekend warriors, unite!