House Painting

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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.