"Cold" Weather Projects

I had to put "cold" in quotation marks in the title of this blog or my family and friends in Wisconsin would never let me back in the state.  We are having a "cold" spell here in Florida which means the temperatures are down into the 50s and 60s.  That is a balmy heat wave to the upper 1/3 of America right now since most folks have been dealing with record-setting below zero temperatures for much of the winter.  Believe me, I appreciate the weather that we have had in Florida this winter, even if that means cooler (notice I did not say "colder") than normal temperatures.

However, because the weatherman has predicted temperatures in the 40s for this evening and tomorrow morning, we did not attempt to do any outside painting.  Not to fear: Gladys has plenty of other tasks for us to complete on the inside.

For example, today was a perfect day to paint the last non-repainted closet-- the one in the main bathroom. I started the day by packing everything from that closet into temporary storage.  As you can see by the photograph, that means everything went into tubs in the tub!

In small houses, one finds storage where one can. 

This closet was, in some ways, the easiest closet to paint because shelf brackets were only on the side walls, and the closet actually was large enough to get a step stool inside. Being able to roll paint on the back wall and to actually reach the ceiling made completing the job much easier.

While I was cutting in the edges of the closet, Rick was in the Florida Room (read: temporary painting room) putting green paint on the shutters.  We cannot wait until we get the front of the house completed so we can add the shutters.  Doing so will be our first step toward giving Gladys a little "jewelry" for curb appeal.  Flowers will follow in due order...

Green shutters soon will become some jewelry to make Gladys beautiful.

Yesterday was a bit of a frustrating day outside.  Sometime Gladys just does not want to cooperate.  Old folks can be stubborn, and Gladys must have decided that she was done with us trying to make her naked.  Modesty prevails.  While the paint started to come off very well two days ago, by the end of hours of work, we could not get the paint off the lower edge and certain spots on the wall.  Yesterday, Rick tried once again to get the paint off but to no avail.

Stubborn Gladys refuses to be "naked" in the front.

After looking at the stubborn spots, Rick thinks that perhaps the original paint and primer peeled off.  The "replacement" primer may be what we are having trouble taking off, and since that primer was better than the layers that DID come off, perhaps the tan paint that we cannot budge is meant to stay on.  If primer and paint does not move after being blasted twice with a pressure washer, we feel that it is meant to remain on the wall.  We'll do our best to blend it in, and in the end, since most is on the bottom of the wall, I can always plant flowers to camouflage any unsightly areas.

Tomorrow we will add second coats of paint both to the bathroom closet and to the shutters. If the weather warms enough, we may try to look at the fascia and soffits on the front of the house.  Each day we move one step closer to getting Gladys to look the way we want her to be.  That vision will probably not be complete for years to come yet, but eventually the house will be painted and the flowers will be in bloom.