The weekend's weather turned out hot & dry, so the task of rain-proofing Mars went ahead.
Project #1: What's Happening Between The Houses?
I wanted to take a look at the siding & gutters, & I knew the space between Mars & the house to the left was full of plants, growing out of the cracks in the concrete foundations:
This is just wide enough to walk normally through.
On the other side, the space between the houses just has dirt & debris. An old Alcoa sign that fell in there when siding was put on Mars in 1991, for example. Gutters & siding looked fine. The siding is the original shingles, incidentally -- it's just wide enough for me to shuffle through sideways, so way too narrow for the contractor to have been able to put the vinyl siding up on that side. I was tempted to clean up some of the debris, but at this point, I decided that it was probably best to leave well enough alone.
Project #2: Pink Trim Eradication -- Kitchen Edition
Finished the trim in the kitchen.
Please excuse the mess.
Window sill above the sink.
As usual, Zoey helped.
Still 2 rooms to go. Good God.
Project #3: Fixing the Garage Window & the Garage Door
The glazing on the garage window that faces on the street was pretty much shot:
First step, I removed the failed parts of the glazing:
I decided to leave the intact parts of the glazing where they were -- it seemed best to not get too ambitious my first time glazing a window. From what I saw on there, I suspect that's what was done last time someone did any work on it, so that made me think I was on the right track.
My dad, #1 Handyman, told me how to use glazing compound when I was home last month. Basically it's a putty you soften & squidge into the window frame with your fingers. He said it was tricky. At the hardware store, next to the little tubs of compound, I saw that they also now make a type that comes in a caulking tube, & that features easier clean up & faster curing time. I bought that one. It was tricky, too, but I managed to more or less get it on there:
Don't enlarge this picture. Looks best from a distance!
There's an older guy who lives across the street who seems to be in construction. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him noticing what I was doing as he went about his morning. Hopefully he'll never wander over & take a good look at it. It definitely looks like it was my first time doing this.
Then I primed it, & spot primed several exposed sections of the garage door.
The faded grey-blue vinyl siding with the faded grey-blue garage door gave the house an overall washed out & tired appearance. Since the garage & window needed a coat of paint anyway, we decided to put a nice midnight blue sort of color on there to liven the place up a bit.
Before!
After!
I think it would look really good if we did the security gate, as well, to bring some color in to the upper story & unify the look of the house overall. I suspect that it's one of those projects that you regret starting about 1/3 of the way through but can't stop, however, so I think this is one more where we'll leave well enough alone.
Big thanks to Jennifer & Patrick, our visitors from Minneapolis, for helping us choose the color!
Project #4: Paint The Area Under Adrienne's Office
Same idea here -- get a coat of paint on the exposed wood before the winter rain starts.
Before!
I only got as far as priming:
After!
Good enough for rain-proofing. When I have time, I plan on putting the same midnight blue in there.
The Health Benefits people at work have a calculator that can tell you an equivalent number of miles walked for all the various activities you do around the house. It says that for all this activity last weekend, it's roughly the same as if I had walked 75 miles. Who knew that being a homeowner would be such good exercise?
Here's the state of the Mars To-Do List on Sunday night:
It's 8:30am on Saturday morning now. Time to get cracking!
Excellent work! All of it looks great!
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