Sunday, March 16, 2014

House Painting

Head over to Two Writing Teachers
for more Slice of Life stories. 

Sixteen shutters, one rain gutter, four sides, the house needs a new coat of paint. We began last week with a good pressure wash. Like a lesson, painting takes prep work.

We washed walls and cut back grass and shrubs around the house. We washed the under eaves and painted the trim (one side left). We purchased the supplies and organized our support staff (in-laws). We scheduled the work and set goals for the day.

We're about half-way home on the house painting. Weather's moving in tomorrow, so it will be Wednesday before we get back to it. We rolled a five-gallon bucket of paint today onto two and an half sides. The set up and clean up seem to take longer than the actual painting event. Up the ladder, stretch the blue tape, stick down the edge along the trim, down the ladder, move the ladder, up the ladder--you get the idea.

Before you paint, you tape. While you paint, you watch the coverage and catch drips. After the roller paints, the detail person comes in to cut in the trim.  Once we got our system down, we moved quickly. Set up and clean up took as long as the actual painting. Lately lesson planning and reflecting on assessment data seems to take as long or longer than the actual lessons too. I started thinking about parallels and perhaps I will come back to them. Now, it's time for a cold drink and a comfy chair.

Shutters stretched across the porch.

Three generations working the rollers.

6 comments:

  1. I have had the pleasure of painting a house once...Stephanie Lennon's..I will say that those are the times I do love not owning a home. Lot's of cardio for you! Be sure to drink much H20.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow. That is a lot of work, lots of prep! I loved the photos and I'm a little envious of the green grass in them. Good luck with your project.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Prep does take as long. I won't be painting a house again, but even in a room, prepping right is important. Looks like a nice time despite it's work. I like your analogy Lee Ann.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow, what a day! I'm glad you were able to relax a bit at the end of the day. This project reminds me of how I love the memory of doing house projects with my family. I remember the endless trips to Home Depot or Lowes, the smell, the sweat, the nice weather, and even the bickering. It was always such a great time spending it with everyone and having an end goal that you were trying to accomplish. It sounds like you had a great support staff there and I hope you had a wonderful day spending it with them. Also, thanks for sharing the images! Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I know you wrote this just so that I would feel so good about the sale of my house, which desperately needs to be painted. I'm lucky to miss out on this responsibility! (Although, I wish I were there to help you with yours.) I hope you're also doing something fun during spring break.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You have shared such great parallels between teaching and painting already! The prep work is so key to both. The work looks fabulous - definitely worth the effort, just like a good lesson is, too.

    ReplyDelete